Letters to the Editor Week of 1/20/20

Void in schools
To the editor: When I was a kid in the 1940s, there were many catholic schools on this side of town.
The schools were operated by various orders of religious sisters and they worked for almost nothing. In return, the schools were very inexpensively operated and what a great job the sisters did.
About 50 years ago something happened and the church decided it could no longer operate its schools. I’m not sure why but many things led to this problem; not enough sisters, not enough money and not enough drive by those in charge.
All problems are solvable. The loss of teachers is the number one problem and the loss of priests is next. Operational costs are also a problem.
We should be ashamed for not teaching our children about Jesus Christ.
We don’t need priests and nuns to teach religion, we need teachers who’ve studied religious texts and who’ve passed a test to qualify to teach about Jesus.
My thought is to sell the closed churches, schools and parish properties and put the money to use building district schools and get back to teaching about Jesus.
We have a few parochial schools now in operation but you had better be able to spend a small fortune. What about families with many children? Do they deserve a chance to learn about Jesus?
The church should not only be for the rich but for all families.
Larry Erard
Walbridge
(Class of 1954 Central Catholic High School)

Levy merits support
To the editor: I am a long time Oregon citizen and would like to voice my support for the March 17 Oregon City Schools levy.
I am a Clay grad and my children are Clay grads. My daughter is now a first year high school science teacher in a district near Columbus. She chose this field because of the inspiration and quality of her high school science teachers who encouraged her interest and recognized that we need more women entering into careers in science. Her goal is to inspire other young girls to also pursue math and science – her way to pay it forward from her instruction and guidance in Oregon City Schools.
There is a lot of talk about teacher pay every time a levy comes up. We compare ourselves to other districts and justify levies by showing that our teacher pay is lower than most comparable schools in our area. Last week’s Press article said our teachers are paid above the statewide average, as if that somehow proves something about the claims about comparable local districts. Teacher pay is not a race to the bottom and we should be proud to pay our teachers well and offer them raises in line with their experience, education and the cost of living.
If we are going to continue the growth we are seeing in our district, maintain the exciting momentum I see, retain the value in our community and maintain all existing programs and trajectories - yes, including teacher pay - then we must vote yes.
I will be voting yes for the kids in our district and I will be voting yes for teachers.
Joy Andrews
Oregon