Letters to the editor: Preschool grant, Planned Parenthood, recess costs, Bonneville Power

Preschool grant

As a mother and early learning professional, I was disappointed by the Legislature’s failure to approve the $6 million Preschool Development Grant. The recipients of this federal grant are small, locally led programs throughout Idaho that provide early learning opportunities for young children. It also provides parents the tools they need to support their children’s development. There is no good reason to deny this funding.

So many places in Idaho simply do not have access to quality early learning opportunities and, as a result too many kids are entering kindergarten behind many of their peers and are likely to stay behind as they progress through school. The communities that are taking it upon themselves to close their achievement gaps and find creative ways to ensure their youngest have the tools they need to be successful in school and life should be supported by our legislators. Instead, lawmakers denied them a crucial funding stream over unfounded conspiracy theories.

Amy Eickmeyer, Post Falls

Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood provides essential services to Idahoans who often cannot afford traditional medical care. When I was younger, there was a five-year time period when I could not afford health insurance but couldn’t get Medicaid. Planned Parenthood was my only doctor. No, not for abortions -- for regular medical care. One time I went in on an emergency basis with a severe allergic reaction and they treated me promptly. Idaho’s Republican state legislators are out of control! In addition to grabbing power for themselves, they reveal how weak their minds are: how easily they’ve been manipulated to act against Idaho’s own, and the people’s own, self-interest. Republicans think they are expressing their freedom by running amok. Instead, they are doing the bidding of Donald Trump and his like. These legislators aren’t intelligent enough to be able to tackle or even understand real and complex issues that need solving.

Crista Worthy, Boise

Recess costs

Because our Idaho Legislature demands that we be conservative, do not overspend, lower excess taxes and costs wherever they can be found, and be totally responsible, why do they not practice what they preach, and pay the $300,000 cost of the two-week extra legislative session? In short, “Practice what you preach.”

It appeared that most of the Republican legislators refused to wear masks, despite the Republican governor’s request of all Idaho citizens to wear them to slow the spread of COVID-19, and surprise! Six of those legislators (or more) contracted COVID-19, forcing the shutdown.

Chas Bonner, Eagle

Bonneville Power Administration

I frequently read newspaper articles claiming that the Bonneville Power Administration has spent at least $17 billion attempting to recover Columbia Basin threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead. This claim needs clarification.

Federal law requires BPA to be self-sustaining. A more accurate statement: Private citizens and business owners across the Pacific Northwest have paid the lion’s share of that $17 billion, month-by-month when they pay their electricity bills.

Fish and wildlife costs make up 24% of BPA’s nearly $3 billion annual budget, or around $700 million each year. Meanwhile, BPA is $15 billion in debt, recently burned through $900 million of its financial reserves, raised power prices by 30% over eight years and will soon max out its $7-plus billion credit card from the U.S. Treasury. Add to the mix aging assets that require increasingly greater capital expenditures, along with falling prices for BPA’s surplus energy.

Congressman Simpson has crafted a proposal that would give BPA a chance for financial survival. Ignore or oppose Simpson’s proposal and Pacific Northwesterners stand to lose more than Snake River salmon and steelhead.

Bonnie Schonefeld, Kooskia