Lightfoot misstep

The selection of Dianna Lightfoot as director of childhood development and early education was an insult to every practitioner and anyone who cares about children (“Lightfoot quits before starting” Feb. 8).

As the article pointed out, her published positions are radically incompatible with the organization’s goals. Furthermore, she had no relevant experience or competence.

The McCrory administration should come clean on how she was appointed, and the responsible parties should follow her out the door. Lightfoot’s appointment appears to have been based on her espousal of the sort of extreme right-wing views that are, unsurprisingly, becoming all too evident in the early days of the McCrory administration.

How many other high-level appointments have been made not on the basis of competence, but because of ideology and a need to pay back campaign favors? The initial actions of this new administration have me truly frightened about the future of our state.

James Collins

Durham