Sports project misses the mark
In the Harford section of this Sunday's Sun was an article concerning the stadium project under way at Harford Technical High School in Harford County.
Work has started on a $3.5 million project to build a stadium with a turf field, install a baseball field and two practice fields and convert a baseball field into a softball field.
Considering the fact that several hundred students are denied admission to the vocational programs each year, this project seems to be missing the mark. Should the first priority not be to expand the size of the school to provide space for more students interested in entering one of the vocational programs?
When are we going to provide funds for the most important objective, which is to create opportunities for our students and not our sports fans.
Edward J. Sienkilewski, Retired Harford County Teacher
Unequal pay remains an issue
On behalf of all the hard-working women who live in Harford County, I am writing to bring attention to April 22, this year's Equal Pay Day.
According to the National Committee on Pay Equity's Web site, "Equal Pay Day originated in 1996 when the National Committee on Pay Equity wanted to create a public awareness event to illustrate the gap between men's and women's wages. The day, observed on a Tuesday in April, symbolizes how far into the year a woman must work, on average, to earn as much as a man earned the previous year. Tuesday is the day on which women's wages catch up to men's wages from the previous week. Because women earn less, on average, than men, they must work longer for the same amount of pay. The wage gap is even greater for most women of color."
Women have been entering the work force at a steady rate, increasing from 18.4 million in 1950 to 66.9 million in 2006, yet their pay has not risen to that of their male co-workers.
In general, women earn 77% of what men earn for working the same job. Here are some additional shocking statistics reported by the Department for Professional Employees and the National Committee for Pay Equity:
Today most mothers--even those with the youngest children--participate in the labor force.
Nearly half of all multiple job-holders in 2006 were women.
Women are the majority of temporary and part-time workers. About 33 percent of families where children under 18 lived with their mother (with no father present) were below the poverty level in 2005. Among black single mothers, 42% were below the poverty line.
