Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 17, 1995 TAG: 9507180002
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
As a teacher, I know how important small classrooms are. If students aren't getting the attention they need, they cannot learn. The bigger the classrooms get, the less education will happen.
When a child becomes one of many faces and isn't recognized, his or her self-esteem and feeling of importance is jeopardized. This leads to problems such as drug abuse, depression and delinquency.
If we put more focus on our educational system, we definitely could help solve some of the above-mentioned problems.
We would have more schools. Therefore, more jobs would open up for those seeking work, and our economy would improve. However, I see, most importantly, our children being helped.
If a child thinks he's special, he will perform as though he's important. A child's feeling about himself determines how he will perform. If he's depressed and anxious, he cannot be successful. When a child is unsuccessful, this can lead to negative behavior. And negative behavior leads to delinquency.
If we could help more children to succeed, our juvenile homes wouldn't be as crowded, and law enforcement could meet our society's needs more easily. Homicide and suicide rates would decrease. So many problems could be helped with more focus on educational facilities and programs in our society.
I don't know all the answers or where all the funds could come from. However, I do know individuals make up a society, and we need to plant the seed before we can grow the tree.
DONNA WILLARD
SALEM
Court appointments aren't lucrative
I AM disturbed by the suggestion in the statements attributed to the attorney general's spokesman, Don Harrison, in your July 1 article (``Death row legal tactics assailed'') that I and others have actively sought appointment in capital post-conviction cases because of the ``enormous fee'' involved. Unfortunately, your reporter didn't seek my response to these comments. Both as to me personally and as to attorneys generally, those suggestions demand a response.
While a few relatively large fees have been approved in recent years, compensation rates remain far less than what would be charged to private clients. The fees awarded are only commensurate with the work that's performed, and fee requests are critically reviewed by the judge.
More importantly, no or only token compensation is provided for critical, time-consuming stages in the process, such as clemency petitions and petitions to the Virginia Supreme Court, even though the appointed lawyer is required by statute to perform that work. Thus, the benefit of whatever fair compensation is received at other stages is drastically reduced by this uncompensated work. As a result, I know of no attorneys who solicit appointments in these cases. A decent personal-injury case is worth a lot more than an appointment in a post-conviction case, and requires a lot less work.
Harrison has advised me that, contrary to the article's implication, he never indicated that I have solicited such appointments. With but one unique exception, I have been appointed at the request of the judge, without any solicitation by me, often by judges I don't even know. Because federal guidelines encourage the continuity of representation between state and federal court, a policy the attorney general supports, I do advise the federal court of my availability under those circumstances. However, in one recent case where the federal judge didn't appoint me, I continued to represent my state-court client in federal court without appointment and thus without compensation. Therefore, the insupportable implication that I solicit these cases for financial gain is particularly disturbing.
GERALD T. ZERKIN
RICHMOND
Absent dads get no tax break
THERE ARE still no laws to enable a noncustodial father to declare a deduction on his income taxes without written approval of the spouse. A belligerent former wife isn't going to do this.
I earn $12,000 a year working in a hospital laundry. Of this amount, I pay $4,200 for the care of my two sons. I'm unable to afford to have a place of my own or a life with any quality at all. I feel, as must many other fathers, that I'm being discriminated against. My former wife makes more than I do, and I have absolutely nothing.
I have always worked as hard as I could, and have never applied for welfare or unemployment. But unless I get some kind of help, I may soon have no other choice.
DAVID W. WELCH
ROANOKE
by CNB