Getting local schoolkids to eat breakfast

To the editor:

Ed Vogel’s June 16 article, “Sandoval vetoes four more bills, count reaches 17,” announced that the governor had vetoed Assembly Bill 137 — the school breakfast bill — stating that each district is capable of administering federal nutrition programs in schools.

If the governor is right that school districts are the most capable of making improvements to the breakfast program, then the district’s leadership is key. Three Square and our partners are grateful for experienced leaders such as Clark County School District Superintendent Dwight Jones, who successfully increased breakfast participation in his previous tenure in Colorado.

For more than 15 years, Nevada has come in dead last among all other states and territories in school breakfast participation. While more than 50 percent of district students are enrolled in the free and reduced-price meal program, and therefore eligible for free breakfast, only about 14 percent to 18 percent of students eat school breakfast on any given day. Neither of the previous two superintendents made progress in this area, therefore prompting bipartisan support for AB137.

Mr. Jones has already stated his commitment to making improvements in school breakfast participation. Although the governor’s veto is disheartening, we have new hope that Mr. Jones’ commitment to school breakfast will prevail, making him the breakfast champion our community needs and our kids deserve.

Brian Burton

Las Vegas

The writer is president and CEO of Three Square Food Bank.

Government unions

To the editor:

I read that the Clark County public school system has about 300,000 pupils, 18,000 teachers, and 23,000 “other” union members. If you divide the number of pupils by the number of teachers you get an average class size of 17 — yet the union complains of an average class size of 40.

These numbers mean that only 7,500 teachers teach, while the other 10,500 teachers … do what, exactly?

And then those 23,000 “other” union members: What exactly do they do?

Finally, the joke is on us: We have a school board where the majority of members are friends of union officials and “negotiate” union salaries and perks.

This is a true picture of the nature of all government employees unions, which, by definition, are conspiracies against the people. They should therefore be routinely prosecuted under the RICO laws.

Marc Jeric

Las Vegas

Lock boxes

To the editor:

Paul Carman’s Tuesday letter proposes a “simple solution” to the huge shortfall in Social Security funds that will be needed to provide for future retirees. Mr. Carman would remove the historic cap on gross income that is currently subject to the Social Security tax and thereby capture the tax from all earned income no matter the amount.

What Mr. Carman regretfully ignores is the track record of our Washington politicians in diverting the funds from these taxes from the confines of the mythical “lock boxes” to the general fund to finance their wild pork spending and other vote-producing social programs.

The IOUs in the “lock boxes” have no value or any kind of worth and are a tribute to Mr. Barnum’s astute observation that there is a sucker born every minute.

Michael C. Maze

Las Vegas

Payment cap

To the editor:

In his Tuesday letter to the editor, Paul Carman suggested that we should remove the cap on Social Security withholding. He wrote, “This is creating a privileged rich class.”

But what he doesn’t mention is that the Social Security payments are also capped. Therefore, you will receive payments based on the amount that you have contributed up to that cap. How does this “create a privileged rich class?” Everyone is treated the same based on the amount contributed up to the cap on both payments in and payments received.

I do believe that we have to do something about Social Security, but taking money from some of the people to give to others is not the solution.

Tom Jones

Las Vegas

Vegas exposure

To the editor:

It was nice to see both the 38th annual Daytime Emmy Awards and The 2011 Miss USA Pageant taking place in Las Vegas last Sunday. Our city can use all the exposure it can get, especially during this down economic time.

No matter what you may think or say about Donald Trump, he always does a very good job showcasing our city during the pageant telecast.

We should all hope that he continues to have Las Vegas host his event.

The only disappointing thing I saw was that during the parade of states at the pageant’s beginning, Miss Nevada, Sarah Chapman, did not know how to correctly pronounce our state’s name.

William H. Isaac II

Henderson