THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 5, 1996 TAG: 9605040096
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 24 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
Here's my opinion: Enough, already!
Mayor Oberndorf has asked citizens to express their views on the proposed school budget, which calls for a tax increase of 3.2 percent on property owners.
Here's my opinion: Enough, already!
In 1995, the year the schools misplaced $12.1 million, the tax assessment on my home went up a whopping 10 percent. Now there is a 3.2 percent tax increase proposed and the overpaid school superintendent wants the increase to be 12 cents.
The city manager has proposed giving the schools an increase of $27 million, the largest raise in the city's history. That's not enough, says the superintendent, who promises there will not be any more sizable increases asked by him.
Wanna bet? The last superintendent said there would be a surplus in 1995. That was a lie. Another erstwhile superintendent left just ahead of the sheriff. No wonder I don't have faith in them. Not since E.E. Brickell, who made the Beach schools an enviable system, have I had faith that the schools would actually improve.
The fact remains that Beach schools will get 52 percent of the entire Virginia Beach budget. They will get the aforementioned $27 million increase, which isn't actually chopped liver.
Yes, I support Virginia Beach schools. My three children graduated from them years ago when the schools were truly the flagship of the area. I have paid taxes for schools for years and will continue to do so. But enough is enough and a $27 million increase for next year is a lot, no matter what a disenchanted School Board says.
Jack Carper
April 24 Poorly worded question
Do you know what you are asking? In the April 26 Beacon, candidates for the School Board were asked if prayer in schools should be permitted. This question is so poorly worded I laughed when I first read it.
I am a junior at Kempsville High School and I attend a prayer group that meets every morning in the cafeteria. Twenty to 30 students meet daily to talk to God. The very idea of someone, much less a school board, trying to stop us is ridiculous. Individually, we continue to pray throughout the day, and thus there is no way to actually not allow us to do so without hiring a telepathic thought police. Which, with current budget problems, is not going to happen.
Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that the question actually meant to ask if schools should force students to pray. Now if I have concluded correctly, then why wasn't the questions worded better?
For starters, no American in his or her right mind would ever say that prayer should be forced upon another person. Come on Beacon, prayer should be a non-issue. Students will pray if they want to and not pray if they don't want to. If the schools can't stop someone from talking to the guy sitting next to him, how are they going to stop someone from talking to God?
Andrea Wong
April 26 Save recycling
Just passing the shadow of Earth Day and today's Virginia Beach/Norfolk Earth Day celebration, and the city of Virginia Beach decides that recycling is too expensive for the people. That is $12 a year for each household. Big whoop compared to other prices we pay to be Virginia Beach residents.
If they wanted to ``save'' money, why don't they take the several hundred thousand dollars they put into that drive-through light show and put it toward curbside recycling . . . or just ask us. Paying $1 is not a lot to ask. Unfortunately not voting for that $1 will cost the citizens much more headache and trouble than recycling is worth.
I, for one, enjoy my curbside service, would have paid that one dollar and will not participate if I have to deliver my trash myself.
Allan Ryman
April 26 by CNB