Letters to the Editor: September 22 – 28, 2016
Hire Tyrone Byrd as New Schools Superintendent
Editor,
In light of the news about Dr. Toni Jones’ resignation as Superintendent of the Falls Church school system, I want to voice my support for a candidate to replace her. Dr. Tyrone Byrd was the principal of George Mason High School for many years.
In that capacity, he served with distinction and impressed everyone I know with his dedication and commitment to excellence and to our students. Although he has only just begun his climb into the higher levels of administration with his appointment as Director of Secondary Education for Arlington County, I encourage the school board to consider his education, dedication and experience in our school system as more important factors than the bureaucratic experience other candidates for this position might offer. After all, every school superintendent had to start somewhere.
This is a golden opportunity to bring back a public servant who I believe to be the single most gifted educator I’ve encountered in my time here. All three of my high school aged kids speak glowingly about Dr. Byrd and every single parent I know feels the same way. If you agree, please encourage the school board to consider Dr. Byrd for Superintendent rather than an outsider who may or may not be a good fit for our fine schools.
Ellen McRae
Falls Church
Outsource City Of F.C. Schools to Arlington County
Editor,
What with the turmoil at the top of our school system, maybe it’s time to consider doing what the City did with our Fire Department: outsource it to Arlington County.
We could eliminate all the schools’ considerable management costs and have our tax dollars go to classrooms.
Charles D. Connor
Falls Church
Bias Shown in News Brief Item On Wendy Davis
Editor,
The Falls Church News-Press platform promises to “keep the news clean and fair” and “not let the news columns reflect editorial comment.” This is a worthy platform, but one that is all too often ignored by this publication. The latest example of this paper’s habit of editorializing the news can be found in the “News Briefs” section under the headline “Big Labor Day Weekend for Local Dems.” Here, Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis is described as “the woman who led a nationally-publicized filibuster to stop anti-woman legislation from becoming law in Texas.”
Anti-woman? Sure, that might be the term a pro-abortion activist might use, but it is hardly appropriate for a newspaper purporting to be “clean and fair.” It makes just as much sense to say “pro-child,” yet you chose “anti-woman.” Your bias is showing.
Philip Messing
Falls Church
Presidential Election Choice is Between A Crook & a Fool
Editor,
Let’s see, the September 8 edition of the News-Press in the National Section had four articles; “Shrinking Obamacare” which was a pretty good description of the problems of the Affordable Care Act, “Clinton Gets Gored” which was a quite biased defense of Hilary’s simultaneous positions on the Clinton Foundation, her own staff and as Secretary of State – a confusion so great that she had staffers getting paid by three different organizations, “Donald Does Detroit” which was a fairly accurate critique of Trump’s efforts to “reach out” to African-Americans, and the final one with a marvelous satirical title, “The Major Media’s False Equivalency” which essentially argued that the media should unanimously attack Trump.
The reality is people are confronted with the two worst candidates in my memory. Hilary is well-educated, experienced in politics, very rich and apparently constitutionally unable to give a clear and honest answer to any significant question; ethically challenged is a kind description. Trump on the other hand is also rich, appears completely incapable of coherence and consistency, not to mention apparently believing that everything he says is absolute truth even when he completely contradicts himself. The choice is between a crook and a fool – I leave the reader to determine which is which.
For the first time in a fairly long life, I am voting for the Libertarian Party, both major parties have failed the country.
Henry J. Gordon
Falls Church
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