Letters to the editor
Shortfall for schools raises concern
As a grandmother, a court-appointed advocate for children in foster care, and a volunteer for enrichment programs for Worcester students, I am deeply concerned about the looming budget crisis facing our Worcester Public Schools.
Due in large part to a mismatch between actual inflation and inflation calculators built into the statewide school budget foundation formula, Worcester Public Schools face a $22 million shortfall for the upcoming 2024-25 academic year.
Most (85%) of the WPS budget supports people — the teachers, education specialists and aides, facility maintenance staff, guidance counselors and others who deliver our curricula, bolster student mental health and ensure the function of our facilities.
The shortfall is not a result of local management. This is a statewide problem that is affecting many Massachusetts communities, especially larger cities like Worcester and Boston.
Educating our children and preparing them for lifetimes of economic security, good health and active citizenship is a critical responsibility of our community and ensures a stronger future for all of us. I ask our state delegation to immediately take action to repair the school budget formula now.
Shelley Rodman, Worcester
End military aid to Israel now
While on a route approved as safe by the Israeli military, three clearly marked vehicles carrying seven aid workers for the World Central Kitchen's mission to Gaza were precisely struck by Israeli forces.
The founder of their organization, José Andrés, called the killings deliberate. If anyone doubts his conclusion, let them recall how the aunt, uncle and cousins of 5-year-old Hind Rajab were killed on an Israeli-approved safe route, and how, after receiving Israeli permission to rescue Hind, she and the two ambulance drivers were also killed.
Similarly, Catholics in the courtyard of the only church in Gaza, despite assurances from the Israeli military that they were safe, were killed.
These are not isolated mistakes or acts of rogue commanders. At least 95 journalists, 176 health care workers and over 13,000 women and children have already been killed, many while in supposed "safe" zones.
A nation that shuts off electricity, cuts water, severely restricts aid, damages 80% of housing, displaces more than a million civilians and uses the most destructive conventional weapons in densely populated areas is doing its best to "to destroy, all or in part" of the Palestinian population of Gaza, the definition of genocide. And yet the U.S. continues to arm Israel.
Please press every politician to cut all military aid to Israel immediately.
Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, Saints Francis & Thérèse Catholic Worker, Worcester
Citizenship dying in US?
Your article in the Telegram dated Feb. 3 titled "Protesters demand end to state right-to-shelter law" reminded me of a book by Victor Davis Hanson titled "The Dying Citizen."
I was skeptical of Hanson's premise that American citizenship as we have known it may soon vanish. But some comments in your article caused me to revisit my skepticism.
I have no quarrel with the fact that we are the only state that has a legal obligation to shelter unhoused families, nor with the roughly $1 billion annual cost of this obligation. However, one sentence in the article did cause me to reconsider my skepticism: "American citizens do not get priority over those who recently entered the country."
Not even our homeless veterans? I owe Mr. Hanson an apology.
George Bell, Westborough
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Letters to the editor
