Education advocates; save USS Texas; Pearl Harbor survivor; invasive species

Education advocates

The same politicians who cut public education by $5 billion in the 2011 legislative session have come back to create more bad legislation.

Now they want to cut the state’s minimum teacher salary to $27,540 a year for a job that requires a college degree and a 50- to 60-hour work week.

They want to take your tax dollars from public education to provide welfare for upper-middle-class families in the form of vouchers so they can send their kids to private schools.

State Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, says he supports public education. Really?

— Fred Gregory, Arlington

All Texas legislators need to read the Texas Constitution in its entirety, with special attention to the sections that guarantee all school-age children a “free” public education.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s agenda to go to a voucher program and “subsidize” education in a private school is completely against the Texas Constitution.

Further, the Texas Constitution also guarantees that students be educated in a safe environment, which requires funds for prevention of bullying and other types of campus intimidation.

— Marilyn Gabler, Fort Worth

Save the USS Texas

Historian Stephen E. Ambrose wrote in his 1994 book about D-Day that only three U.S. battleships took part in the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944 — the USS Nevada (which had been damaged at Pearl Harbor), the USS Arkansas and the USS Texas.

The Nevada and the Arkansas were scrapped — leaving only the USS Texas. She is the oldest surviving battleship afloat in the U.S., having served in both world wars.

The four World War II Iowa-class battleships are now museums — the USS Iowa (BB61) is in San Pedro, Calif.; the USS New Jersey (BB62) is berthed in Camden, N.J.; the USS Missouri (BB63) is at Pearl Harbor next to the sunken USS Arizona (the alpha/omega of WW II); and the USS Wisconsin (BB64) is in Norfolk, Va.

Please save the USS Texas!

— T.J. Boyer, USS New Jersey sailor, Arlington

Pearl Harbor survivor

The Tuesday article headlined “Euless man, 96, was one of last Pearl Harbor survivors,” by Joe Simnacher of The Dallas Morning News, is misleading.

My father is 91 years old and a Pearl Harbor survivor living in Dallas. His name is James Cowart Hardwick. He was a machinist’s mate first class aboard the USS Honolulu, CL48.

He was a member of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association until it disbanded several years ago for lack of membership, not for lack of survivors.

— Susan E. Wilson,

Arlington

Invasive species

The “other species of wildflowers” shown in the photos with Bill Hanna’s Tuesday story about bluebonnets (“The best is yet to come”) is bastard cabbage, an invasive herbaceous species from the Mediterranean, which may vanquish bluebonnets from the Texas landscape.

We desperately need a concerted effort from the Texas Department of Transportation, garden clubs and the residents of Texas to exterminate bastard cabbage.

— Elaine Webb,

Burleson

This story was originally published April 9, 2015 at 5:36 PM with the headline "Education advocates; save USS Texas; Pearl Harbor survivor; invasive species."