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Lawmaker right about Opportunity School District
Letter to the editor
lettereditor

Editor, State Rep. Valencia Stovall, D-Lake City, was “right on” concerning the need for the Opportunity School District legislation (Coastal Courier op-ed, Wednesday, May 6). If you look who is objecting to this legislation, I am sure you will find the self-serving teachers’ union. They object to anything that will improve our children’s education if it means they will not control the schools and add to their coffers.

She stated that “more than half of state and local taxes” go into public education, and she knows that funding is not the problem. It is just like the government to throw money at failed projects, such as education, welfare, job creation and inner-city development. Money is not the solution. I’m an old geezer who went to school in the ’50s. Then, we just had blackboards, a few books and excellent teachers, and yet we produced some of the greatest technological geniuses. We didn’t have expensive iPads, large-screen HD televisions and revisionist textbooks.

Yes, our schools are in dire need — a need for enthusiastic, trained teachers; a need for change in the way that the kids are taught, and I don’t mean Common Core, which is another government failure; a need to inspire our children to grow mentally and physically; and a need to manage our schools locally and not a one-size-fits-all approach.

We need more legislators like Valencia Stovall.

Len Calderone
Midway

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