Letters to the editor for Sunday, May 28, 2017

Internet regulations need to be rolled back

The Trump administration’s proposed rollback of the Obama FCC’s “net neutrality” regulation, contrary to a recent letter writer, will expand internet service and reduce costs to consumers.

Internet service giants have convinced gullible tech-bot bloggers that Obama’s FCC was good for customers and their smaller competitors, a falsehood that’s been picked up by the gullible Democrat mainstream.

Net neutrality, a misnomer, imposed the same regulations on the 1,000 or so U.S. internet service providers that was used decades ago to control the Bell telephone monopoly.

Like minimum wage laws, it favors giant companies with an army of lawyers and deep pockets that mom-and-pop providers can’t match.

Both net neutrality and minimum wage laws create a hostile marketplace for small businesses, reducing the competition that protects the consumer from fewer choices and exploitation from those greedy capitalists that the political left claims to be fighting against.

Lois Bock

Minden

Public officials expected to behave ethically

In response to the letter from Mike Zola of May 21, I do not see the mentioned article as a “gotcha” piece at all.

It appears to be true that Laxalt’s actions did not reach the level of being illegal. However, I expect more from our state’s top law enforcement official than to avoid actually breaking the law.

I expect that person to be ethical, to have unquestioned integrity. I do not expect that person to jump to the tune of a casino owner because the casino owner is funding the Attorney General’s previous and future campaigns.

I would have been very discouraged if the Legislature had not held a hearing to determine if the Gaming Control Board needs protection from the Attorney General. And, apparently, they do.

A lack of integrity and ethics is not BS. It is what I expect from our legislators and from our constitutional officers.

Linda Deacy

Carson City

Where is Robin Hood?

If there ever was a Robin Hood we all need him now!

How do our elected officials justify drafting a new healthcare plan that will cost us elderly and the low income hundreds of dollars more but doesn’t affect themselves or their rich cronies?

It seems like the we always get the short end of the stick, but let’s make sure we get that “wall” built!

They are protecting the insurance companies instead of the people that need help. They don’t care because all their benefits are paid for by our taxes. We all need to stand up and say we aren’t going to take it anymore and vote them out next time!

Dennis Ormond

Dayton

Education will benefit from school choice program

School choice is a cost-effective way to improve academic achievement for all students.

According to the U.S. Department of Education in 1998, we spent $3.8 billion. In 2012, we spent $6.69 billion (adjusted for inflation).

Unfortunately, substantial increases in students’ academic achievement did not follow. Between 1998 and 2013 reading proficiency among fourth graders increased only 7 percent (29 percent to 36 percent) and among eighth-graders increased only 4 percent (32 percent to 36 percent).

According to a report from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, students who use Milwaukee’s school choice program graduate high school at higher rates and commit less felony crimes than their public-school peers. Students in this program are more likely to be low income, minority, and from single-parent homes.

By giving parents a choice in what and how their children learn public money will shift toward educational strategies and settings that parents determine are of high value; which may be in opposition to what unions, textbook and testing corporations, and contractors receiving prevailing wage determine are of high value.

In the report, A Nation at Risk, the National Commission on Excellence in Education encouraged U.S. citizens, “You have the right to demand for your children the best our schools and colleges can provide. Your vigilance and your refusal to be satisfied with less than the best are the imperative first step.” May Nevada’s political leaders and families take this first step so that more students achieve their full potential and contribute to society in meaningful ways.

Julie Woodbury

Elko