NC school vouchers can transform the lives of special needs children like mine | Opinion

Some 2,000 families are on the school voucher list so we can send our children to schools that work with special needs students.

Vouchers of $3,000 to $7,000 are being offered per year. Patrician families are hardly lining up for that money. These are sums, however, that can make all the difference for a middle class family.

Families with special needs kids — such as mine — bear tremendous health care costs. Our children have weekly doctors’ appointments. They require around-the-clock care. These expenses can render the healthiest of salaries insufficient.

The parents of the children on these wait lists have been failed by the public schools. They pay their taxes anyway. To ask for a fraction of that money back is not entitlement, it is common sense.

Amanda Unsworth, Charlotte

Vouchers but not forgiveness?

I wonder if all the people who claimed a foul when they asserted taxpayers were funding student loan forgiveness are just as angry about taxpayers funding private school vouchers? I doubt it.

Kris Newton, Charlotte

Thank you, officers

I recently completed the Cornelius Police Department Citizen’s Academy, a 12-week program offering residents insight into many aspects of policing — training, communications, patrol techniques and more. I came away with enormous respect and gratitude for the men and women who work selflessly to keep our communities safe. Most never make the news, but they should for their kindness, generosity, sacrifice and dedication. Please take a moment to share your appreciation the next time you have an opportunity to do so.

Brian Buckley, Cornelius

Charlotte airport

Over the past few months, it’s become apparent that Charlotte residents need to ask the question of who exactly is benefiting from Charlotte Douglas International Airport expansion as a major hub.

Is it the residents of Charlotte? Residents near the airport are actually feeling pushed out and displaced with the airport facilitating destruction of historic properties.

Is it the airport workers? Earlier this week, workers went on strike as many reported unsafe working conditions and poverty wages.

Flight attendants with American and Piedmont voted to go on strike this year and a couple years ago, citing the same issues of pay and working conditions the other workers.

So who exactly benefits from this “airport fit for a Queen?” It’d be a fool’s errand to let the executives at the airport and the airlines answer that without any skepticism.

Tom Pontecorvo, Charlotte

Bad overtime opinion

It’s disappointing to see the Observer post anything from the Heritage Foundation, given its contributions to Project 2025, but the Nov. 29 editorial “Federal judge’s order brings relief to works and employers” by Rachel Greszler was a study in literary gymnastics.

She went over the river and through the woods to explain how a judge denying overtime pay benefits workers. Really?

One only has to look at California to see that her fear mongering over wage increases is absolutely false. They raised minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 an hour. The result — no job losses and only minimal price increases.

Lisa Baucom, Kannapolis

Migrant kids

How did the majority of White voters turn blind eyes to the innocent Hispanic children their president put into metal pens in 2018? Sickening and sin-filled.

Laurin McCarley, Clover, SC

Just wait

When I first heard that all the untried criminal charges against Donald Trump would be dismissed, I was infuriated. No man in our nation should be above the law, especially one who incited a riot that desecrated the U.S. Capitol, even if he were later elected to high office.

I now, however, feel reassured. We’ve had decades of his behavior to learn from. Any psychologist knows that people with personality disorders almost never reform their behavior. He will do something else just as egregious. All we have to do is wait, and he will violate our law and mores again — likely sooner than later.

Joel Miller, Hickory