North metro letters

If you can't or won't make your car payments, the "repo man" (who is only doing his job) comes and collects your vehicle. In our case, the Osseo school board must play the role of the "repo man." Unfortunately, enough people said they can't or won't pay the "education" payments, and the "repo man" was forced to collect the debt. In our case, a vehicle is not lost, but the school district as we know it today must be changed. Thank you, school board members, for doing a job none of us would want to do.

In the article ("Massive school changes pass in Osseo," March 12) a parent was quoted as saying, "The changes they made did nothing to help the budget crisis." I beg to differ. The changes the school board was forced to make will save $16 million. The changes are horrible, and the changes will impact all 21,000 students.

Another parent said, "In their whole decision, it didn't seem like they put the kids first." I again disagree with the parent and add, "The school board did what [it] thought best for the entire district."

The question remains: Did the voters last November seem to have put the kids first? ...

DEBRA ODELL

ANOKA

TEACHER IN OSSEO DISTRICT

Universal public education ... was one of those astounding ideas developed in the United States and copied by all of the advanced nations of the world. It is responsible for our country being, for the moment, the preeminent democracy in the world. ... [Yet] we are falling behind those advanced nations in this increasingly competitive global market because we have allowed public education to decay around us. We should be exporting doctors, scientists, mathematicians, engineers and computer experts. Instead we desperately try to import the talent that our educational system seems incapable of providing. If we don't soon wake up, historians may someday look back at the decline and fall of the United States and point to the pervasive neglect of our educational system as our Achilles heel.

CLIFFORD ROBINSON

BROOKLYN PARK

Stop the bickering Last August we in Minnesota received many noble expressions of sympathy and offers for help when our bridge fell down. I still think that we were also the laughingstock of the country because our state government allowed a major artery to deteriorate so badly. Our metro freeways are horrible. ... Enough of this bickering over the gas tax increase. The Legislature and governor were elected to serve the people, not their parties. Get over it, grow up and run the state.

SHELDON WINNIG

No courage involved Courage seems to be a cheap commodity these days. Courage is going on patrol knowing you could face a roadside bomb which could end your life. Courage is storming a stone wall at Gettysburg like the famous First Minnesota Regiment. Courage is not violating a platform you agreed to support when you agreed to the support of a political party. That kind of courage is my kind of selling out your principles.

By voting to override the governor's veto, the six legislators stood with the crowd that stated unequivocally, "We have allotted $35 billion the next two years to other causes all of which are higher priorities than roads and bridges. If you want roads, you have to pay more for them." ... The idea that there was no money for roads (as opposed to transportation) in a $35 billion budget in a state that ranks in the top 10 in taxes per capita is ludicrous.

STEVE RUSHER