EDUCATION

Luna should resign;he’s not qualified

Now that the people of Idaho have voiced their disapproval of Tom Luna’s propositions for educational reform, it is time for the superintendent to resign. Mr. Luna’s nonexistent educational background has resulted in his lack of preparedness to deal with the complex issues facing schools. Never having received an education degree, been a teacher nor school administrator has resulted in his misguided and misinformed attempts to influence our children and grandchildren’s future. Mr. Luna’s online degree in weights and measurements, instead, makes him feel eminently qualified to single-handedly reform Idaho schools to fit his agenda, with no need to work with any stakeholders in this process.

Mr. Luna’s vitriolic attitude toward Idaho teachers makes it extremely unlikely that he would be effective collaborating with educators and parents to address the complex issues of education for the remainder of his two-year term. If Mr. Luna is truly committed to Students Come First, he will resign.

JANET AND KEITH ADAMS, Boise

IDAHO FORESTS

Canadian industrystronger than Idaho

My wife and I recently took a trip up through British Columbia, Canada. On the drive up through Idaho to get to Canada, one of the first things I noticed was that there are very few sawmills running; and very little logging being done. Taking a good look at our forest, I see a forest that is bug-infested and stagnant. Wherever you look there are dead and dying trees.

When we crossed the border into Canada, the first thing that I noticed was almost every town had sawmills running. The Canadian logging industry is booming, creating thousands of jobs. Taking a good look at their forest, I saw a forest that is beautiful and green, as opposed to our forest that is bug-infested and dying. I saw a forest being logged, managed and taken care of.

Canada has a forest and industry like Idaho used to have. Maybe it is better to bring forest products in from Canada rather than produce them here and put Idahoans to work. Should we change our signs from “keep our forest green and productive” to “keep our forest black and brown; a productive forest is not wanted”?

GARY PECK, Melba

BENGHAZI

Cover-up deserves closer examination

Congress needs to establish a special prosecutor independent of the White House to research the lies, secrets, corruption, cover-ups and see where this washes out.

The Benghazi cover-up where our ambassador and three other U.S. citizens were murdered by a terrorist organization and our president told our military “Stand-Down.”

Answers are long overdue as to why Mr. Obama and his staff lied to the citizens on multiple occasions and failed to protect the citizens. What did Mr. Obama know while doing nothing to protect the citizens? What a mess!

The Fast & Furious cover-up where a citizen was murdered and our president denied information to Congress that held Mr. Holder in contempt of Congress for deceit and lies. What did Mr. Obama know while doing nothing to protect the citizens? We have four more long years of this leaderless president. What a mess!

GALEN KIDD, Boise

POLITICIANS

U.S. can learnfrom Europe

A European politician summed up the quandary in which most politicians find themselves, i.e., “We all know what to do: we just don’t know how to get re-elected after we’ve done it.” That observation is especially true when it comes to U.S. politicians and their inability to resolve the problems that Social Security, Medicare, and related entitlement programs are having on our country’s growing deficit. Instead, they worry more about getting re-elected than showing some moral and political courage and solving the problems associated with entitlement reform. Without substantive changes to these programs, our country’s deficit will continue to balloon, all the while U.S. politicians wax and wane over the quandary in which they find themselves.

Simply stated, U.S. politicians should tell the public the brutal truth; find a solution to the entitlements issue and its effect on our deficit; and vote to implement that solution regardless of its impact on them. Re-election to office should come second to what’s best for our country. That’s real leadership, a quality that most of our U.S. politicians seem to lack.

ROBERT BLEVINS, Garden City