Letters to the editor, April 8

My wife was disabled. Still wanted to attend a football game. Everything UNT told us about getting her into her seat was wrong. It was a horrible day. And at basketball, the ushers had no idea what to do with a disabled person, put us at a table, and when those folks arrived (not disabled) they went ballistic.

But telling the disabled to watch the graduation ceremony online takes the cake. There are laws to protect the disabled. I hope someone sues the bastards.

Paul Knopick,

Denton

School choice not about parents’ rights

Roman Catholic Gov. Greg Abbott is promoting the long-standing goal of the Roman Catholic Church to use public tax money, just like in Europe, to pay for parochial schools; slick, he couches it in the subterfuge of parental choice and mounts his campaign in a tiny parochial school. Abbott, along with the fascist wing of the Republican Party, detests public schools for teaching democracy, basic constitutional rights and accurate history, all of which he characterized as “woke.”

Years back, when I examined school alternatives for my own children, Roman Catholic settings were notorious for sexual and physical abuse. In Protestant parochial schools, high schoolers engaged in unauthorized sex clubs. Private schools were bastions of white, wealthy elite. Home schooling worked when both parents were certified schoolteachers, but the rest were loath to have their children tested like public school students.

Law enforcement can enter public schools on public land for protection and surreptitious pursuit of drug dealers but Abbott’s alternatives are on private property, which restricts law enforcement. Private/parochial schools are havens for drug dealers: kids with money on private property.

Public schools are the cultural lifeblood of many Texas communities, for they instill good citizenship, provide enriching curricula taught by certified teachers to prepare children for their life’s work; children’s lives are edified with a plethora of extracurricular activities and sports participation. Parents control outcomes through elected representatives and have ready access to school professionals. More money from the general fund must go to public schools.

Walter Lindrose,

Denton