If the goal is to get more people on welfare to work, then we have to ensure that a full-time worker earns enough to keep his or her family out of poverty.
Government help with the expense of child care is essential and a job cannot come at the risk of losing Medicaid benefits.
The alternative is to do nothing, and that is unacceptable.
Robin Walter
Bel Air
Loch Raven VA center makes no sense
The recent opening of the Veterans Administration Extended Care Center on the site of the old Loch Raven hospital may be good for veterans but not for taxpayers. One of the main considerations in constructing a new VA hospital downtown was that one facility -- Fort Howard or Loch Raven -- would close, leaving just three VA facilities in Maryland. Ultimately, Loch Raven was chosen.
With the construction of the extended care center on the former Loch Raven site, we now have four facilities in Maryland. It does not make sense. This facility could have been located on the grounds of Fort Howard, which is also an extended care facility, or at Perry Point. . . .
This move makes even less sense when one considers how underfunded the VA system is. Many facilities, including the two older ones in Maryland, are in desperate need of repair and upgrading, and daily operating funds are tight. The construction of the Loch Raven facility is a prime example of what happens when common sense and good financial judgment are intruded upon by political considerations.
Daniel Waszelewski
Baltimore
Children need parents' support
I wonder how many members of the Education Coalition of Organizations, which is advertising its dissatisfaction with Baltimore County schools, ever spent a day in a classroom of an elementary, middle or high school to see first-hand the level of education taking place.
Regardless of class size, cleanliness of the school or safety factors, the public school -- rather than the private school -- is by far the more tolerant and creative in working with all children, escpecially the chronically disruptive, psychologically and socially challenged.
The point is parents are the most important teachers to their youngsters. Parents need to take more responsibility and become more involved in the children's life early on and remain committed to their education and well being throughout their high school years and beyond.
If minority students are scoring lower than other ethnic groups, maybe the parents of these children need to re-examine their values and dedicate more time and effort to their children and participate in helping their children succeed.
Paula Baziz
Pikesville
Pub Date: 8/16/96
