The big picture on Vermont public schools

Once again Vermonters exhibit the wool over their eyes such as in Steve Nelson’s April 2 column, “Let independent schools demonstrate their value.”

The big picture remains that Vermonters in the past have not supported their public schools but support its culture of a voucher system. The public schools I attended were progressive. It’s not either/or. Public schools are the crux of democracy.

Joan Hoffmann

South Royalton

School taxation argument is laughable

Having served a total of 11 years on two school boards in Vermont, I must correct Mill Moore’s assertion that public schools “have the enviable authority to levy local taxes” (“Untruths mislead in independent school debate,” April 4). Nobody on a school board whose proposed budget has been defeated would share such a laughable delusion.

Voters have the authority to levy local taxes, not schools. When voters refuse a proposed budget and its associated levy, the school board has to craft a new budget and submit it again, sometimes more than once.

And of course voters elect school boards, authority they are denied when they must pay taxes for tuition of students whose parents can choose “independent” schools. Many voters understandably resent being taxed for enterprises over which they have no control and which insist on the ability to deny entry to their children.

Richard Andrews

Springfield, Vt.

God doesn’t love your Glock

A recent letter to the editor was celebrating the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that non-felons may carry a concealed handgun without a permit (“Big wins for my Glock,” April 7).

I think we all know how deeply divided we are in ther subject of gun control. But what has God go to do with this? The writer states: “God is good for sure.” Why do people think God has voted for the right to own a AR-15? The sole purpose of a gun is to harm or kill, whether justified or not. Didn’t God state in the 10 Commandments “Thou shall not kill’? Yet gun lovers seem to need to justify their love of guns over the sanctity of life by believing God loves guns. No he doesn’t. He would want gun owners who reject gun control laws to stop their selfish emphasis on individual rights and embrace what is best for the society as a whole. He sacrificed his son so you can sacrifice your right to bear arms.

Rebecca Leake

Norwich

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