Letters to the Editor

When will our children’s education be important?

Editor: I teach economics at the high school, and I asked all my students who have paying jobs how many of them could get by with a 57 percent cut in wages. I also asked if they thought that their parents could support their families if they took a 57 percent cut in income. In both instances, not a single student raised his or her hand. Well, California’s public school system took a 57 percent cut in revenue when Proposition 13 passed in the late 1970s. At that time, responsibility for public school funding shifted from local communities to Sacramento. Those in the business of educating California’s children “sucked it up” and “made it work” at great personal sacrifice. Services were reduced, programs were cut, class sizes were increased, and the wages and benefits of both teachers and administrators took a hit. Because of this, the public was under the impression that it was business as usual. Well, it wasn’t, and now the chickens are coming home to roost. With the state currently facing a 10 billion dollar deficit with more deficits on the horizon, the days of free quality public school education supported by Sacramento are over.
To put this in perspective, the budget for school supplies at the high school has remained the same for over 25 years. In 1982, the student population at the high school was 1,100. Today, it is 1,530. In a space of 25 years, the purchasing power of the dollar has been cut roughly in half. Eight years ago, four of my students did a survey of how much teachers in this district pay out of their own pockets for school supplies critical to the classroom. The average came to $632 per teacher for a total of $158,000 per year. More likely that not, this figure has gone up since the survey was taken.
My question to the community is this: Why is it that teachers are willing to pay more than $632 a year out of their own pockets for Sonoma’s children when voters have chosen not to come up with $91 a year? This is what many couples spend going out to dinner and a movie on a weekend. Before you answer, keep in mind that the only option available under state law to supplement public school funding is the parcel tax that requires a two-thirds majority vote to pass. Also keep in mind that senior citizens had the choice under Measure E of opting out of paying this parcel tax, which included provisions for an independent committee of citizens to monitor the expenditure of these funds. By law, this district will probably be required to cut an additional $1.2 million from next year’s school budget. Aren’t our children worth it? Teachers think so. Why doesn’t the community?
David E. Donnelley
Sonoma

Editor: Your title of the article about the school parcel tax, “ Measure E School Tax soundly defeated” is very poorly worded and does not tell the truth. It should have said, “Measure E School Tax gets sound majority of votes but is defeated.“
The new tax portion of
Proposition 13 that says all tax measures must pass by a two thirds majority has destroyed the schools and put the State of California in debt.  To pass any bill by two-thirds is almost an impossibility unless there is an emergency like 9/11. The voters and the media do not seem to understand that California is ruled by the minority, not the majority, as a democracy should be.  Headlines such as this are misleading. Tell the truth that the minority won due to this tax law.  Are there any wise people in California that could write a new proposition to change this impossible percentage? If the voters feel a clear majority is necessary for tax measures, OK, make the percentage 55 percent.  
We desperately need the passenger trains through Sonoma and Marin, it failed. All school tax bills have failed. I remember my senior Mother in 1970 saying in alarm after reading the newspaper, “I can not believe this, all the school levies are failing, this has never happened before in my life time. It is like a vote against God.”  Even in the Depression the people voted for the schools.  Well, the school parcel tax would not fail today if a clear majority is the requirement to pass a revenue bill.
Patricia Patterson
Sonoma

“Much Ado” was a gratifying editorial

Editor: Your Editor’s “Much Ado” Our View gratifies my satisfaction with holding the recent proposed hospital site choice in rational process language vs. hurt losers blaming texts. Your words are well chosen and your community purpose of useful information satisfied.
Just Joan in the same edition on the Peace Picnic story remarks my KSVY 91.3 FM Health Matters program (Wednesday 1-2 pm) asks every week for listeners to ‘Give Peace a Voice’. Each week we have a submission e-mail ([email protected]) or someone who comes on-air for a few minutes we share our thoughts and hopes for peace – inner peace, marital and family peace, political peace. We need to be with each other and find language and shared intention in this search. Please join in. Help us in this. Write or call with your statement. Thank you.
Lastly Larry Barnett’s “Illness as a fashion…” puts its finger squarely in the eye of the “hidden persuaders” — those who see where the buck is in all things. After almost 40 years in the health and wellness field one begins to grasp how often the real solutions are found in less while the persuaders usually only offer more.
Ned Hoke OMD, L.Ac.    
Sonoma

Hill hits home run with Babe Pinelli

Editor: I enjoyed the article by Gerald Hill, “When baseball was as hot as the water in Boyes Hot Springs,” in your November 8th issue. Just a point of clarification: My grandfather, Babe Pinelli, called the 1956 World Series perfect game during the fifth game of the series not the sixth. This certainly was an important point in his life as an umpire, but I would argue that his lasting fame was actually achieved by the fact that he was considered the best ball and strike umpire of his time and a supreme umpire in general. If one looks at his record as a player both in the minor and major leagues (16 years) and then as a Pacific Coast League umpire for two years and a National League umpire for 22 years, this man deserves a spot in Cooperstown.
John Pinelli
Sonoma