California forum letters: Bee readers take on SCUSD strike, SCOTUS confirmation hearings

No conspiracy

“In a union town, Sacramento teachers have allies in power as their strike continues,” (sacbee.com, March 26)

The Bee’s analysis in this article makes it sound as if a shadowy cabal hand-picked State Superintendent of Schools Tony Thurmond. That mysterious force, which presumed to know better than a couple of tech billionaires who wished to make public education their playground, can finally be revealed to your readers: It is the voters of the State of California.

This attitude toward our system of democracy chimes nicely with the apparent attitude of Sacramento City Unified Superintendent Jorge Aguilar, who behaves as if the schools could run quite efficiently indeed without any of those pesky teachers.

John Doolittle

Sacramento

Overhaul leaders

“Without deal to end strike, Sacramento school district and union leaders must step aside,” (sacbee.com, March 29)

What must the Sacramento City Unified school board be thinking? First they hire a school administrator with no prior experience as a superintendent and pay him a $295,000 initial salary to run a 6,000 employee district with labor issues. Then, after having been excoriated by state auditors for years of financial mismanagement and losing the support of every labor group, including administrators and staff, Jorge Aguilar’s answer is to decline help from state and local officials to collectively solve the problems. He sits on a $125 million surplus, now makes $414,818 a year and blatantly accepted a 9% ($34,000) raise, while rejecting his own neutral fact-finder’s recommendations for resolving this dispute. Our school board should assess the “leadership” it hired.

Robert Knudson

Sacramento

Heartening story

“Baby boomers need to fight climate change, too. And in Sacramento, some of them are,” (sacbee.com, March 27)

The news media often reports on destruction, bloodshed and chaos, and reading the paper can be disheartening. So it was a nice change to read about a positive climate movement happening in our community. Many boomers are interested in more than merely playing out our golden years on a golf course or cruise ship. With age comes responsibility.

Groups like Third Act will be making more news because there is still much to do environmentally and politically. Thanks for noticing.

Kent Lacin

Sacramento

CA resources

“The best way California can hurt Russia? Stop investing money in oil and gas companies,” (sacbee.com, March 2)

The US Geological Survey estimated recoverable undiscovered conventional hydrocarbon resources in the San Joaquin Basin Province as 1.8 trillion cubic feet of gas, 393 million barrels of oil and 86 million barrels of total natural gas liquids.This does not include the unconventional oil potential that could reside in Monterey Formation and other world-class oil and gas source rocks present in the basin. Yet, we can’t get drilling permits in California to explore. Most of our petroleum is imported from nations with less than shining environmental records, and imported oil produces higher CO2 emissions and has spill risk during transport.

California consumers are paying the highest fuel costs in the nation. We need Sacramento to help with energy, not hurt.

Thomas L Davis, PhD, California professional geologist #4171

Ventura

Hypocrites

“Jackson on track for confirmation, but GOP votes in doubt,” (sacbee.com, March 25)

The behavior of the Republican senators in the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was and is beyond the pale. These senators could never stand up to the same kind of badgering, disrespect and single-item focused scrutiny.

The Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have lost my respect. If this is representative of the leadership of the GOP, I can now say that the Republican Party is no longer the party of Lincoln but the party of hypocrites, without exception.

Susan Cooper

Elk Grove

Time for change

“CIF sanctions high school in El Dorado Hills for racist heckling at girls’ soccer game,” (sacbee.com, March 25)

As a local mental health therapist who sees teens, I can attest to the fact that racial, sexual, gender and socio-economic discrimination has been going on for years, and it appears to have gotten worse during the current political climate. Many of my clients are traumatized by these behaviors. Teachers and counselors have been informed, but nothing has changed. Any minority student that attends that school – and other high schools in our county – are fair game.

The El Dorado County High School District has not addressed these issues in a successful way. A county-wide task force is needed to address discrimination.

Leslie Hill-Sokol

Cameron Park

Same game, different names

“How Republicans Scott Jones and Kevin Kiley differ in this Sacramento-area congressional race,” (sacbee.com, March 20)

Do Kevin Kiley and Scott Jones differ? Both have lost one or more elections attempting to paint themselves as the radical outsider while a sitting official. Both will say and do anything to convince people they are the “Trumpier” Republican, which translates to spreading disinformation and glorifying insurrectionists. Jones has already locked out one inspector general, caused another to quit and cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands in settlement fees and judgments.

But there’s a far better Jones to keep up with: Dr. Kermit Jones. He is different in every way from these two charlatans.

Barbara Smith

Auburn