Sound Off for March 5: State lottery could help students pay for college

No help there

Heavens, that speech written for Trump to deliver to Congress did nothing to help him with his stupid tweets during the night. Maybe if his wife were with him it would help. It would surely help US and NY pocket books!

Who cares?

Why is it no one in government is allowed to talk with Vladimir Putin? Is he not the leader of his country? Is it not better to have dialogue with him than to have the daily riots, shootings and deaths like we hear coming from various Middle East countries? Who cares what was said? Politicians lie every day, every hour, every second. So why worry about what they might have said?

Better uses

Diamondhead has been awarded $1.3 million for unneeded sidewalks by MDOT. Wouldn’t this this be better used for the state’s highway needs?

Cream skimmers

The problem with school choice is private schools get to choose who they allow in their schools. The low achievers and special-education children go to public schools, which skews the results. Of course private schools will have top scores and produce the best students when they accept only the cream of the crop.

Sob story

I get tired of hearing how underfunded Mississippi public schools are. My child goes to a local private religious school. The teachers and staff there get paid way less than public schools. We hold fundraisers yearly. They have not nearly the money or resources public schools have. They have a near-zero dropout rate. Tuition is based on income so everyone and all faiths are included. Most go on to college.

Let lottery pay

The lottery is taxation by choice. If you don’t want to pay, don’t play. Tennessee lottery profits were earmarked for higher education. Anyone who went to a four-year college and kept a GPA of B went for free. There was so much money that students are now only required to have a GPA of C, and community colleges are free. I’d like to see Mississippi earmark its profits for elementary education and then add middle schools, then high schools, then colleges.

This story was originally published March 5, 2017 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Sound Off for March 5: State lottery could help students pay for college."