Conservatives cherry pick founders’ insights
Since thwarting the majority of voters in two of the last five presidential elections, I hear a chorus of praise among conservatives extolling the wisdom of Madison, Hamilton, Jay and the Founding Fathers for creating the Electoral College. Interestingly, we reject every other aspect of the electoral process they codified. We no longer award the vice presidency to the electoral runner up, restrict voting rights to white, male property owners, or allow our legislatures to determine for whom our electors will cast their votes. Amazing how the same founders who proved so enlightened about the Electoral College were so unenlightened about every other aspect of the process.
DAVID AYCOCK, FAYETTEVILLE
Pre-K for 3 year olds a waste
A story in the AJC (“Economists find long term payoff … ,” News, Dec. 19) cited a new study on the benefits of early childhood education. In spite of decades of kindergarten for 5-year-olds and Pre-K for 4-year-olds, U.S. students, as reported in the AJC two weeks ago, have dropped in world rankings to 40th. This brings into question as to how successful these programs have been to prepare our children to compete in the world. Now there appears to be a renewed effort to push Pre-K to 3-year-olds. Since most government agencies/institutions fail miserably to administer their programs, I have little faith that such proposals will turn out to be much more than additional taxpayer-funded child care institutions. Due to social promotions, lower graduation requirements and rising numbers of college remedial classes, I think our money and efforts would be better spent to improve the content of our educational programs, teacher and student performance rather than day care for 3-year-olds. We already have too many 18-year-olds who can’t find Kansas on the map, don’t know who’s third in succession for the President’s office, or can’t return the correct change to customers without the cash register providing the answer.
P.D. GOSSAGE, JOHNS CREEK
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