LETTERS: IMPORTANT ISSUES

To the editor:

Although Republicans support school vouchers, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson feels vouchers would take money away from public schools. This may be true, but vouchers would foster competition between schools, where now there is very little, forcing each school to provide the best service it can. We already spend, on the average, for each child more than any other nation, but in academic achievement our children rank among the lowest in industrialized nations. Our public schools need more than money to provide good educations to all children. As a nation, we desperately need many highly educated citizens to meet the challenges of a global economy, and to understand the intricacies of our democratic government. Simply giving more money to bloated school administrations will will not help our children or their teachers. I believe we must move towards local control of neighborhood schools. Vouchers would help us to do this.

On environmental issues, Emerson, according to a score kept by the League of Conservation Voters, ranks with only nine other representatives at the very bottom of the heap in voting for the protection of our nation's forests and other environmental protection bills. Surely, the United States and a state with as much natural beauty as Missouri needs congressional representation with more environmental commitment than Emerson has shown.

For complete, nonpartisan information about the voting records any national candidate for public office, call Project Vote Smart (1-888-868-3762) or look at its Web site: www.vote-smart.org. The Web site for the League of Conservation Voters is: www.lcv.org.

B. GATES GOODIER

Jackson