Tiger’s Defender Off Base
Dear Editor:
So I guess we are to assume that, according to Mr. Dornheim [“In Tiger’s Defense,” Letters to the Editor, Dec. 17] every married man whose wife is pregnant cheats on her and that’s OK. Thank God I’m not Mrs. Dornheim. What an ass.
Beth Landers
Bellmore
Jerry’s Right
Dear Editor:
Jerry Della Femina’s column [“This is Embarrassing,” Dec. 17] is brilliant.
Obviously a student of American History, Della Femina’s keen observations regarding the decisiveness of several U.S. presidents served as an ideal backdrop for his many cogent remarks about President Obama.
As Della Femina wisely suggests, history, with the benefit of hindsight, will eventually have to put into perspective the issues of the Obama presidency.
For although the popular breeze was blowing Obama’s way for much of 2008 and 2009, I doubt he will fare as well as George W. Bush in the long run.
Mike Marsala
Copiague
Schools Have Themselves to Blame
Dear Editor:
You’ve got two immediate hurdles to deal with in our schools [“DiNapoli: Schools Could Face $2B Shortfall,” Dec. 21]: The Teacher’s Unions and the local school boards. Both entities inherently cause widespread waste of taxpayer money.
In my local district, my wife and other parents attended a school board meeting a few years back to voice opposition over the purchase of new uniforms for the football team when there were not enough, and outdated, text books in the HS (and my son was a football player at the time). It’s a football town. Guess where the money went? I attended a meeting at the start of the school year to address a public safety issue regarding the bus pickups on a busy commercial road. The president of the board tried to blow us off claiming the issue was addressed the previous spring. Well, we advised him that if it were addressed, we wouldn’t be there now. Typical school board goings on. Most of the people serving are in it to advance their own personal agendas and refuse to tackle real issues with the homeowners.
The other concern is the Teacher’s Union. Their salary demands and work rules have the taxpayers by the short hairs. Take a realistic look at the profession. They cry that they’re underpaid yet if you add up winter break, Thanksgiving, Christmas, spring break and summer, they practically work eight months a year. Who makes six figures for working two-thirds of the year? No wonder it’s hard to get a teaching job on LI. Educators should be paid well. There’s no denying that. However it needs to be commensurate with time worked.
As you can see, the two issues are inter-related and in the end, it’s the taxpayer who assumes the burden and the student who is the victim of the system’s shortcomings.
It has also been my experience that school boards are reluctant to include parents or taxpayers on board subcommittees to oversee budget issues, renovation projects, etc., as the board members and school administrators see this as an attempt by taxpayers to either wrest control from the board or administrators, or open up to the public the 98 percent of decisions made by closed door “executive sessions.”
Here’s hoping that this is yet one more issue that, in Nassau, the new Mangano administration tackles head on.
Ray
