Don’t increase school

As a parent and partner in the education of the children and youth of Waco Independent School District, I believe lengthening the school day should be taken off the table as the district works to better its rating and provide educational opportunities for the community’s children.

What we need is a new way of looking at education, not additional minutes that result in more of the same. Students need time to process what they learn in school. They need time to be kids, with less-structured time or enrichment activities according to the talents of the child and the wishes of the families.

Even academically strong students currently find there is little time for sports, music lessons, chores, interaction with friends and family, service to the community, church and even homework at the end of the school day.

Some students may need help outside a traditional classroom. It should be our goal, however, that students are taught to take responsibility for studies and learn the value of that effort.

I urge the school board and public to call for input from teachers, students and parents on what is best for the youth of Waco.

Jennifer Good

Waco

Funeral services

In the Feb. 1 Trib story, “County running out of pauper burial plots,” reporter Regina Dennis cited Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey Funeral Home as the provider of grave-digging services and caskets for those buried in the pauper cemetery.

As president and director in charge of Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey for nearly three decades, I would like to emphasize other services we also provide.

We also will conduct a meaningful graveside service. Sometimes, our director is the only one present. Nevertheless, we conduct a simple, dignified service with a prayer or scriptural reading for the deceased.

We provide these services because we believe the Bible says to offer compassion and care to everyone in difficult times, no matter their means.

Hatch Bailey

Waco

Supreme Court ruling

The Supreme Court’s Jan. 21 ruling on campaign finance reform — that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections — only makes “legal” what has been happening since President Ronald Reagan.

If you’ll remember, his big thing was “government is the problem.” The five justices on the Supreme Court surely proved him right this time with their ruling.

Impeach them. Disbar them. Surely they belong in jail, not on any court bench.

Sara Haney

Waco

Shocked by letters

I found the Feb. 5 letters to be incredibly shocking. In one day’s worth of letters to the editor, one letter writer suggested that a fellow reader would get along well with a convicted murderer. Another letter writer compared the president of the United States to Osama bin Laden.

For those who would choose to spew such garbage in print, I would remind them that their name is attached. For the sake of dignity, it would be good to remember that.

Daniel Camp

Waco