School choice is not the answer. Funding our schools is.

In his column celebrating alternatives to the education opportunities available in our public schools (“Despite Democrats in NC legislature, school choice here to stay,” Nov. 20), John Hood chooses to ignore the genuine concerns of many parents of school-age children who oppose using public resources to fund charter schools and vouchers for attending private schools. Those programs further erode support for a public system that is chronically underfunded.

The N.C. Constitution provides: “The people have a right to the privilege of education, and it is the duty of the state to guard and maintain that right,” and “The General Assembly shall provide by taxation and otherwise for a general and uniform system of free public schools...wherein equal opportunity shall be provided to all students.”

In the Leandro litigation, the courts repeatedly have held that the state is not meeting its constitutional obligation to provide public school students with a “sound basic” education. North Carolina chronically ranks low,nationally in such measures of quality as per-capita student funding and teacher compensation.

The answer to improving the educational experiences of North Carolina students is not to be found in Hood’s much touted “parental choice” and “educational freedom” and “wholesome competition” allegedly engendered by fashioning costly alternatives to our “free public schools.” Instead, we need to right our public education ship by providing the resources needed to make good on North Carolina’s longstanding constitutional commitment to quality public education.

Dick Robinson

Bury my heart

New concerns

It was astonishing to see the former head of the NC DEQ defending the General Assembly’s latest waste of our public funds in attacking Gov. Cooper (“Cooper’s pipeline deal raises questions,” Nov. 20). As a public official, Donald van der Vaart did his best to subvert the public interest.

He undercut environmental and public health protections. He only responded to big polluting industry’s special interests. He tried staying on the public payroll even after his boss lost the last election.

Now he has environmental concerns? He and former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt had only one goal while in office — to dismantle our public health and environmental safeguards at the behest of polluting special interests’ profits.

Larry Reed

No poll tax

That the report of the NC Election Commission stated only one case of voter impersonation out of 4.8 million votes cast did not much matter. After much flag waving, the voters have decided to require voter ID. Colin Campbell in “Don’t use vote ID to make voting harder” (Nov. 19) suggests several ways to facilitate the obtaining and use of a photo ID.

Surely in North Carolina, blessed with numerous colleges and universities, recognizing a college ID would be a major step forward in implementing the ID program.

In other areas, however, extreme care must be taken to ensure that the voter ID requirement remains a plan to protect the integrity of the ballot box and not another poll tax. The photo ID requirement to vote, will, in effect, be a poll tax, if it requires an expenditure of time and energy beyond the norm, or of money.

For the younger person, who is a member of the working community and does not own a car and takes a bus to work, securing a Photo ID from DMV may involve loss of time from work but will certainly cost him $13.00 under the current arrangement.

If it is truly the integrity of the ballot at stake, then three steps should be taken immediately by the General Assembly:

1. The DMV fee of $13.00 for the “ordinary” ID should be issued with no charge. Special lines and times should be set aside to accommodate this new need for regular photo IDs.

2. Every library in North Carolina should be provided with a photo ID machine and instructions.

3. Every NC high school should be provided with a photo ID machine and instructions.