Close gap first
Dear Editor,Issue: Pleasanton Weekly March 31, 2006.
Topic: Pleasanton Unified School Board 55-member Committee!
Priorities: It seems incredible that this committee has presented a wish list to the school board which will require a new parcel tax for Pleasanton residents (News, “Board reviews top priorities for improving schools”) and does not include on the list a goal to close the academic achievement gap of the school district as measured against the national NAEP results (http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nrc/reading_math_2005). These national scores, which indicate comparisons of all participating schools in the nation, show the California public schools on a par with states like Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and 20 plus points behind the leading states of Massachusetts, Delaware, New Jersey and Minnesota, in reading and math for eighth graders. The PUSD Superintendent loves to publicize how well the district is performing on the annual API California Dept. of Education tests but never mentions comparisons to the national results. It ain’t pretty! So I would ask the committee of 55 to establish a new number one priority and forget about counselors, class size reduction (already discredited as insignificant), technology support, etc., until the district is in a position to point to increased success in reading and math compared to the best of the national districts. And a new tax shouldn’t be required to accomplish reading and math goals, which most residents will agree are current expectations of the school district.
Joe McAdams
Pleasanton
Many special interests
Dear Editor,I was mystified by your choice of projects to criticize in your editorial on April 7, 2006 (“Special interest spending has to stop”). Why would you go after such a small potato item as Kottinger Creek? I am surprised that you did not single out the new golf course. The World Golf Foundation estimates there are about 26 million golfers in the United States. That is 8.7 percent of the national population. The Foundation also lists golf as the 12th most popular leisure time activity in America. It came in right after weight lifting.
In my view, those facts certainly qualify golf as nothing more than a special interest, but we saw fit to spend $25 or $30 million on Callippe Preserve.
We have also spent millions on youth sports parks. I consider those a special interest item also. One I happen to make use of. Not everyone in town believes those were essential. I happen to think they are far more essential than Callippe Preserve. I suspect, however, a lot of Pleasanton residents wish we had neither of those because they are both special interests.
The Friends of Kottinger Creek are not working to restore the creek to the condition of 100 years ago. They are working to undo the damage the city has done to the creek over the last 40 years. I have witnessed the destruction of the creek by one poor decision after another over that time. It is time for the city to put things right.
Mark E. Smith
Pleasanton
Pombo misleads
There were several misrepresentations in the story about Richard Pombo in last week’s Weekly (News, “Pombo launches re-election campaign,” April 14, 2006). The first and most egregious was one regarding the Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) naming Pombo one of “the 13 most corrupt members of Congress.” Later in the article, Pete McCloskey is cited as a “source” of the CREW “project.” CREW is a public-interest oriented watchdog group and law firm. They labeled him thusly, not McCloskey. The investigation, or “project” mentioned, regarding Mr. Pombo and his staff’s extraordinary travel expenses (financed by both public and special interest group money) was actually a House Administration Committee investigation requested by Representatives Ellen Tauscher and George Miller.As for Mr. Pombo’s troubles with the Sierra Club, and every other environmental group in the country, including the League of Conservation Voters rating for one of the most anti-environmental records in the House, these are distinctions Mr. Pombo has justly earned. He’s at least to be credited for not trying to blame Pete McCloskey for them.
On other points, Mr. Pombo’s reasonable comments on immigration don’t match his vote for HR 4437, criminalizing “illegal presence” in the U.S. Similarly, his knee jerk, election-time “transformation” to a champion of green energy and conservation doesn’t match his history of actions. Promoting higher vehicle fuel efficiency standards rather than oil drilling off the California coast and in Alaska would be a more convincing commitment to conservation–33 MPG vs. the current 20 would end the need for Persian Gulf imports.
So rather than taking at face value what this incumbent says during this election season, his constituents should look at his 14 year, anti-environment, pro-development voting record. It speaks for itself–clearly and more truthfully than the man himself.
Bob Nickeson
Pleasanton Avenue
