Instead of making our kids college ready, let’s make them ready for life

I voted for Barack Obama, twice.

How are the United Nations, the Arizona legislature, and our state’s schools linked?

Ten years on, what do we have as a result of our involvement in Iraq?

It was the system.

So let’s look at Arizona’s reaction to the gun control controversy.

What hath the Tea Party wrought?

So the President released his list of executive orders and suggested legislation last week — nothing surprising there, given the President’s previous comments. None of them will stop a madman from killing. Even the President recognizes that. But they might diminish the amount of carnage the madman can inflict. And if we’re lucky, might even prevent him from carrying out his murders.

Mike McClellan’s commentary (Dec. 19) was so full of inaccuracies and blatant lies that I felt compelled to respond.

So we’re two weeks out from the latest gun massacre, and we’ve heard a lot about how to quell the next one.

Weaponized America. Cooking. Terrified. Absolutists. Celebrate violence. Murder spree. Mike McClellan’s guest commentary leads with these words that serve only to color a deeper issue than what type of bullets and guns are out there. I’m not convinced “we” Americans celebrate violence since I am a “we” and I do not and I don’t know one American who does.

Twenty-seven dead. Twenty of them little kids, who as President Obama said, won’t see their graduations, won’t get a job, won’t get married. Murdered in childhood.

You might’ve noticed that Valley mayors want to get in the education reform game. After the defeat of the one-cent sales tax, combined with half of the budget overrides going down, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and Mesa’s Scott Smith appeared at a press conference to announce a group of mayors had formed to promote education reform and to find more funding for education.

Parents, players and staff members filled a Gilbert school board meeting Tuesday night to share their disapproval – or praise - of a football coach’s recent firing.

Animal rights activists and residents of a Mesa neighborhood, where cats have been disappearing alive and reappearing dead and mutilated, are angry at animal control and the Mesa Police Department, saying the charge against the suspect does not fit the crime and they are calling for the ouster of an animal control officer.

You might’ve noticed that Valley mayors want to get in the education reform game. After the defeat of the one-cent sales tax, combined with half of the budget overrides going down, Mesa Mayor Scott Smith and Phoenix’s Greg Stanton appeared at a press conference to announce a group of mayors had formed to promote education reform and to find more funding for education.

Thanks to the Independent Redistricting Commission, we might see something done in Congress this year.

Thanks to the Independent Redistricting Commission, we might see something done in Congress this year.

Mike McClellan’s whining ("East Valley Voters Made Their Education Bed") about the defeat of various education funding measures conveniently forgot to mention that the largest measure, Mesa’s $230 bond request, passed. He also seems unaware that most public school teachers earn far more than most private school teachers, especially in the benefits area. Finally, despite inflation-adjusted per-pupil spending nearly tripling in Arizona since the early 1970s, we have very little if anything to show for it in terms of improved pupil achievement.

So here in the East Valley, most of our large school districts had overrides -- Chandler, Gilbert, Tempe High School District, and Higley -- on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Remember a year ago, when the circus came to TV?

Editor's Note: These letters to the editor have been sorted by topic by the Tribune editorial staff in an effort to allow readers to read varied opinions on the issues, candidates, and other circumstances surrounding the 2012 general election. These submissions are the opinions of the author, not the Tribune, and have not been edited for grammar or content.

“Seven Mesa High students taken to hospital.”