Editor:
I am a teacher in Jefferson County and I still want a full investigation regarding the firing of state superintendent Jorea Marple, plus an inquiry of how the ridiculous statewide school audit transpired. Wade Linger and the rest of the state Board of Education are ignorant. They have no idea what they're talking about, and the firing of Marple smells fishy, particularly since Linger approached the temporary superintendent about the job before Marple was fired.
Linger and other board members say they wanted to take education in a "different direction." It galls me to know that major decisions affecting the education of our children are being made by individuals who are incredibly out of touch with what really happens in our schools.
If this audit was realistic, I doubt the Legislature would have called it "weak." As far as the governor goes, he made a poor decision to hire a consultant firm, to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars, which has no educational expertise.
I recommend all state education offices take a long, hard look at themselves. There are redundancies, and in some cases, secretaries who have secretaries. Curtailing bureaucracy would save millions of dollars.
I have written to Sen. Manchin, the governor and The Washington Post about all of this. Non-educators have absolutely no business making educational decisions. I suggest that teachers, parents and administrators who oppose this mess submit a no-confidence vote regarding the state BOE.
DeChantel Brooks
Charles Town
Jackson Street has become deplorable place
Editor:
That house at 1411 Jackson Street should be razed immediately, and the owner -- Shame on him! There is no excuse for such conditions. And to think that people were paying some $495 per month rent per unit, with seven units in a building designed to house one family.
Conditions in the 1400 and 1500 blocks of Jackson Street absolutely break my heart. About 10 years ago, when I was visiting in Charleston, my hometown, I drove up the 1500 block, not knowing until I couldn't turn around and escape that it has become quite unsafe. I was frightened to be there. When I was growing up, Jackson Street was a nice place to live. What a horrible shock to see it now!
I regret that I have no real answers. Is the problem caused by slumlords? Obviously, the problems are varied and complex. Does Charleston really care about the health and safety of its residents? Jackson Street should never have been allowed to deteriorate to its present state. I realize that some neighboring streets are also infested, but which other streets will be next? What else might happen to our beloved East End?
Let's fix it, Charleston. I cry for you, Charleston, because I still love you even though I no longer reside there.
Margaret Blaine Gross
Hagerstown, Md.
'Promised Land' has a critical failure
Editor:
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Reviews of "Promised Land" have missed a critical failure of this movie about Marcellus Shale gas drilling. It is a failure that the industry tries to discount. It concerns resident landowners.
This movie falsely suggests that landowners have a say. If residents in this movie lived in West Virginia, they would not have been approached to sign leases unless they owned mineral rights.
In 1981 the Appalachian Land Ownership Task Force study found that three-fourths of minerals in West Virginia were owned by absentee owners who didn't live on the land. More than half didn't even live in the state.
The late Sen. Robert C. Byrd said West Virginia's "rich resources have been largely owned and exploited by outside interests. Absentee owners, while living outside the state, wrested ... the wealth that made them rich."
In The Charleston Gazette, Jen Osha Buysse and Cathy Kunkel wrote: "The last systematic study of land ownership... found that nearly 60 percent of land in the sample of West Virginia counties studied was corporate-owned -- and the percentage is even higher for mineral ownership."
This movie ignores countless small resident landowners, forced to watch as their dreams are torn apart by industry's chain saws, 'dozers and drilling rigs.
Except for ignoring landowner rights, "Promised Land" is somewhat entertaining. At least Hollywood has begun to take notice. Even Hollywood is cashing in on West Virginia's resources.
Rick Humphreys
Mannington
Machin proposal on guns is an illusion
Editor:
Sen. Joe Manchin, by calling for a National Commission on Violence, seems to have fallen in step with the sarcasm of Petronius Arbiter, a Roman who wrote in 210 B.C.:
"We trained hard -- but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization."
The commission that Sen. Manchin proposes would indeed give only the illusion of progress toward responsible gun legislation, while in fact accomplishing nothing at all for years, if ever. We need to reinstate the 1994 ban on assault weapons, now.
Jean B. Cropley
Scott Depot
Board of Education is out of touch
Editor:
I am a teacher in Jefferson County and I still want a full investigation regarding the firing of state superintendent Jorea Marple, plus an inquiry of how the ridiculous statewide school audit transpired. Wade Linger and the rest of the state Board of Education are ignorant. They have no idea what they're talking about, and the firing of Marple smells fishy, particularly since Linger approached the temporary superintendent about the job before Marple was fired.
Linger and other board members say they wanted to take education in a "different direction." It galls me to know that major decisions affecting the education of our children are being made by individuals who are incredibly out of touch with what really happens in our schools.
If this audit was realistic, I doubt the Legislature would have called it "weak." As far as the governor goes, he made a poor decision to hire a consultant firm, to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars, which has no educational expertise.
I recommend all state education offices take a long, hard look at themselves. There are redundancies, and in some cases, secretaries who have secretaries. Curtailing bureaucracy would save millions of dollars.
I have written to Sen. Manchin, the governor and The Washington Post about all of this. Non-educators have absolutely no business making educational decisions. I suggest that teachers, parents and administrators who oppose this mess submit a no-confidence vote regarding the state BOE.
DeChantel Brooks
Charles Town
Jackson Street has become deplorable place
Editor:
That house at 1411 Jackson Street should be razed immediately, and the owner -- Shame on him! There is no excuse for such conditions. And to think that people were paying some $495 per month rent per unit, with seven units in a building designed to house one family.
Conditions in the 1400 and 1500 blocks of Jackson Street absolutely break my heart. About 10 years ago, when I was visiting in Charleston, my hometown, I drove up the 1500 block, not knowing until I couldn't turn around and escape that it has become quite unsafe. I was frightened to be there. When I was growing up, Jackson Street was a nice place to live. What a horrible shock to see it now!
I regret that I have no real answers. Is the problem caused by slumlords? Obviously, the problems are varied and complex. Does Charleston really care about the health and safety of its residents? Jackson Street should never have been allowed to deteriorate to its present state. I realize that some neighboring streets are also infested, but which other streets will be next? What else might happen to our beloved East End?
Let's fix it, Charleston. I cry for you, Charleston, because I still love you even though I no longer reside there.
Margaret Blaine Gross
Hagerstown, Md.
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