ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 1, 1996 TAG: 9609040030
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
LET'S LISTEN in on the strategy session preceding Bob Dole's economic-policy address:
It's taxes, stupid. Those "morals" and "trust" issues don't work anymore. Haven't you seen the polls? We have to promise tax cuts. It's our only chance to win. Experience indicates that economic growth will take care of roughly 30 percent of the revenue lost because of lower taxes. We won't tell anyone where we will get the balance. Voters can't be told what services they will have to give up because they always want more, not less - more money for education, clean air, pure water, wholesome foods, highways, police, parks, health care, defense, etc. There will be no real decrease in the total tax burden because all cuts in services will have to be replaced by state and local governments. And they'll have to increase taxes to get the revenue needed, but we won't tell anyone that.
Dole's advisers, of course, may have been wrong about the importance of taxes as an issue. The latest polls indicate that's No. 8 on voters' priority list.
President Clinton is promising tax cuts, too. But they are more selective, designed to give relief where it's most needed. The cuts are also much smaller, and less likely to destroy the goal of a balanced budget. Clinton's tax cuts are more "demand-side" oriented, and would stimulate more economic growth.
In any event, the rate of economic growth most probably will not be decided by the president, but by the chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Don't expect factual data or unbiased analysts from either camp.
If we want government at some level to provide certain services, we must be willing to pay for them. We should neither pass the cost of these services nor payment of our national debt on to our grandchildren. I vote for taxes instead of borrowing.
JIM MILLER
VINTON
Our public schools are rebounding
THERE he goes again. It's no surprise that Cal Thomas' diatribe (July 10 column, ``Don't swallow NEA's political poison'') is filled with half-truths and misinformation.
About the only thing he got right was that the nearly 10,000 delegates to the National Education Association's Representative Assembly voted to endorse President Clinton. By secret ballot, delegates chose to stand up for Clinton because he has made children and education one of his highest priorities.
We share that commitment. In the last decade, the NEA has channeled some $70 million into school reform and improvement efforts. In every state where significant reform measures have been enacted, the association took a leadership role.
Contrary to Thomas' view, America's schools are rebounding. In fact, Scholastic Assessment Test scores from 1995 show improvement in verbal and math skills. Nationally, math scores have risen steadily over the past decade. And a recent study by the National Center for Education Statistics found that children in the United States read as well or better than their counterparts in 30 industrialized nations. Only students in Finland outperformed America's kids.
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the same group cited by Thomas, student achievement in math and science has improved markedly over the past 10 years. Today's high-school graduates have learned the equivalent of a full grade level more in these subjects than their counterparts a decade ago.
Are all schools as strong as they need to be? Not yet. But it's silly to trash thousands of high-quality school districts across America based on the performance of a minority of them.
KEITH GEIGER
President
National Education Association
WASHINGTON, D.C.
It takes two to cause a pregnancy
EXCUSE ME, but could someone please inform me how it is that Carl R. Padgett (Aug. 16 letter to the editor, "Give women access to harm's way") came by his intimate knowledge concerning the incentive behind "one whole airplane-load" of pregnant women, not to mention another 70 in Bosnia?
Did I miss something, or is there now a form that military women must fill out and register their reason for getting pregnant? Is this information then made available to the public, thus enabling the Padgetts of this world to level such accusations? But such crystal-ball conclusions pale next to his even more ludicrous, "The men didn't have the luxury to get out of harm's way."
Padgett, women don't get pregnant by themselves.
DARLEEN M. BAKER-GIBBS
CHRISTIANSBURG
LENGTH: Medium: 91 linesby CNB