The hit Wendover Utah teachers are headed to take to their pay take is nothing short of astounding and something should be done to make it a whole lot less painful.
While we agree that a school district like any other public entity should live within its means, this kind of cut which could be a 20 to 25 percent reduction in pay and will probably be too much for many Wendover, Utah teachers to bear.
If it goes through, we expect many to leave and not many willing to take their place.
It is time to get creative.
The Tooele District could make a deal with apartment owners for cut rate rents.
It could be a win/win for both sides.
The apartment owners would get good stable tenants and a reliable source of income and the district would spend less on housing.
Then of course there is the other option of a unified district once again.
Yeah we know the controversy.
But look at it this way.
If the Tooele District was willing to transfer all the revenue it received from Wendover property and sales tax already slated for education to Nevada, we are sure some sort of arrangement could be achieved.
And if the cash isn’t enough Tooele could use its good offices to ask the state of Utah to grant in state tuition to all of Wendover students in the Utah University system.
This could be an opportunity to improve not only our schools in Wendover but educational opportunity for all of Wendover’s children.
Philosophically we are opposed to recall elections.
We believe that voters should be damned with the yahoos and rascals they voted for in the first place.
Still there is something about the White Pine recall that bothers us.
It is that whole defamation counter suit.
The question of whether the recall would have been successful had the defamation suit was not filed can never be answered.
And that bothers us.
We think it would have failed by itself.
The bar set by the state is really too high nowadays to ever be met.
Still we would have rather it have fallen by itself without fear.
A fearful electorate is not a free electorate.
We thought that after five years of dealing in the Middle East our president and his administration would have a clue about just who he is dealing with and where they are coming from.
So much for wishful thinking.
It is a definition of insanity to keep doing the same thing and expect a different outcome.
Welcome to American foreign policy.
While Barack Obama and John Kerry may be morally outraged about chemical weapons, they ain’t in Syria or for that matter from Morocco to Pakistan.
What those folks find outrageous is an empty threat.
Actually its an opportunity.
Scream bloody murder all you want, but if you are not going to do something about it what is the next red line they will cross.
And they will look for it.
They are looking for it now, as America begins its long retreat.
Now we are sure the Obama administration does not see this pull back from the brink as a complete defeat.
Napoleon probably didn’t think his withdrawal from Moscow anything more than a tactical one.
By the end of it the Russians arrived in Paris.