Teacher pay
The $700 million cost of a bill to raise teacher pay $10,000 may sound huge. But do the math: A population of 7.3 million-plus works out to less than $96 per person. On average, a family of five would be taxed $1.33/person each day. It would seem worth it to reward/enhance/attract the current and future teachers of their and other children in Arizona. Of course, if the $700 million came from the $1.8 billion surplus, there would be no new costs. Those who would say that it would not improve teaching are likely the same people who believe, on the other hand, that increasing a Phoenix Sun player’s salary by another $5-10 million will improve his scoring average. “What’s the least we can get away with?” is not an acceptable approach to educating our children.
Bill Baker
West side
Thanks, Biden
I wanted to take an opportunity to thank President Joe Biden and the current administration for their dedicated efforts to educate and train the voters. Prior to Biden, we didn’t need to be concerned about being frugal and finding ways to cut activities. This week, gas prices jumped again, to $3.59, so I am learning to drive carefully and slowly and can only shake my head when others flash past to get where they are going. What I don’t understand is why Biden is changing his approach and opening new drilling, we, the voters, need to be forced to tighten our belts and pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. Luckily, with all of my time at home, I am learning how to make bread to save the cost from the stores. I learned a lot in school, and one of those skills was thinking ahead — what would any decision result in? Many in Washington need this skill.
Loran Hancock
Northwest side
EV charging is a bargain
Re: the March 23 article “We can make clean energy in Tucson.”
There is a recent convergence of ideas about electrification, EVs, and charging stations. Mike Carran points out the problems of delaying electrification and offers ideas of how this can be done with a local focus. The idea of decentralizing the generation of electricity is terrific. The concerns about spending $2.5 billion on EV charging stations can easily be balanced by the over $20 billion in annual tax dollars spent to subsidize oil and gas companies. Oil companies had over $200 billion in profits in 2022 (over twice the profits in 2019), so one could ask why are taxpayers subsidizing them now? The spending of $2.5 billion to hasten electrification, reduce pollution, and slow climate change is pennies on the taxpayer dollar. Oil company subsidies can be considered a reverse carbon tax: we pay oil companies to pollute the Earth at greater and greater cost.
William Jones
East side
Docent work
Re: the March 25 article “Desert Museum docents are a rare breed.”
After David Fitzsimmons’ day at the Desert Museum docent program, I will heartily suggest the Tucson Museum of Art docent program. Full disclosure: I’ve been an active docent at TMA for almost 16 years. Being a docent has enabled me to be part of the active arts community in Tucson and meet and become friends with so many interesting and involved docents who have dedicated themselves to the TMA visitors.
Of course, you’ll have to be in class weekly, hear guest speakers, spend lots of time in the galleries. No tests involved! It would seem a really good fit for you.
When we moved to Tucson from the Bay Area, I was at a loss as to what to do. Although I always wanted to be a docent, I had no idea how to make this happen. Then TMA came into my life, and I never looked back. It’s not a “walk in the park” program, lots of work, lots of fun.
Binky Luckhurst Woodward
Foothills
Idea to stop the war in Ukraine
While I am not a strategic analyst for the Pentagon, I do have an idea that might end the war. I don’t think Russia is interested in most of the territory seized in the war, but they don’t want to lose their deepwater ports in Crimea. A peace treaty could give them the ports with an easement to connect them to Russia. This has been done before all over the world. Russia in Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea, the USA in Cuba, the British in Hong Kong and India are just a few examples of giving deepwater ports to various countries.
For giving Russia the two naval ports on the Black Sea, Ukraine would receive money to rebuild its infrastructure from Russia. Win-win for both countries.
James McLin
East side
Trump abbreviation suggestion
I believe that many of us have grown weary of hearing the name of the previous occupier of the White House. Couldn’t we just abbreviate the name? I would like to suggest the letters DOLT.
We could still show him some respect, as in “Not being aware of the mendacity that surrounds him, Mr. DOLT wants to run again.”
He should run. And take Kari Lake with him.
David Hatch
Southeast side
Horne knows better than to ban books
Banning books is something Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne should viscerally find repugnant. He was born in Montreal in 1945 because his father was a refugee from the Holocaust in Poland and the racist, book-burning Nazis. When he was 4, his parents took him to New York, where he was naturalized as a U.S. citizen. Horne should understand that banning books is a short hop to burning books like the Nazis did from which his parent fled. Stop the madness. Speak up, Tom.
Kirk Astroth
Northwest side
Drag queen story hour and intolerance
Question: Why do the so-called followers of Jesus Christ not follow his teachings of tolerance? Have they not read the Beatitudes, the stories of the Samaritan woman at the well, The Good Samaritan, Mary Magdalene? He who is without sin, cast the first stone! Do they not know that the Samaritans were outcasts to the Judeans?
They take the side of the Pharisees and Sadducees who condemned their Savior!
Efren Peyron
Northeast side
‘Drag show’ on front page of Star
An ad for the stage production of “Mrs. Doubtfire” at Centennial Hall was on the March 25 front page of the Star. The movie, regarded as a beloved “family movie” starring Robin Williams and wholesome Sally Fields, is about a divorced father who disguises himself as a female housekeeper to be close to his children, who are being kept from him by his vindictive ex-wife’s custody order. But wait just a minute! Does state Sen. Justine Wadsack (R) know that a drag show with possible grooming overtones is being performed here in Tucson in front of impressionable children and advertised on the front page (below the fold, thank God) of a leftist newspaper? If Wadsack and her fascist fringe have their way, will written notarized parental consent and over-18 ID be required for admission?
Jeff Aronson
Northeast side
Hearing about Trump
Re: the March 27 letter “Trump dominates front page.”
While I agree with the writer’s opinions of Donald Trump, I disagree with her analysis of why so much press exists regarding him. When I was in school, I worked part-time as a writer for the local newspaper in Ohio. After my first article on summer baseball leagues, my editor spoke with me. “There are two things that sell papers,” he said, “sex and controversy.” The key here is not the words sex and controversy; the key is the words “sell papers.” The media doesn’t follow Trump to ram it down our throats; they write about him because it sells papers. To paraphrase a Psych prof I had, “behaviors happen because they work. If they don’t work they don’t happen.” We wouldn’t be reading anything about Trump if nobody wanted to read about him. Which says a lot about our fellow readers!
Ken Paul Chernock
Northwest side
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