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Friday's letters: Protection in an emergency

 
Published June 4, 2015

May Letter of the Month

May's winning letter is from Michael Strobl of Tampa, who wrote about school testing.

Tests unfair to students, teachers

I am a freshman in Hillsborough High School's International Baccalaureate program. This year has been a great experience, with one glaring exception: last week's end-of-course exams. When we took the language arts assessment a few weeks ago, it was a waste of time to sit and repeatedly log on to no avail. However, this was just a nuisance. On the other hand, the EOC exams are grossly unfair and detrimental to students and teachers alike.

My teachers are all dedicated, hardworking educators who did everything they could to prepare us for each EOC exam. But without being allowed to even see the content, let alone write the questions, they were left guessing in the dark. For example, the Florida Department of Education never supplied our math department with review materials, so the teachers themselves found a packet of questions from Miami's school district, which, we were told, had gotten it from some other state. In my Algebra 2 class, we spent an entire month on trigonometry and only a few minutes on graphing parabolas. But on the EOC, there were more than five times as many questions on graphing parabolas as on trigonometry. How are students supposed to study for a test when we have no idea what it covers? Yet these EOC exams are our finals, so they factor in to our grades.

I am not opposed to taking tests, and I support Common Core principles. It is the execution of the EOC exams that is flawed.

Michael Strobl, Tampa

Fleeing storm? You can take gun | May 29

Protection in an emergency

What is it about Democrats that they cannot abide law-abiding citizens having guns, particularly during a chaotic scenario like an approaching hurricane? State Sen. Jeremy Ring opposed the bill to allow gun possession for storm-fleeing Floridians without conceal-carry permits, citing a desire for fewer guns in the hands of people during a "riotous situation." This is precisely when law enforcement is stretched thin or nonexistent.

This law came about because in New Orleans police confiscated guns from homes and at checkpoints pre-Katrina. Of course, after the storm hit they mostly vanished, leaving people defenseless.

Dwayne Keith, Valrico

Everglades restoration

New reservoir essential

Last month, the South Florida Water Management District voted to forgo purchasing U.S. Sugar-owned land to build a vital reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee in the Everglades Agricultural Area. This decision is a setback to Everglades restoration and communities enduring damaging discharges of polluted Lake Okeechobee water along Florida's east and west coasts.

The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan was signed into law in 2000 with bipartisan support and specifically called for a reservoir to store water in the agricultural area. The reservoir has been a part of the restoration plan since Day One — a project so crucial to Everglades restoration that it was put on a fast-track list by Gov. Jeb Bush a decade ago.

Everglades restoration is a good investment in Florida's future. Every dollar spent on restoration generates a $4 return. Additionally, a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee would qualify for a 50/50 cost share with Washington.

Water storage is the heart of Everglades restoration and vital to Florida's water supply. Nearly 8 million Floridians and millions of tourists who visit every year depend on the Everglades for their drinking water. Without the reservoir, we will continue to waste billions of gallons of freshwater while, paradoxically, the Everglades and Florida Bay are starved for water.

We have a responsibility and an opportunity to reduce pollution and toxic algae in the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers and estuaries to protect local businesses, tourism and home values.

Eric Eikenberg, CEO, Everglades Foundation, Palmetto Bay

Senate passes health plan | May 4

Driving up health costs

Given all the articles we have seen lately about the pros and cons of Medicaid expansion in Florida, I would like to pass along this information from National Public Radio.

Parkland Hospital in Dallas lost over $1 billion last year due to having to provide emergency room care to thousands of patients who were unable, or claimed to be unable, to pay. Parkland is symptomatic of hospitals in the state. Texas declined Obamacare funding that would have underwritten much of the cost of increased Medicaid coverage for those patients.

As a result, Texas has the second-highest health insurance premiums in the country, forcing those of us who can pay to make up the shortfall to make Parkland and other hospitals whole.

And the highest premiums? In Florida.

Dick Holt, Clearwater

Food waste

Tons of excess garbage

In 2012, Americans threw out roughly 35 million tons of food, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That's almost 20 percent more food than the United States tossed out in 2000, 50 percent more than in 1990, and nearly three times what Americans discarded in 1960, when the country threw out a now seemingly paltry 12.2 million tons.

In 1980, food waste accounted for less than 10 percent of total waste; today, it makes up well over a fifth of the country's garbage. Americans now throw out more food than plastic, paper, metal or glass — and by a long shot.

This data goes to show how much work we still need to do to increase awareness about this growing problem. The food that we don't eat and throw away will, in the end, lead to many other problems worsening, such as global warming, increased pollution and more landfill usage.

Let's remind ourselves every time we go out to eat at a restaurant or buy food at a grocery store to get as much as we can eat so we prevent wasting food and lower the environmental impact that this is creating on our world.

Neal Singh, Palm Harbor