Enough already with those lists of required school supplies

It’s almost here, the time every parent and taxpayer has been waiting for. It’s mid-summer, and just last week I received a reminder in the mail that the upcoming school year is fast approaching.

Of course my kids are not all that excited, as they do not want the summer to end. I’m not all that excited, either. My “reminder” that came in the mail was a long list of school supplies that I must purchase for my seventh-grader (I haven’t received one for my fourth-grader yet, but I’m sure it’s on its way). The list is endless and even includes nonschool-related items, such as boxes of tissues. In fact, boxes of tissues and paper towels have been on every list since kindergarten. In some cases, you’re required to send boxes of snacks and extra items for other students to use.

Now, I live in the Scotia-Glenville School District, and anyone who lives here knows that school and property taxes are high. With us paying such high taxes, which go up every year, why should we also have to purchase supplies that the schools should provide? Where are our tax dollars going? When I was in school, we were required to purchase No. 2 pencils, loose-leaf paper, and a three- or five-subject notebook at that grade level. That was it. Now, we’re required to purchase folders, binders, binder clips, different colored markers, colored pencils, pens, highlighters, pencil boxes, glue, etc., the list goes on. This really is not fair.

Taxes in New York are out of control and as a single working mother, I think it’s disgraceful the burden placed on us and families in general who are on fixed incomes. Our taxes are not based on our incomes, but rather go up and up even though the amount of money coming in hasn’t changed.

I hear many parents make the same complaint about our laundry list of school items to purchase, yet no one says anything. We just take the list to the store and buy what we are told to.

Maybe this year, parents should take their school supply lists and the receipts from the purchases and staple it to our tax bills and demand a refund! Maybe that will get our school district’s attention.

Angela Capullo

Glenville

Where and where not to put roundabouts

It seems to me that the reason the state Department of Transportation favors roundabouts is that they limit accidents by allowing traffic to flow, albeit slowly, in places where there is a hard stop such as at a traffic signal. So if you look at Erie Boulevard, which intersections do you find have the biggest tie-ups and stop-and-go problems? State, Liberty, Union and Nott streets, and Maxon Road. State, Liberty and Union are much too close to each other for a single roundabout, so we would be better off with synchronized traffic signals. Nott Street and Maxon Road Extension would be somewhat ideal, and perhaps the reopening of the Maxon Road Extension outlet from the new Price Chopper headquarters would be workable. Those locations make sense.

Everyone knows why the mayor wants the roundabout on nearly unused Church Street, and that is to get rid of two taxpaying businesses. But why spend the money there for something that will control non-existent side road traffic and most likely ruin several other businesses when the need for it in the first place is murky? If you have to have a roundabout because it is the in thing, use it where it is needed.

Andrew Kopach

Rotterdam

Immigrants don’t ‘make it all’ work, they take work

Jill Bryce and Sara Foss’s Aug. 3 article, “Immigrants make it all work,” falsely alleges that there is a shortage of scientists. As a consequence of employers’ preference for “fresh (inexpensive and imported) young blood,” I have not worked a day in the field that I trained in at SUNY Buffalo: radiation biophysics! I earned my degree in 1984.

I’m very dismayed with the one-sided reporting in the article. There was a complete lack of content from U.S. citizen workers who have been harmed by this tidal wave of immigration. You may learn more about it by reading my recent investigative article, “The Greedy Gates Immigration Gambit.” http://www.thesocialcontract.com/pdf/eighteen-one/tsc_18_1_nelson.pdf

As Daily Gazette readers note shuttered business sites in Schenectady, you are seeing one of the dark sides of excess immigration and off-shoring of good U.S. jobs.

Gene A. Nelson, Ph.D.

Arlington, Va.

Correction

A letter published yesterday attributed the quote “water, water, every where, nor any drop to drink” to Rudyard Kipling. It was actually from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”

Letters Policy

The Gazette wants your opinions on public issues.

There is no strict word limit, though letters under 200 words are preferred.

All letters are subject to editing for length, style and fairness, and we will run no more

than one letter per month from the same writer.

Please include your signature, address and day phone for verification.

For information on how to send, see bottom of this page.

For more letters, visit our Web site: www.dailygazette.com