Letters to the editor: Preschool development grant, dam proposal

Early learning grant

As a retired preschool teacher, I was saddened and upset by our legislators’ actions resulting in the death of HB 226. In an ideal world, children would be home with their mother/father until they start kindergarten. Unfortunately, for at least half of Idaho’s preschoolers, that is not the case. Those whose families who earn Idaho’s minimum wage must place their child/children in some sort of day care. Idaho has no day care standards on the state level. For many children, that means too much time in front of a television if they cannot go outside due to weather conditions. House Bill 226 would have provided quality day care for these children. Being read to, learning new vocabulary, counting and so very many more advantages that cannot be listed here. Idaho’s legislators have denied a large percentage of children the gift of a preschool start. Do they not know that 80% of children who go to preschool go on for more education beyond high school. I would hope they would reconsider their vote and provide a better future for so many children.

Donna Looze, Boise

Accept federal grant

I retired from teaching several years ago but spent the last part of my career as a reading expert. I was trained in reading recovery and practiced for seven years as well as working in the California RESULTS program. I am deeply disappointed in our legislature for not accepting the grant offered to our state which would have allowed early childhood education programs to flourish. Many children arrive at school without adequate knowledge of the world to begin the reading process. If you do not know what a giraffe or a guitar is then you cannot associate the picture on the page with the word below it. If you haven’t learned that reading takes place left to right or that the pictures tell much of the story in the early stages then the practice of learning to read becomes much more difficult for you than it does for the student next to you that read on someone’s lap and watched how it is done. Some children don’t even come with very much language because Mom and Dad were so busy trying to provide for them and didn’t talk to them. We need to accept that money and get to work.

Carla Ratcliff, Emmett

Value education

Our legislators did not pass HB226 which would have allowed up to $6 million specifically for preschool and early education in our communities. Our “nonrepresentatives” do not value education and we only need look at just a few of many examples over the years:

• State contributions to higher education have been reduced from about 50% years ago to about 20%. Result: college students pay more for tuition;

• Never passing legislation to support early education. Result: many students not ready for school.

• Continuing to underfund K-12 education which leads to teacher shortages, buildings that are inadequate and requiring taxpayers to pass school bonds;

• Introduced House Bill 221 which would allow people without teaching certificates to fill numerous teacher vacancies. Result: This weak Band-aid ignores the essential problem of adequate funding.

Representative Shepherd from Riggins explained that he didn’t vote for HB226 because he didn’t want the “mothers” out of the home. This is the mentality of what is “representing” Idaho residents.

If you value education for Idaho’s children, think about who to vote for the next time there’s an election. Idaho’s children and their success for the future is at stake and our “representatives” do not even pretend to care.

Tia Frisk, Eagle

Dam plan alternative

Mike Simpson’s plan for saving Idaho’s salmon and steelhead is well and good except for one major problem!

Only 1% of our fish are returning from the ocean. A minimum of a 2% return is absolutely necessary to avoid extinction! We cannot wait 10 years to restore the river! Our fish will be long extinct!

The estimated cost for that restoration is absurd! A very large excavator can easily remove enough material from the earth fill side to allow the spilling water to slowly restore the river at each dam site. The development at each dam can be used to put solar and wind farm energy to the grid!

Later, we can look forward to underwater turbines on both sides of the river!

Odos Lowery, Boise