Charter schools, abortion and concealed guns: readers sound off on some of the legislatures actions

Halt coal truck menace

Everyone in Kentucky knows how dangerous coal trucks are. Weighing up to 126,000 pounds — far more than the federal government allows on our interstate highways — coal trucks have been terrorizing motorists on the public highways and destroying the bridges and road surfaces for decades. They are a public menace.

Now the Kentucky House has passed House Bill 352, which would increase the legal weight limit for trucks carrying unrefined petroleum products to 126,000 pounds.

This means more terror on the roads for Kentucky families, more damage to our roads and bridges, more injuries and deaths. Heavy trucks have much longer stopping distances.

Who pays to fix the roads damaged by overweight monster trucks? You do, with every fill up. Stop subsidizing terror on our public highways and tell your state senator to vote no on this bill.

Dave Cooper, Lexington

Fund public schools first

Legislators in Kentucky need to vote no on House Bill 205. The legislation would take $25 million from the general fund to allow parents a tax credit scholarship to send their kids to private school. Our public schools are underfunded as it is. Our students deserve so much better.

These tax credit scholarships would divert needed funding from public schools. Most low-income families are still not going use them, no matter the rhetoric that they are for all Kentuckians. Private school tuition would be cost-prohibitive for low-income Kentuckians even with these tax credit scholarships, which are also known as “back-door vouchers” for charter schools.

Our General Assembly has tried for years to secure funding for charter schools and this is another attempt. Take this $25 million and spend it on needed public school programs such as early childhood education. I have a nine-year-old and a four-year-old. Because my son is delayed developmentally, he qualified for state-funded preschool. There are so many children that cannot qualify for this program because it is not funded for all four-year-olds.

No more tax credits until we have fully funded public schools.

Greta Hicks Gilbert, Prestonsburg

Charter schools a boon

Funding for public charter schools is being debated in our state legislature. Here are some findings from the Stanford University’s National Charter School Study, a 2013 study of 27 states.

Do charter schools improve education results? Yes, especially in states like Kentucky in which students are performing poorly on national achievement tests. “… (T)he impact of attending charter schools is large in some of the states with the lowest average performance on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress). For students in these lower-achieving states, the additional boost from charter attendance — 99 additional days of learning in the District of Columbia and 92 days in New York City — can greatly enhance the educational opportunities of students in these states.”

Are charter schools “skimming” the best and brightest students to make themselves look good? No. “Compared to their feeders, charter schools enroll a lower percentage of white and Hispanic students and a higher percentage of black students.”

Why do charter schools outperform traditional public schools? The study concludes that more flexibility for teachers and administrators, higher expectations for staff and students, and the ability to close underperforming schools are the reasons.

Ray Davis, Lexington

Bill’s consequences vast

House Bill 5 would ban abortion in Kentucky for women seeking to end pregnancies because of, among other things, their unborn child’s disability detected by prenatal screening, such as Down syndrome or disfigurement.

Will the legislation include expanding waivers that provide respite care, personal assistance, medical equipment, vehicle adaptation, etc.? Or the waiver which supplies skilled nursing services for those who are medically fragile and technology-dependent and use a ventilator? Will it expand the waiver which supplies medical equipment and therapeutic services for those with developmental and intellectual disabilities?

How about the waiver which supplies adult daycare, attendant care, respite care and home-delivered meals to people with physical disabilities? Several of these waivers have a waiting list of over 8000 individuals.

Will it increase the staff at the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation to help those who want to work? Will it assist counties to increase special education teacher positions?

Right now, Kentucky has the highest number of children in foster care in our history. If supports aren’t in place, many of these children will end up in care. If we can’t care for those we already have, what plans do the proponents of this bill have to handle more?

Rene Thompson, Covington

A new school motto?

Anyone unfortunate enough to have insomnia can easily entertain themselves with KET’s Legislative Update program. Here you will see the fine legislators of Kentucky, elected by a minority of Kentuckians, debate pressing issues of our time.

On the March 1 airing we saw Rep. Brandon Reed, sponsor of House Bill 46, display a dollar bill touting that U.S. currency states “In God We Trust” and that the declaration should be emblazoned above the entrances of Kentucky’s schools. Then we see debate on Senate Bill 1, the school safety bill that lacks funding. Rep. John “Bam” Carney, who introduced SB 1 on the House floor, acknowledged that it will be a challenge. Perhaps he can get Reed to donate his dollar to the cause.

Finally, we see debate on Senate Bill 150, a bill to allow Kentuckians to legally carry concealed deadly weapons without proper education on use of deadly force or even training in rudimentary firearm use. The bill has flown through the legislature even though a majority of Kentuckians are opposed to the bill. KET’s Legislative Update coverage clearly indicates the motto most apropos for Kentucky’s school entrances is “In Guns We Trust.”

Alan Creech, Champaign, Ill.

Welfare for utilities

In Frankfort, Senate Bill 100 would give our electric utility company a sweet deal. For future customers with solar panels, the utility would no longer have to give an equal credit. Instead, they would credit back only 30 percent of the electricity a homeowner feeds into the grid, effectively taking 70 percent of this consumer-produced electricity for free. Worse, the homeowner then would have to pay the electric company for this amount of formerly credited electricity. And to top it off, the electric company then would then charge full price for this free electricity to the surrounding neighbors who receive it through the grid. How do you spell corporate welfare? Senate Bill 100.

Linda Richardson, Lexington

Concealed carry bill unsafe

The recently passed Kentucky Senate bill to allow concealed carry of a gun without a permit, coupled with the story of a man who pulled a gun on a people in Sam’s Club because they were wearing MAGA hats, are cause for great concern. The thought of a society that allows anyone who takes a notion to pack heat without training or accountability is alarming. Getting shot because of road rage or the message on your T-shirt (or your skin color or accent) seems a likely outcome in a confrontation with one who is looking for trouble, has poor impulse control and feels empowered by their piece.

Displays of intolerance for one another’s viewpoints are evident and increasing, but we’re not talking about rude and disrespectful social media here; this is real life and death. The bill is a step backwards in making our society safer, and a recent survey indicates that the people of Kentucky do not want to take this risk.

Bob and Carol Stange, Lexington

Eliminate car licenses too

Soon it will be legal in Kentucky for citizens to carry concealed weapons including handguns without a permit, without any training on how to safely use that weapon, and without a police background check. If that makes sense to you, I suggest that we do away with a requirement for a driver’s license. Why do we need to burden our citizens with training on how to safely drive a vehicle and the requirement to get a license? Let’s just turn everyone loose on the highways. Is there really a need for truckers and bus drivers to get a Commercial Driver’s License? Why not allow any citizen to drive a truck or school bus without training?

Denny R. Vincent, Versailles

Maybe they’ll miss

It seems the Kentucky legislature has decided it is OK for any untrained citizen to carry concealed handguns on the streets. Somehow lawmakers think this improves safety.

I would propose this will get more citizens shot — they will have to be treated as possible threats because anybody can be carrying a concealed gun. Worse, they may be untrained in gun safety.

Police officers will need to approach every traffic stop and encounter differently. Citizens will need to be aware that in street encounters, a concealed gun may be the solution if tempers flare. Others without training will leave a gun on their nightstands with a toddler in their house. If that sounds crazy, check with the National Rifle Association, because the group recounted that as a true story during a recent Kentucky Senate hearing.

I appeal to Gov. Matt Bevin to veto this legislation. I know that blocking this bill from becoming law won’t solve all the gun problems, but there’s no point in making the situation worse.

Otherwise, you can find bulletproof vests online for as low as $300. Vests won’t stop a head shot but the untrained gun-carrying citizen probably won’t aim for the head anyway.

Mark Strickland, Frankfort

No knowledge would be deadly

Disneyland on the Kentucky River wants to eviscerate all the checks and balances required by our state Constitution for economic development deals “designed” to bring new businesses to Kentucky. New business and jobs are great for our state. However, the public not knowing what we taxpayers are giving away or the incentives used to lure business here opens up all sorts of goofy possibilities.

With the passage of “don’t ask, don’t tell” economic development regulations proposed by Gov. Matt Bevin’s Economic Development Cabinet, all sorts of things could happen. Lavish planning trips to the Caribbean, chemical stimulants that would blow an elephant’s mind, boatloads of unaccounted-for, cash-chasing, pipe-dream, loser business propositions like that aluminum rolling plant in Eastern Kentucky, and God knows what else, would be possible because nobody would be able to look at what our leaders with unchecked and unabashed moral compasses are up to.

Given Frankfort’s mindset now, millions without accountability are sinfully deadly to Kentucky’s economic future and our wallets. Full transparency is critical to all of us. Without it, well then, MAGA, MAGA, MAGA, and bring on the scantily clad dancing girls, and watch out for the Frankfort faithful driving very expensive new cars and smoking very big Cuban cigars.

Gene Lockhart, Lexington

Up in smoke

Last month, I attended a crowded training at the Madison County Health Department to receive training and obtain a NARCAN unit for use should I encounter someone with a suspected overdose. This excellent program provided by the health department is admirable, and in such contrast to our legislators in Frankfort who voted down a bill to raise the legal age for smoking to 21 years old, a measure which would prevent some of our young citizens from starting smoking.

Some parts of the state government make a lot more sense than other parts! Thank God for elections.

John V. Payne, M.D., Berea

This story was originally published March 8, 2019 at 1:54 PM.