GOVERNMENT
Robust, properly run government has its place
Like most conservatives, Mona Charen ( “Affordable Care Act does Medicaid poor no favors,” Opinion, Dec. 4) argues government is incapable of doing anything well — including education and health care — and everything would work better if privatized. She bemoans the dismal state of U.S. education relative to other nations. Perhaps she read “U.S. teens lag in global student test” ( News, Dec. 4). In science and reading, American students scored well below those from China, Japan, Canada and many other nations.
Such results undermine the conservatives’ case. The reason these countries have better-educated students is not because they have more private schools. Their governments pour more resources into education, and train, pay, and value their teachers more than we do. The same goes for health care. Research consistently shows that people are healthiest and happiest in countries with higher rates of taxation, and better social safety nets than ours.
The conservative dream of paring down government so that corporations can run our schools and everything else is a dream, unsubstantiated by real-world evidence. There is evidence that properly run government programs make citizens healthier, happier, and better-educated.
EDDY NAHMIAS, DECATUR
EDUCATION
Immigrants prove poverty’s not an excuse
Regarding “Poverty hurts learning” (Opinion, Dec. 2), and “Children who are poor need slack, not grit” (Opinion, Dec. 2), when the Vietnamese boat people arrived in Georgia in the 1970s, they had four strikes. They were desperately poor. They did not speak English. They were non-white. They had a different religion.
Within two decades, however, large numbers of Vietnamese students were attending Georgia Tech. Similarly, a disproportionate percentage of Black students who attend our nation’s most prestigious universities are either immigrants, or the children of immigrants from Africa and the West Indies.
The immigrant experience demonstrates over and over again that poverty is not the main impediment to getting a good education.
STUART GALISHOFF, SANDY SPRINGS
ELECTIONS
Find ways to cut cost of runoff votes
Isn’t there anyone within government with a little common sense when it comes to cutting spending?
Runoff elections are necessary when no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote. Even though voter turnout is often low in the runoff, it seems that the number of polling stations is the same, and that they are still staffed. This is wasteful. Money could be saved by combining polling places in the runoff.
Some voters would surely complain about the inconvenience, or lack of knowledge about the change. But with publicity, motivated voters could make the effort to locate the proper polling place, and vote.
DIANE MCCUTCHEN, PEACHTREE CITY
STADIUMS
Buildings not an issue, championships are
As a native Atlantan, lifelong Braves and Falcons fan, and onetime season ticket holder of each team, I would like to give my thoughts on the proposed new stadiums.
I have experienced year after year and season after season of disappointment with my beloved teams, and I have now passed that enthusiasm on to my teenage son.
I think many fans will agree that we don’t care what type of stadium the teams play in as long as they are champions. Each team is about to embark on building another stadium, while we have waited almost 50 years for true winning teams. They need to worry more about how they play than where they play.
Teams threaten to shop for a new city if they don’t get their new palaces of mediocrity. The fans can shop for new teams to support, too.
MARK BUSCH, ATLANTA
