ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 11, 1996 TAG: 9603110109
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTER
REGARDING your Feb. 23 article, ``Handicapped students like being `included''':
You missed the mark. Inclusion of severely handicapped children alongside their peers in neighborhood schools was mandated by the federal government as early as 1972. Roanoke County should have been offering an inclusion option to parents for their disabled children since that time. Shame on the special-education professionals for not having done so.
The word ``like'' in your headline is misleading. It implies a choice. You should have used ``deserve.'' The vast majority of handicapped students in the county have never had a choice to be included.
Regardless of the adjustments that administrators and teachers must make, we should dispose of our costly segregated special-education programs because they don't produce results. Let's commit ourselves to do inclusion right to prepare our handicapped children to become productive members of our society. That should be our ultimate goal. We shouldn't be complacent with the status quo that only produces more inmates for mental-health institutions. Taxpayers are tiring of the burden and deserve relief. Inclusion is a step in resolving the issue so all will benefit. I. ROXANA HARTMANN BLACKSBURG
County can tighten its fiscal belt
ON APRIL 2, please vote yes for the Roanoke County bond issue. On this special day, humble taxpayers can vote for even more exorbitant tax rates. What a spectacular idea!
Maybe now is an excellent time to move to monthly real-estate tax reassessments and higher personal-property tax rates. Then the children we educate won't be able to afford to live here on the comparatively low wages in Roanoke because of the compulsory, ever-increasing and absurd taxes imposed by our greedy, myopic Board of Supervisors.
If in fact a new school is needed, cut other expenses and tighten the fiscal belt. Make better use of funds already extorted from taxpayers. Our resources aren't infinite; our collective pockets are very near empty! TERRY WALKER ROANOKE
No fair mocking Clinton's daughter
IF I HAD the names and addresses of the Washington and Lee students who participated in the disgraceful treatment of the Clinton family recently (March 2 article, ``Parade rolls in the mockery''), I'd send this missive directly to them. But failing in that, I take this method, hoping the message will reach them and their parents.
There is a high probability that each of you students and parents will someday have a young 16-year-old sensitive daughter or granddaughter. Chickens have a way of coming home to roost, and the Bible teaches us that ``whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.'' Think about that! If I were you (God forbid), I'd worry about that. LILA CLOUSER ROANOKE
Don't send jobs to West Virginia
THE GENERATION of electric power is an industry. Coal must be mined and delivered to the power plant where it's burned to create steam, which runs the generators that produces the electric power.
Because of growth and development in Roanoke, Botetourt, Bedford, Franklin and Montgomery counties, more electric power is being used. This creates a need for even more electric power. Because this industrial need was created in Virginia, it must be fulfilled in Virginia by using our coal miners, railroad workers and potential workers who need jobs.
We need more jobs at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant where we have two power plants - one is shut down and the other is operating below capacity. Either or both of these power plants could be enlarged as needed. This is an opportunity to bring a few jobs back to this 4,000-acre facility where thousands of jobs have been lost, and to produce the electric power we need right here in our own community at a lower cost.
Congressman Rick Boucher and some dedicated individuals at the plant are working hard to bring in commercial production and restore some of the lost jobs.
Consider the alternative. If we allow the proposed new power line to be built, and the electric power needed in the Roanoke Valley to be produced in West Virginia, we will have transported Virginia jobs and industry to West Virginia. As long as Virginia coal miners and others need jobs, I don't believe we want to transport this industry to West Virginia, and then build a $250 million power line so the product of that industry can be wired back to us with an inflated price tag. JAMES V. NOONKESTER BLACKSBURG
LENGTH: Medium: 86 linesby CNB