Public school funding

Public school unions want more of our money even though the quality of the education we get is questionable at best.

Union leaders want raises and more benefits. They even attack their own administrators using envy as a tactic to try to get some of the administrators’ money into their own pockets. It is pathetic that we have allowed ourselves to be manipulated into fighting each other for the scraps that our corrupt politicians drop off the

Update on RUSD negotiations with teachers union

As most Ramona residents know, our school district has been in negotiations for the past several months with the Ramona Teachers Association, attempting to reach a contract settlement for the 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years that is both fair to our teachers and financially responsible to district taxpayers.

At the heart of the matter is the district’s critical need to reduce costs in order to maintain financial solvency. Our district’s revenues are down 20 percent from what they were five years ago, due to continuing reductions in per-student funding from the state and 11 years of declining enrollments. Our costs, however, have not declined. To the contrary, they are rising.

In order to balance our $45 million budget this year, we’ve already taken several painful steps

Join teachers in seeking fair settlement

Times are definitely better for California’s public schools. The state’s economy is slowly rebounding, and with the passage of Proposition 30, the state’s K-12 schools are not facing more cuts, but are actually seeing funding increases that should mean stable funding to schools for the next several years.

Proposed stable changes worth supporting

Public feedback on the Draft of the Equine Ordinance and the accompanying Environmental Impact Report is being sought.

You can review the documents on the county’s Equine Ordinance and Information website: sdcounty.ca.gov/pds/advance/Equine.html.

A better approach to gun control

A lot of outcry against gun ownership has risen recently, especially after the Newtown, Conn., shooting. A lot of folks don’t seem to know that California already has a relatively unknown gun control program that is far more rational that just outlawing a particular type of weapon, although that process defines an illegal weapon.

Road improvements are a benefit rather than affront

I must be getting old. I remember when the sanctity of life was more important than the preservation of a tree, even 150 trees, all of which are a renewable resource, unlike that of a human life. I also remember when we listened to each other, communicated our thoughts, and found satisfaction in working to find resolution to differences of opinion through honest discourse.

San Vicente Road options

I am writing this letter in response to Mr. Cahak’s opinion piece regarding the San Vicente Road project in the Jan. 24 issue of the Ramona Sentinel.

There are many reasons for road improvements on San Vicente Road, but I cannot and will not be bullied into supporting something that I do not agree with by Mr. Cahak, or the county. In his opinion piece in the Ramona Sentinel, Mr. Cahak gives readers a false choice between the beautiful oak trees that line San Vicente Road and people’s lives. I reject this choice because it is akin to blaming the gun in

County’s proposed horse stable changes worth supporting

An important milestone in the county’s project of updating the Equine Ordinance will begin the week of Jan. 28.

Public feedback on the Draft of the Equine Ordinance and the accompanying Environmental Impact Report is being sought. You can review the documents on the county’s Equine Ordinance and Information website: sdcounty.ca.gov/pds/advance/Equine.html.This update to the Equine Ordinance is long overdue and originally went into effect in 1978.

Another view of letter writer’s one-liner

Well, I waited for a while to see if any more lib-speak came in; perhaps the adrenalin has waned. In response to previous knee-jerk reactions to my one-liner describing the president as an Aztec (i.e. red and black), gentlemen, calling a black man black is not racist. In your haste to fire back, you missed the “red” part. Calling a radical socialist a “red” is fitting: How else does one explain his failure to make JOBS his first priority instead of enacting a Trojan Horse medical plan?

Compromise, not petitions, is better plan

In response to all of the opinions and letters regarding the San Vicente Road improvement.

It will not be four lanes. It will reduce the curves, not straighten them, and the two existing lanes will each be wider.

Those of us who live on San Vicente Road and cannot safely leave our driveways would like to see this project done. As we try to get on the road, we are met with honking horns and one finger salutes because we have no line of sight and can’t go from stopped to 60 miles per hour in less than two seconds. Some of us have been hit.