We must address the issues leading students to drop out

I am writing in response to the article "Angry Board Spurns Dropout Study" (July 13). The RAND study estimates that 35 percent of high school students drop out of Pittsburgh Public Schools; this is consistent with national rates, as is the higher dropout rate cited for minority students.

More important than disputing the study's validity is to recognize that any percentage of kids dropping out is unacceptable. We must focus on discovering why individual kids drop out and how we can help them to succeed. Communities In Schools is a local affiliate of a national dropout prevention program. Locally, CIS works in schools with educationally at-risk kids and runs alternative education academies for dropouts and kids seriously at-risk of dropping out.

Working with local schools, including Pittsburgh Public Schools, we recently celebrated the matriculation of 52 students in our eighth graduating class. While 40 percent plan to enter the work force and 4 percent the military, 56 percent will pursue postsecondary education -- an impressive number considering that otherwise these kids would be dropouts.

Kids don't graduate for multiple and complex reasons, and we must address these reasons to help them succeed. CIS applauds Superintendent Mark Roosevelt's initiative in retaining RAND to examine the dropout rates, and his diligence in striving for improvement. CIS offers its continued partnership in identifying and meeting the changing needs of students -- one student at a time. The smarter we work today for our kids, the brighter tomorrow will be for all of us.

NICOLE MOLINARO
Executive Director
Communities In Schools of Pittsburgh-Allegheny County
Downtown

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Modern blacklist

I was horrified at the PG's July 13 headline "Out of Work at Federal Building After 20-Plus Years' Service: Two Veteran Cafeteria Workers Can't Find Out Why Homeland Security Had Them Yanked From Their Jobs." Unfortunately I wasn't surprised. The blacklist made its ignominious return to our country almost a year ago ("United Way Asks Agencies to Say They're Terrorism-Free," July 22, 2005), and we failed our duty as citizens when we did not strike it down then.

I only hope that this more personalized example of the blacklist in action spurs my fellow citizens into enough outrage to tear down this modern-day version of the House Un-American Activities Committee.

JOSH KABLACK
Lawrenceville

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Use common sense

This is in response to the June 24 letter "What Will Be Next?" about banning smoking in public places. The letter writer asks whether obese people will be banned from fast-food restaurant, diabetics from bakeries and undisciplined children from airplanes.

Come on, now. How can you equate the above with smoking in public places? Secondhand smoke is harmful to everyone; being obese or diabetic is harmful to yourself only. While unruly children are annoying, as are people talking on cell phones on a bus, they are not health hazards.

Use your common sense.

RONALD FERNANDEZ
Squirrel Hill

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Well-supported data

Dr. Marc J. Schneiderman has written a disappointingly misleading letter ("Show Me the Data," July 9 Issue One), in which he claims that there is "no scientific foundation" for the surgeon general's statement that secondhand smoke kills an estimated 50,000 people annually.

To support his contention, Dr. Schneiderman cites one negative study about secondhand smoke and lung cancer but none of the other scientific evidence that supports a causal link between secondhand smoke and lung cancer. Most importantly, he does not tell us that 47,000 of the 50,000 total estimated annual deaths are due to noncancer effects of secondhand smoke -- mainly coronary heart disease but also sudden infant death syndrome. Nor does he address the surgeon general's well-supported data demonstrating the many nonlethal effects of secondhand smoke, such as stunted lung growth in children, asthma attacks, bronchitis and pneumonia.

Ironically, Dr. Schneiderman cites a federal judge in North Carolina who accused the EPA of "cherry picking" the data for its conclusions that secondhand smoke caused disease. But he does not tell us that this judge's decision was subsequently overturned by the federal appellate court -- a clear case of Dr. Schneiderman's own cherry picking. The only valid public health response to secondhand smoke is to completely prevent it.

BERNARD D. GOLDSTEIN, M.D.
Oakland

The writer is professor of environmental and occupational health and former dean of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. He was assistant administrator for research and development of the Environmental Protection Agency from 1983 to 1985.

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Make it a habit

Now Pittsburghers can go back to throwing their cigarette butts everywhere. Why should things change just because of the All-Star Game? Why can't people throw their cigarette butts in the trash?

LOUISE WILSON
Oakland

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Other strong fighters

With cancer being in the forefront lately regarding Mayor Bob O'Connor ("Mayor Faces Aggressive Cancer Treatment," July 11), this came to mind:

As we know, cancer survivors are optimistic, strong, heroic people who fight like they've never fought before. But, please, let's not forget the men, women and children who have fought the same battle with every ounce of their being and still succumbed to the disease. They too were optimistic, strong and heroic.

LINDA BUONO COLEMAN
Castle Shannon

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Junk mail madness

Is any one else as sick and tired as I am of receiving garbage cans full of junk mail weekly?

I receive many unwanted credit card applications that become my responsibility to shred and dispose of, as to protect my identity and credit. How do we start a "Do Not Mail" list similar to the "Do Not Call" list?

We must stop this barrage of unnecessary mail that boggs down the postal system, fills up our landfills and, in the case of unwanted credit card applications, presents the possibility that it will fall into the wrong hands, causing us irreparable damage.

MARY HOLMES
Hampton

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The Legislature must enact a fairer business tax structure

I commend the Post-Gazette for its positive comments regarding the passage of our key proposals to improve public schools, increase state support for higher education, expand health-care access for children, ensure Pennsylvania has the best prescription drug coverage for seniors and create new tax incentives to help parents save for college for their children ("Benign Budget: Pennsylvania Sends Help Where It's Needed," July 6 editorial).

This budget moves this state forward by investing in those who built this state, those who today make our state great and those who will one day lead our state.

The Post-Gazette also points out that the budget wisely includes the continued phaseout of one of the most onerous taxes on our manufacturers, the capital stock and franchise tax. With the passage of this budget, since taking office I have proposed and passed legislation lowering business taxes by more than $1.1 billion.

Your commentary closes by calling on the Democrats to lead the charge to cut the corporate net income tax rate. In fact, in the budgets I submitted for passage for the last two years, I have proposed lowering the corporate net income tax to 7.9 percent. I made that proposal based on the hard work of the bipartisan Business Tax Reform Commission, which unanimously endorsed lowering the corporate net income tax and leveling the playing field by ensuring that all businesses pay this tax.

Currently less than 25 percent of all Pennsylvania corporations pay the corporate net income tax. In many cases these companies do not pay because they rely on tax shelters in Delaware and offshore island havens to decrease reportable net income for Pennsylvania tax purposes.

Republican and Democratic business leaders on the commission all voted to close these tax loopholes. The result would be more companies paying their fair share of taxes and generating sufficient revenue to reduce the rate in Pennsylvania to equal, or in many cases, be below the rates in other states.

Let the record be clear: This Democratic governor has supported and continues to support lowering the CNI, and I have proposed doing so each year since the commission recommended this cut. In fact, the public must urge the Republican majority in the House and the Senate to enact the full package of business tax reforms proposed by the esteemed and well-respected Business Tax Reform Commission.

Once those reforms are in place, Pennsylvania companies will have gotten a lower tax rate and a fairer tax structure that makes sure every company pays taxes on what it truly earns in Pennsylvania.

GOV. EDWARD G. RENDELL
Harrisburg

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