I’ll die before I pay off my student loans. It’s past time to end this corrupt system | Opinion

Bankruptcy law must be reformed

I’m 68 years old and have had student loans for the last three decades. I’ll never get them paid — it’s ‘til death do us part.

These loans are predatory and earn upward of $10 billion in pure profit annually.

I urge lawmakers to join the effort to restore long-overdue bankruptcy rights to borrowers. This highly corrupt lending system must end.

- Debra McMillen, Midlothian

Don’t put those apartments here

The March 6 front-page story “East Fort Worth residents push for more shops and restaurants” about zoning included arguments that East Fort Worth residents are hurting development by opposing apartments.

The reality is that we already have a lot of property in East Fort Worth zoned as multifamily, and we would prefer that property to be used instead of rezoning new areas. If more is added, we could quickly be overrun with too many apartments.

We know that we need places where people can afford to live, and we want new and beautiful complexes similar to those being built in other areas. We would just like not to have acres and acres of them in a row.

East Fort Worth is beautiful, and we welcome developers who want to help us maintain that beauty. We want new developments to respect the environment the way we do.

- Wanda Conlin, Fort Worth

New Kennedy in the White House

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hasn’t formally announced a run for president, but with his recent speech in New Hampshire, he seems poised to enter the race. The prospect may seem quixotic now, but I can only hope he will.

I can only hope that there’s a lane for a free-speech, colorblind, anti-war, environmentalist, economic justice candidate. It is, after all, the Kennedy-King lane.

And it’s hard to believe that a candidate who runs in that lane wouldn’t win, galvanizing as it would be for the best instincts of the American people.

- Randolph Severson, Ennis

Too many school mandates

On education, it seems as if we talk about everything except the elephant in the room: state and federal mandates on our school districts. Look at the numbers of teachers and administrators hired over the last 30 years. It will astound you.

The number of teachers has increased at a nominal rate, but administration hires have soared. Districts have to hire more administrators to comply with ever-increasing federal and state mandates.

We have some great minds in education. Let’s sunset as many mandates as possible. This would allow smaller school budgets and lower taxes, improve teacher morale and enhance the overall classroom experience.

This is where real property tax relief begins.

- Frank M. Wagnon, Southlake

Measure of disrespect

It has been well publicized that Texas’ retired teachers have not received a cost-of-living adjustment on their pensions since 2004. That statement alone should be an embarrassment for the state. Legislators give lip service to the problem during virtually every legislative session.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, prices have increased 58.3% since 2004. In other words, that 2004 dollar is worth less than 42 cents today.

How many retired Texas teachers, whom everyone says they revere, have been forced into poverty?

- Jeff Knight, Houston

Fight ‘woke’ books and movies

Thanks to Cynthia Allen for highlighting the editing of Roald Dahl books by the publisher. (Feb. 26, 5C, “Don’t edit Dahl: It’s OK if classics don’t fit modern sensibilities”) That there are 59 edits in “The Witches” alone was shocking. Eliminating the words “mothers” and “fathers” reveals the agenda of the edits.

They came after Dr. Seuss a couple of years ago. The failures of “woke” movies such as “Lightyear” and the remake of “The Craft” and the backlash to the Dahl edits makes one think this trend might stop. Writers such as Dahl and J.M. Barrie would be livid at this nonsense.

- Randy L. Weeks, Roanoke

Keep it to just sports

Unfortunately, it’s a telling sign of the times when two of the four articles on the front page of Friday’s Sports section are about social issues. (1B, “Lampkin’s racism allegations against coach Dixon baffle”; “Stop comparing NFL to slavery, and anything to lynchings”)

Can we let sports be sports and drop the wokeness that continues to needlessly infiltrate our daily lives? I think we’d all be better off if we did.

- Steve Himes, Fort Worth