Can’t wait for AI to tell us to cut arts education
Regarding “Iowa House GOP may spend $1.4M on AI to identify local budget cuts,” April 8: With my common-sense knowledge of AI, I can guarantee you that the items slashed from public school budgets will be the ones that cost the most while serving smaller groups of students than the general population.
Those programs would be music, art and theater, plus nutrition for students who may be coming from food-deprived homes, and programs for the smaller population of students with special needs, and students dealing with mental health issues. Those programs are made more proportionally expensive for the public schools because of the policy of letting private schools accept public tuition money.
However, the private schools have discretion of who they accept. This leaves the public schools trying to educate and serve the general population as they always have with less money. However in the world does slashing the budget fix that?
Try spending that $1.4 million first-year cost on bolstering salaries and the $900,000 in the subsequent years on expanding those vital services our children need.
Margot Eness, Ames
A 5-cent tax won’t protect kids
As a parent in this community, I’m concerned about how common vaping has become among our young people. That’s why I was disappointed to learn more about Senate File 2480.
A 5-cent tax isn’t going to stop kids from vaping. It’s just not enough to matter. If lawmakers are serious about reducing youth use, the policy has to be stronger than that. What’s also concerning is that this bill doesn’t address cigarettes at all — even though they’re still the most harmful product out there. This doesn’t feel like a serious approach.
If the Iowa Legislature is going to increase or put a tax on nicotine and vapor products, they need to get it right. Not just pass a bill to say they did something. I respectfully ask Sen. Mike Bousselot to reject Senate File 2480 and work toward a solution that actually helps protect our kids and our state.
Katie Vine, Ankeny
Bill Fennelly should give up his job to a woman
When UCLA played South Carolina in the NCAA women’s basketball championship, there could be no losers. The two teams with woman coaches were in the final. It is ridiculous that, in this day and age, men coach women’s basketball.
Why are coaches such as Iowa State’s Bill Fennelly and Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma are still around?
If these gentlemen were great coaches, they would have trained a female successor a long time ago. The other three Division I teams in Iowa have had woman coaches for a long time.
Steve Whitaker, Altoona
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: I can’t wait for AI to tell schools to cut arts education | Letters
Reporting by The Register’s readers, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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