Duquesne students deserve the best education

Recent news coverage of public meetings in the East Allegheny and West Mifflin school districts has exacerbated tensions over the planned transfer of students from Duquesne High School to those districts.

As a teacher in the Duquesne School District, I'm asking the residents of those districts to take another look at this issue, through my eyes. You see the worst in these Duquesne students, but I have taught many of them and I know them personally. They have been victims of a broken school funding system in Pennsylvania, and yet they are not broken themselves. I see the best in them, and I want them to have a chance to learn because they deserve it.

These students in Duquesne are every bit as apprehensive about this change as you are, but the fact is, the plan by the state Department of Education has been approved by the General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Ed Rendell. As members of the greater Mon Valley community, we can either choose to resist it and hurt many young people in the process, or we can try to make the best of it.

The students in Duquesne deserve the best education we can give them, and in that respect they are no different from students in any other district. To deny them a chance to learn beginning this fall would be tantamount to endorsing two classes of citizenship: one for those of us who are more fortunate, and another that condemns those who live in the wrong ZIP code to a limited future.

STEPHEN C. JAMES JR.
President
Duquesne Education Association
Duquesne Middle School
Duquesne

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Aid for the innocent

I saw in the Pittsburgh City Paper that Point Park University's Innocence Institute, a joint venture with the Post-Gazette, is likely to end soon. How ironic, since recently the Philadelphia Inquirer reported the 200th time a death penalty sentence in Pennsylvania had been overturned since 1978. Fifty in Pennsylvania have been overturned since 2000.

Through the work of Post-Gazette writer Bill Moushey, Innocence Institute director, and his Point Park journalism students, nearly a dozen people who were wrongly convicted have been freed. Beyond these individuals, this project benefits not only journalism students who gain training and experience but also our criminal justice system as a whole, which means all of us.

Surely Point Park can find a way to continue this salutary project, the only one of its kind in Pennsylvania. It can't be too late to reverse what seems to have been a funding decision.

It's also not too late to demand from Gov. Ed Rendell and the General Assembly a moratorium on state executions. Clearly too many mistakes are being made in Pennsylvania. With the death penalty, one mistake is too many.

ELIZABETH WOLFSKILL
Lawrenceville

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So much damage

I think the photo in the Post-Gazette on July 26 of President Bush with two veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq, both with prosthetic legs, is disgusting, Why not show the other disabled veterans who wouldn't walk across the street to acknowledge this president? That man has a lot of nerve.

We have three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial to oversee the others so that no branch gets too powerful. I don't think this is working. In my wildest imagination I'd never believe one man could do so much damage to this country. Where are our other branches? They're not working either. One man has damaged our reputation over the world. One man has caused the deaths of more than 3,600 Americans and countless wounded. One man has ruined countless families. One man continues to ignore the will of the people. One man has committed crimes that any citizen would be in jail for.

I can't believe they'd impeach Bill Clinton for his indiscretions, and this one man who places himself and his cronies above the law and cites executive privilege has not been impeached.

So when you decide for whom you are going to vote, remember one man can do a lot of damage. Make sure your candidate shares your views and morality. Choose a person who will restore our image to the world; choose a person who isn't arrogant. Make sure you choose wisely. The other two branches of government aren't doing their jobs.

RICHARD J. COLARIC
North Versailles

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Weather specifics

For some time, I have felt an urge to write to you about the weather presentation in the PG. On July 24 a small detail tipped the scale and made me write.

I have long felt that the weather map usually found on the back of the B section is inadequate. The map shows the location of highs and lows by the letter H or L, but there is never an isobar to give some clue as to the extent or intensity of these systems or the gradient between them. Worse than that, the map bears no time, nothing to say whether it represents the situation at the beginning of the day or sometime later. A cold front can easily move from Western Ohio to Eastern Pennsylvania in a day. Without a time line, the map is hardly worth the space it takes or the ink used to print it.

On July 24, I was turned off by a statement that seems to indicate that either some reporter doesn't know anything about meteorology or some meteorologist doesn't know how to write. In the paragraph at the top of the 5-Day Forecast column, there is the statement, "A couple of showers or thunderstorms will be roaming around the area." Roaming around the area? Really? Showers and thunderstorms don't roam.

ROBERT C. BUTLER
Hanover

The writer is a retired meteorologist.

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Get with it

I am writing in response to the July 14 letter "Disrespectful Moms." It's a shame that so many people are out of touch with the needs of babies. As a child nutrition advocate and a mother, I was really upset when I read this letter.

How would the letter writer feel if she were told she had to eat her meal in the bathroom? Breast-feeding is natural. Women's breasts are not intended to be sexual things; they are a source of nutrition for babies.

In the late 1980s, WIC, a federally funded nutrition program for babies and nursing moms, started to encourage breast-feeding. The most important reasons to breast-feed are: It is a child's first immunization, it is less expensive and healthier than formula, it helps mothers to lose weight and get the uterus back in shape faster, and it helps the bonding process between moms and their babies.

When WIC first started advocating breast-feeding around 13 percent of mothers were breast-feeding; now there are about 39 percent. This number is still low, considering all the health benefits.

Before we make comments about not wanting to watch mothers nursing, we should stop and think: We don't have to watch a mother breast-feeding her child -- besides, it's impolite to stare. These mothers have respect for those around them, but, more important, they respect their children's right to nurse on healthy, nutritious breast milk.

SHAUNA PONTON
Child Nutrition Advocate
Just Harvest
South Side

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Yielded to sense

Regarding John R. Bonassi's Aug. 3 letter ("About Yield Signs"), he is absolutely correct. Most drivers see yield signs and they proceed directly to the highway, oblivious to traffic.

Finally, another yield sign was taken down in favor of a stop sign at the Millvale ramp to Route 28 North. I don't know how many fender-benders I had seen there before common sense prevailed.

FRANK SEVCIK
Blawnox

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Our goal is to ensure that the money helps those who need it

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the July 4 letter from Cindy Datig, executive director of $1 Energy Fund, regarding the state Department of the Auditor General's recent special performance audit of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

Ms. Datig's letter asserted that our audit would result in a mischaracterization of all low- and fixed-income recipients as misrepresenting their needs in order to obtain benefits from LIHEAP. I hope that is not the case. I have always been a strong supporter of the program, as a city councilman, state senator and now as auditor general. The purpose of the audit was to make sure that LIHEAP is performing as it was intended and identify areas for improvement. A copy of the audit report is available to the public at www.auditorgen.state.pa.us.

We found serious deficiencies in the Department of Public Welfare's administration of the program, including a lack of oversight that led to potential fraud and abuse in all six counties examined during the audit period. I forwarded my findings to the Office of Inspector General for further review.

I am certain that Ms. Datig and her organization join me in wanting to rid the program of any waste, fraud or abuse. After all, every dollar that is misspent is a dollar that could have been used to reduce a needy family's heating bill. With the home heating season only a few months away, the Department of Public Welfare should not wait until applicants start walking through the door to address the systemic problems identified by our audit.

JACK WAGNER
Auditor General
Harrisburg

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