Thursday’s letters: Belief in public schools, restoring property, hoping for good news

School Board candidate Lauren Kurnov, right, participates in a panel at a Tiger Bay Club lunch June 2. Another candidate, Robyn Marinelli, is at left.

Board members should care about our schools

Quality education for the children of Sarasota County is necessary.

We need representation on our School Board by someone who cares enough about public education to have their children enrolled in our public schools. We don’t need a candidate who cries when asked why her children are in private school. It’s ludicrous!

Change happens best from the inside – when you see the needs because you’re involved in the associations that support the schools, when you’re on campus, when you see firsthand what happens in the classroom and what support teachers and administrators need.

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These things don’t happen when your children are attending private school.

The federal government mandates help for all students. The public schools assist in the development of all students.

As a former speech pathologist in the public schools, I’ve seen the outstanding individual education programs, designed for individual students whatever their specific needs are. Our taxes support these excellent programs.

The School Board member should care enough about our public schools and its services to enroll her children.

Lauren Kurnov has a doctorate in education! She has been an educator. She has children enrolled in our schools. She will be an excellent School Board member.

Judy Fleischer, Sarasota

County could restore wetlands in Gulf Gate

As residents, we were pleased to see Gulf Gate Estates highlighted in your real estate section June 5.

We were excited to hear of a proposed plan by Sarasota County to acquire the former 49-acre golf course property here, which would further enhance and protect our community.

This plan is a unique opportunity to expand engineered retention ponds, restore wetlands and create an environment that will filter polluted stormwater, mitigating the effects of red tide in Little Sarasota Bay.

The county plan would also limit flooding risk by directing excess stormwater to the site during intense rain events. The addition of walking trails would allow the public and environmental tourists to view stormwater models representing the gold standard of urban clean water best practices.

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Looks like a win for residents of southwest Sarasota County. Let’s do it!

Cass and Ed Smith, Roger Harada, Carrie and Marc Boggs, Gulf Gate Estates

Tough to remain Pollyannaish in America

Reading the newspaper every day is an exercise in exasperation in America. Another day of conservatives and liberals tearing each other up in the rhetoric that the other party is the ruination of America.

Another day of war news, news of an armed America taking advantage of its constitutional rights and drawing down on some innocent parties and shooting them.

Another day of corporate America raising prices, fighting environmental laws, etc.  An unwillingness of those who make more in one day than the average citizen makes in a year to tax themselves fairly and having the political clout to convince our elected leaders that all of this is right.

I know that since the days of George Washington it has always been this way, but my Pollyannaish desire is to wake up one day and read only good news.

Another desire I have is to convince myself that I was a better citizen than the creators of this chaotic mess, a contributor rather than a taker. It is a dream I have had for several generations, to see the USA get its act together again.

Bob Richardson, Sarasota

DeSantis drives away potential transplants

Your recent article about how Gov. Ron DeSantis has ruined the reputation and future of Florida is very accurate.

I am a recently retired physical therapist, my second career after being an ASE Master Mechanic. I have two college degrees and my wife is a soon-to-retire registered nurse.

We have enjoyed vacationing all over the world, including many trips to Florida. We had planned to retire there, but watching its decline under DeSantis has changed our plans.

With his radical right agenda ruining the state’s livability, we won’t even vacation there anymore.

I have been registered as both Republican and Democrat, depending on the candidates.

Mark Kaseweter, Clackamas, Oregon

Republicans made Jan. 6 committee partisan

We continually hear from critics of the Jan. 6 hearings that the investigation isn’t bipartisan because only two Republicans are on the House committee, both of whom dislike Donald Trump.

What the critics fail to acknowledge is that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected only two of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s selections for the committee and that was because they voted against certifying the 2020 election.

It was McCarthy who withdrew the other potential Republican participants. It was also the Republicans who rejected creating an independent commission to investigate.

Irene Ward, Lakewood Ranch

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Board members should believe in schools, dreaming of happier days