Three more heroes get letters past NCT's censors

VOTE JAKA, LILLY and CHUNKA for VUSD School Board on NOVEMBER 4

In today’s (Sunday October 26, 2008) Letter to the editor section of the North County Times three brave heroes of the PRO-Public Education Resistance were able to get their letters published. I cannot help but wonder how many calls to the letter editor it took.

Apparently the NCTimes’ embargo on PRO-public education letters can be broken. Those of you who have sent in the more than thirty letters to the editor that the NCTimes has been withholding for last three weeks, KEEP CALLING! Demand your letters be published. Demand a date for publication. Do not give up. Please complain loudly and often to Pattie Leipert (letters editor at 433-7333, ask for Leipert).

We know based on past election experience that Leipert will wait to publish those thirty plus letters until just before the election and then put them all together in a giant letters to editor section, not on the letters page, in order to dilute the effect of the PRO-public education majority in the North County.

The NCTimes owners and even their biased editors realize that they must also sell papers to us. We are the majority of the North County. We are NOT in favor of extremism on school boards and school children being used for fringe political issues. We should be represented in a community paper like the NCTimes purports to be. We can be if you call. The bias at the NCTimes can be broken. The editors cannot take a chance of alienating more than half of their readership. The three letters below prove that the PRO Education letter embargo can be broken.

Today’s Education Heroes are:
(1) DONNA MARA of Vista
(2) DEBBIE RAYNER of Vista
(3) THOMAS MULLEN of San Diego

You can read their courageous letters here:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/10/26/opinion/letters/zec5ee85b6e983672882574ec007d101b.txt

or reproduced below.



The right thing to do in Vista

North County Times, what were you thinking of? Certainly not the 25,000 students in Vista Unified who rely on trustees to actually be proponents of public education. With the exception of Dr. Lilly, your endorsements fell excruciatingly short of the mark ("Lilly, Guffanti, Anderson best for VUSD," Oct. 2).Let's look at the facts: Dr. Guffanti has a long history promoting causes against public education. He authored one of the first voucher initiatives to be placed on a ballot, intending to divert public funds to pay for tuitions to private schools. ... His voting history on the board is one that has undermined the completion of the magnet high school. ...To support our students, and serve with Dr. Steve Lilly, we need to elect Angela Chunka and Elizabeth Jaka. Both are parents of students in our schools and have spent many years as volunteers supporting and enriching our students. They are familiar with teachers, standards and curriculum. Most important, their only agenda is to ensure that every child, every family in our district is heard and their needs addressed, while protecting your tax dollars from those who would divert them to other causes.Please vote for Lilly, Chunka, and Jaka for VUSD. It's just the right thing to do.

Dona Mara
Vista

Jaka, Lilly, Chunka will give us respect

Teachers and parents are looking for school board candidates who genuinely care about our concerns.Three candidates have been available to share their vision for the future of Vista Unified School District at all three candidate forums. They are Elizabeth Jaka, Steve Lilly and Angela Chunka. Their presence at the PTA and League of Women Voters forums shows their commitment to serving our students, parents and teachers. Questions posed to them were answered thoughtfully, with an impressive depth of knowledge of what is needed to keep our district healthy.We need board members who will respectfully listen and respond to the people they serve. Please vote for Jaka, Lilly and Chunka for the Vista Unified School District board.

Debbie Rayner
Vista

Personal views don't belong in school business

Congratulations are in order to trustees David Hubbard, Steve Lilly and Carol Herrera for their common sense and collective stand against religious fundamentalism on the school board ("School board stays out of gay marriage debate," Oct. 18).Taking a stand on this issue is very emotional and very decisive, even though to me it is a simple call: No on 8. I would rather see the trustees not cause any consternation among their constituents, especially when this issue has nothing to do with educating our kids.For trustees Jim Gibson and Stephen Guffanti, they both have no business invoking personal and political views as being representative of Vista on the whole, again, that have nothing to do with their service on the school board. Gibson and Guffanti are supposed to be nonpartisan and nonpolitical ��“��“ and it goes to show you how dangerous religious fundamentalists are when they try, at any level, to promote their agenda. It is an outrage.

Thomas Mullen
San Diego