Private and charter schools reject kids with special needs. That’s no ‘choice,’ Texas | Opinion

Kids at need get left out

The Legislature’s school choice bill would provide state funds for students to attend private schools. Money is an issue, but not the biggest one. Many, if not most, private schools will not enroll special-education students and students with behavior problems. Most charter schools do not have special-education programs. Charter schools remove students over behavior problems.

So if the bill is passed and funded, traditional public schools will become schools for special-education students and students with behavior problems.

I speak from a background of 57 years in public education and watching parents unhappy because the private schools would not allow their children to attend.

- Harold L. Smith, Arlington

Gun violence is all our own

I am stunned that Cynthia M. Allen thinks we can’t do much about the mass killings in every corner of our nation. (May 17, 17A, “Yes, it’s the guns. But there’s also more to mass shootings”) Faced with the same social media platforms and mental illness, most nations don’t come close to the killing rate that the United States has. They do not have more guns than inhabitants, nor an abnormal number of murderers under the age of 21.

It’s the guns.

- Ron Tyler, Fort Worth

Use the tools God gave us

Like any person with feelings, I was sick at heart and soul to hear news of yet another mass shooting in Allen, with casualties young and old.

But the most sickening thing is that the mealy-mouthed politicians of the community cannot bring themselves to address the fact that a young man full of hate had an AR-15-style rifle to blow out the brains of innocent people. He was dressed in tactical gear with a patch advocating white supremacist sentiments.

Yet our politicians who are so spineless and hapless talk about thoughts and prayers. God gave us brains and spines. It’s time to use them.

- Carolyn Clark Sawyer, Fort Worth

What help do we give mothers?

Sunday’s commentary from Nicole Russell, “Women should have kids early, and a lot of them; here’s why,” (5C) was as sweet as a Mother’s Day card. But I have questions.

Is America family friendly? Are there family leave policies? Available and affordable child care? Great public schools in neighborhoods where homes cost less than a million dollars? Do we welcome LGBTQ children and those of color?

America sacrifices families to policies that favor big business, the super-wealthy and a minority of religious and political bigots. Too many children lack the nurturing they require.

- Loveta Eastes, Fort Worth

Remember dark parts of our past

Kaley Johnson’s well-written front-page story “People of color fearful after Allen mass shooting” Monday linked old racist events to the Allen shooting, and rightfully so: Ku Klux Klan activity in Dallas and a lynching in Fort Worth are real history. But what comes to my mind is the idea that erasing history by removing statues of Confederate generals and renaming schools and military bases would help remove racism in society.

How’s that working out? We should add information explaining how these monuments can serve as reminders of a dark time in our history that all of us need to see and learn from. What kind of hate will rise when there are no more reminders of that history?

Hate doesn’t go away. It festers and boils over when it is ignored. Let’s learn from our mistakes instead of hiding them.

- Corky Douthitt, Hurst

Bipartisan budget pain needed

When President Joe Biden and House leadership finally get to the bargaining table on the debt ceiling and spending, it will be important to differentiate the talks as negotiations as opposed to a shakedown.

I suggest that for every dollar of the Biden agenda that is rescinded, an equal amount of the Trump tax cuts is taken away. This should help ensure that the pain is equally shared and that the Republican Party’s co-responsibility for decades of budget deficits is acknowledged. And it would cut deficits twice as fast.

- Dennis Novak, Fort Worth

No worries about breaking laws

The May 14 commentary “Driver’s licenses for all makes roads safer for us all,” (5C) advocating driver’s licenses for immigrants here illegally is flawed logic. It states that they are already driving illegally and when they are involved in an accident, they flee the scene to avoid interaction with police. The idea that they wouldn’t flee if they were licensed is garbage. How many would have comprehensive insurance?

These immigrants have already proved they don’t care what the law is.

- Randy L. Weeks, Roanoke