TEST SCANDAL
Don’t award pensions to cheating educators
How ironic is it that after having wasted everyone’s time and God knows how many tens of thousands of dollars tying up the courts by denying test cheating through silence, stonewalling and lying, teachers and administrators finally ‘fess up only after having been offered juicy plea deals that allow them to keep their pensions!
One can conclude they truly were in it for the money — for the bonuses — while cheating, and for their pensions when fired. Since money means so much to them, doing everything possible to rescind the pension deals would go a long way in helping the community heal and would serve as a consequence to others in the future. These criminals need to pay for what they’ve done.
EDLA RINGUE, MARIETTA
HEALTH CARE
Medicaid expansion opponents are elitists
Kyle Wingfield’s article, “Legislators are right to reassert power of purse” (Opinion, Feb. 20), seemingly upholding arguments to withhold Medicaid expansion in Georgia, is ludicrous and elitist. The people he wants to keep from getting health care are the state’s working poor who cannot afford to purchase health insurance for themselves and their families.
Georgia is one of the states where the income gap is the largest in the country. Why wouldn’t we want more people in our state to get access to health care through Medicaid? Access to health care keeps families strong and secure, making for a healthier and more productive workforce. Wingfield and like thinkers show their disdain and lack of concern for the masses throughout the state. They should be ashamed to spew such insensitivity and disregard for human life and existence.
TONI OLIVER, COLLEGE PARK
RACE RELATIONS
Recent events show racism is still with us
Signs of Racism in Georgia in 2014: Three white freshmen from Georgia are suspected of hanging a noose and a flag bearing a Confederate emblem on the James Meredith statue at the University of Mississippi. . Derrick Grayson, a black Republican candidate who hopes to represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate, railed against the “bigoted” GOP in recently published videos. The state Department of Revenue’s Motor Vehicle Division approved a new specialty license plate design that features the Confederate battle flag. Although Republican and tea party government officials from other states have objected to Ted Nugent calling President Obama a “subhuman mongrel,” no Republican or tea party government official in Georgia has had the courage to criticize that remark.
JERRY WALDBAUM, HOSCHTON
