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FEMA trailers and formaldehyde
Thursday 07-26-2007 8:51am? CT
FEMA trailers and formaldehyde were hot topics on my show this week.? There are major problems with numerous FEMA trailers located in both Louisiana and Mississippi, and the phones rang continually as many callers shared their experiences with health problems linked to formaldehyde that is emitted fro the wood bindings of a number of trailers supplied to Hurricane Katrina and Rita victims by FEMA.
Paul Stewart, from Bay St. Louis, was a guest on my show Wednesday.? He is a former Army Lieutenant who lived in a FEMA trailer, and had some real congestion problems.? Paul testified before a congressional committee last week in Washington, and received nationwide publicity”
“Louisiana FEMA director Jim Stark also joined me in studio, and took many questions about trailer safety, and options for those who want alternative housing.? Jim took a lot of tough questions, but hung in there for a long hour.”
I just wanted to say that I think your analysis of the situation with the Private school tax incentive is completely inaccurate. I’m from New England, so perhaps my view is skewed, but my family has always been educated in the public school system, and the New England States have an excellent public school system. The only people who send their kids to private schools are the ones who have some overwhelming religious reasons.
The fact of the matter is, that as a homeowner who doesn’t have any kids, there are a few things that I don’t mind, and even WANT to pay taxes for: Roads (I use them every day and I want them to be good), Police and Fire (I want them to be there when I need them), A certain amount of Government (I like a well-run government to review laws and put out paperwork but I deplore corruption), and last but not least- Public schools.
A good public school is a boon to the local economy. It attracts the kind of families that make up a good community, and it raises the value of my property. Try listing on your real-estate description “The public schools are so bad that we just send our kids to private school”. Doesn’t sound so good.
Private schools may not take one dime from public schools directly, but they take away so much else indirectly. The best students, the rich kids, the well-behaved kids, and the smart kids are the ones being sent to private schools. They are the ones most likely to have parents who are involved in thier kid’s education. The private schools attract the best teachers, because they can pay more, and they have better working environments. They are more likely to have better equipment, books, and they have more freedom when it comes to curriculum.
If the lawyer’s kid went to public school, and the public school wasn’t open because it hadn’t been reconstructed from the Hurricane, you bet your buttons the parents would be at town meetings, state meetings, figuring out how to open that school back up.
Granted, the public schools couldn’t pick up all of the kids that are in private schools right now. Neither could the private schools pick up all the public school kids, I bet. But over the long term, if more “disinsentives” were given against taking the easy way out, by ignoring the problems of our public school system, the public schools would get better.
It’s something of a five-step fix, really. 1) We need more public schools. 2) We need more incentive for good teachers to teach in them. 3) We need to attract good families with good kids back to the public schools. 4) We need money for all of the extras that schools need for their kids to thrive (equipment, books, after school programs, lunches) 5) We need to put an end to the idea that public schools are somehow, by nature, not as good. All kids deserve to be educated well, in a positive environment, and we need to stop what amounts to economic segregation in our schools. Unfortunately it is all too easy to bring race into every issue in Louisiana, but our schools would be a good place to start to fix that and all of our other problems.