Letters to the editor for Friday, May 10

Columnist should tour Carson High School

In Bob Thomas’ May 2 column, he again criticizes our public school system— this time for failing to produce “skilled people who could be employed right out of high school if each were trained” in manual arts classes. I suggest that Mr. Thomas actually take a tour of Carson High School to see what has been done for more than a decade to prepare students in technical fields.

Walk through the Tech Center and talk to the teachers offering classes such as drafting, AutoCad, computer graphics and animation, and Web Design. Talk to Culinary Arts teacher Penny Reynolds whose students funnel directly into the major culinary institutes in the country. Talk to Betty Foerster, whose FBLA students partner with the Carson City Chamber of Commerce while learning banking and business management. Talk to the forensic science, photography, or auto shop teachers to see what their students are learning.

All of these teachers are Skills USA advisors whose students win state and national honors every year. Dean of Students Michelle Lewis can explain to you how students in these courses can gain concurrent credit at Western Nevada College and Truckee Meadows Community College because the high school curriculum has been aligned with that of beginning courses for associates degrees. Carson High even has a website showcasing their Career and Technical Education program: http://www.carsonhigh.com/new/cte/default.htm.

Perhaps, instead of being critical, Mr. Thomas could put his support behind these programs that are already in existence and find ways to encourage more students to take advantage of them.

Marie Bellard

Carson City

Kind billionaires are nowhere to be found

I’m very disappointed. In these tough times for our government, where are all of the compassionate billionaires? Couldn’t George Soros take just a billion or two to help out so that cancer clinics don’t have to turn away Medicare patients? Warren Buffett already feels that he doesn’t pay enough in taxes, so why not step up and kick in a couple of billion to keep air traffic controllers on the job? Secretary of State John Kerry could help the Defense Department by tossing a few dollars their way so the Blue Angels could buy a couple of tanks of gas and put on air shows this year. President Obama, now a millionaire himself, could set an example by giving up just one of his golf vacations — just one so that children could once again tour “the people’s house.” I know Mayor Bloomberg isn’t able to help out right now because it costs a lot of money to deprive Americans outside of his personal kingdom of their Second Amendment rights.

Like most rational Americans, I realize the sequester “cuts” are a myth. Essentially the government is trying to scrape by with only an 8 percent increase in spending rather than the 10 percent they wanted. I’ll bet most of us non-billionaires or millionaires would be pretty happy to get an 8 percent pay raise this year, even though we might want 10 percent. I suppose I just don’t understand how wealth and power exempt a certain class of people from showing leadership in lieu of petulance.

Gary M. Collier

Gardnerville