School systems are failing our kids with online learning

I am a senior citizen who is living the nightmare that is internet schooling. As my daughter is a nurse and is required to be at work, my wife and I have the responsibility for making sure her first-, fourth- and sixth-graders are at their computers and doing their work. It’s not working for our family, and I know that we are not alone. The unnecessary stress and frustration for the kids and us has been overwhelming and I have come to the conclusion it is harmful to the children. Not to mention the added stress for my daughter who comes home from work and spends hours trying to get the children up to par (“Baltimore County educator unions call on superintendent to rescind reopening plan for schools,” Sept. 18).

I applaud Baltimore County for coming up with a plan to support virtual learning through the opening of academic support centers, and to subsidize the cost for low-income families, But I have several issues with this. It does nothing for the average middle class family who could not afford to send their children to private schools (which, by the way, are operating at full capacity with no reports of issues). In our situation, it would cost $750 per week for this program (at $250 per week, per child) — not much less than my daughter’s take home pay for the week. I also read where the county program was going to limit the support center class size to 14 at the various county school buildings that they will be using. Does it make sense that my grandson, who only has 16 kids in his first grade class, can’t use the classroom in the same building?

Essential people are working through this pandemic: doctors and nurses, police and fire personnel, grocery clerks and delivery persons. What is more essential than the education of our children?

Jim Frank, Catonsville

Those who profit from status quo naturally oppose change in mayor’s powers

Of course former mayors and the Greater Baltimore Committee don’t endorse changing the strong mayor system (“Former Baltimore mayors oppose government restructuring proposals introduced by the likely next mayor,” Sept. 21). A glance through the member directory of the GBC reveals a lot.

The members are made up of institutions that are thriving in Baltimore: big universities, banks, nonprofits, medical groups, sports teams and companies. Why would they want to change a system, where they grow rich with only one person to influence? But look around our city: While the members of the GBC have been thriving, our neighborhoods are stuck with the results of systematic racism, underinvestment and neglect.

If the wealthy “patrons” of Baltimore oppose this move, we should be throwing even more support behind Brandon Scott and changing the system once and for all.

Megan Beller, Baltimore

Destruction of statue, holiday renaming: 1-2 punch thrown at Italian Americans

Sorry, Baltimore Sun, but you got it wrong this time (“Unheeded history: Why Indigenous Peoples’ Day is overdue,” Sept. 21). The destruction of the Christopher Columbus statue was not an act of a bunch of lawless protesters. It was aided and abetted by city officials who purposefully failed to oversee the demonstration. Then, instead of acting like this was vandalism and using city funds to repair the damage, they made independent people go retrieve the statue from the bottom of the harbor.

Now, they add renaming the holiday just a few weeks after these acts. This is not how people treat members of the community. The city needs to be sensitive to all of its members: Native Americans, Italian Americans, Polish-Americans, Hatians, etc. We need to build bridges, not use cancel culture to denigrate communities. Yes, Native Americans were harmed by Columbus. And the right thing to do is to commemorate the people who have lost so much. In many ways we have, but not as a coherent message of respect.

We have place names all over the state that are Native American: Patapsco River, Wicomico County, etc. We should build on that to recognize the peoples who lived in this area for thousands of years before Columbus. But perhaps we might want to consider the timing of this. The city needs to do something to soften the sting of replacing a holiday recognizing someone so important to the Italian American community. Perhaps spend a few of the city’s limited dollars on a contest to replace the statue with some new art that will recognize Italian American’s contributions to this city.

Then, after this wrong has been corrected, the city should move forward renaming the holiday. Or, better yet, let the state do this.

William Hettchen, Ellicott City