In letters: San Luis Coastal school board needs to get its budget act together | Opinion
SLO school district budget woes
Recently, parents of children in the San Luis Coastal Unified School District led an uprising against a school board that admitted to budget shortfalls. The source of these shortfalls was the end to COVID relief funding and the district giving experienced teachers golden handshakes to leave the district in favor of newer, teachers who are lower on the pay scale.
Now the district faces new shortfalls, and is planning to sell surplus property for housing to make ends meet. They seem to forget the fact that with new housing they will need new schools, which means buying new land which means needing more money. I worked for the district for 17 years, and when the district passed a huge bond to maintain the schools my brow rose.
As it is, the district cannot maintain their schools between bonds. Maintenance folks admitted to me all the time that all they could do is put Band-aids on issues between bonds. We need more fiscal accountability from our district. They’ve enjoyed sources of income from Diablo for decades, but that’s going to dry up. What will they do when it’s gone entirely? Will they come, hat in hand, again and again? I hope not.
William Johnston
San Luis Obispo
Wannabe kings
Without oversight, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are staging an administrative coup, trying to illegally eliminate agencies, seize control of the U.S. government payment system and gain access to sensitive data on all Americans. They are ignoring the Constitution, making this a Constitutional crisis, and trying to usurp the powers of Congress. They are two wannabe kings!
Further, elected Republicans do NOT want to work with or get help from elected Democrats. They do not want to compromise. They want to support Trump’s every wish.
The Good News: Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff and Reps. Jimmy Panetta and Salud Carbajal are working to save our democracy. For example, Padilla boycotted the committee vote of Russell Vought’s nomination for Office of Management and Budget director, while Schiff spoke during the filibuster against Vought. Vought is a Project 2025 author and an extremist.
We urge you to thank them for these efforts.
The Bad News: Schiff voted to confirm Doug Collins, a Trump loyalist, for Secretary of Veterans Affairs. This is complicity, not loyal opposition.
We urge you to tell him this does not support democracy.
In conclusion, Democrats must be united in opposition if our democracy is to survive. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is now encouraging all Democratic senators to vote NO on all Trump nominees and on all Trump legislation. We agree.
Cynthia and Jeffrey Lewis
Templeton
Reject RFK Jr.
The Health & Human Services secretary is in charge of our nation’s health care. They manage Medicaid and Medicare policies, oversee the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and National Institutes of Health (NIH), and are in charge of preparing for and responding to public health and medical emergencies (i.e. pandemic preparedness and response).
It’s a serious job that requires someone with serious experience and qualifications to hold it — and RFK Jr. has neither! Not only is RFK Jr. wholly unqualified to lead HHS, he has a well-documented history of embracing quack science, spreading dangerous health disinformation on vaccines, and asserting conspiracy theories as facts while ignoring overwhelming scientific evidence.
RFK Jr. doesn’t have a medical or science degree, has zero executive experience, and peddles false information to the masses without understanding the dangerous ramifications of his misinformed and unresearched ideas. RFK Jr. has made millions of dollars profiting off parents’ natural worries about the health of their children by advising them not to vaccinate them.
RFK Jr. is out of step with reality, and if he’s charged with safeguarding our nation’s health, it could mean a matter of life or death for countless Americans. RFK Jr. is out of step with reality, and if he’s charged with safeguarding our nation’s health, it could mean a matter of life or death for countless Americans.
Judith Anderson
San Luis Obispo
Beloved community
Walking alongside my neighbors at Templeton Farmer’s Market, I see this as my beloved community.
It’s where we live, not just where I live. People offer fresh kale, sweet carrots, cilantro, spinach, cauliflower, honey and fresh-baked scones from their farms and kitchens for me and my family to eat. We’re interdependent. While our stories and backgrounds may vary, we are all experiencing similar joys. Let’s put our phones down and live in this moment together. It’s all so simple, but our hearts and minds still wander to divisive policies and separateness of ideologies.
If you see me out and about, I ask you to please meet the multi-layered version of me in our shared spaces. And know that I also want to meet you as your authentic self. Beyond legal statuses and politics, what matters to me is that you are “neighbor” and “friend.” We are all temporary residents of this land. It has provided for humans and animals for millennia, regardless of politics, borders and legal statuses.
We have this and so much more in common, and I think we can see this better with an open heart.
Marissa Mosunich
Templeton
Our new, upside-down world
I expected it would take longer than three days for the U.S. to morph into a police state. Federal employees are now required to report colleagues who have concealed existing diversity, equity and inclusion programs. If they fail to do so within 10 days, expect “unspecified adverse consequences.” What consequences might these be? Firing? Trump is determined to cut the federal workforce, so possibly jail?
In this new, upside-down world, insurrectionists who attacked Capitol police and violently attempted to overturn a free and fair election have been freed, so it’s not a stretch that our new government will jail people who won’t turn in colleagues for trying to level the playing field. Totalitarian regimes require citizens to report misdeeds to authorities. Until now, that hasn’t included the government of the United States. This is a form of oppression that immigrants come here to escape.
Trump has also shown he favors imperialism as he renews his call for Canada to become our 51st state. The requested departure from national independence in a threatening manner is also aligned with dictatorship, and we’re only days into a four-year nightmare. Still unhappy about the price of eggs and gas?
Brent Jorgensen
Pismo Beach
Law and order?
Less than a month into President Trump’s second term it has become clear that the GOP is no longer the party of law and order. The pardons of hundreds of people convicted of beating police officers followed by the purge of the career FBI agents who tirelessly investigated those crimes is just the start.
Multiple executive orders clearly violate the constitution. Firing inspector generals without following a clear legal requirement for notification of congress is an obvious decision to simply ignore an inconvenient law. And now the richest man on earth and his cabal of 20 something minions have taken control of the financial workings of government and accessed databases with top secret data and personal information of every American.
And not a single Republican has stood up to suggest that perhaps there are laws that govern these sorts of actions and we should follow the law. The Democrats have limited themselves to whining and hand wringing but we are used to that. Republicans have shown there are no limits to their lack of integrity when it comes to kneeling at the feet of their new emperor. While we may disagree on what needs doing, following the law should matter.
Dave Payne
Pismo Beach