To the Editor:

Here we go again. Our two state representatives, both of whom are Democrats, fail to see the reality of the primary cause of the state’s budget woes. They fail to grasp the reality that it is the businesses and employees of those businesses in the private sector that are the people who fund all of the public sector jobs.

Instead, they use strong and divisive rhetoric to scare the private sector into “coughing up” more tax dollars. Now, they are pulling out the big guns by using our children and education as pawns in their need for more spending.

Rep. Ray Rapp (D-Mars Hill) was quoted in the paper as saying, “That the cuts are ‘Draconian,’ and could set education back 25 years.” Frankly, I wish that were true, because a two-year degree today is not even the equivalent to a high school diploma from 25 years ago.

The Democrats have been in control of our state for more than100 years. They have managed to devalue education to the point that most public schools are nothing more than a “high cost babysitting service” to which we are mandated to send our children. They have done this by passing so many mandates, regulations and total “BS” that it is nearly impossible for any teacher to truly be effective in the classroom. Ask any teacher. It’s not the children that make their jobs hard; it’s the adults, aka bureaucrats.

As a former high school teacher, I witnessed firsthand for seven years the chaotic madness of public education. Most of my fellow teachers with school age children sent them to private schools; even they didn’t have faith in the public schools.

Rep. Phil Hare (D-Sylva) was quoted as saying, “It is a Tea Party mentality.” I guess asking our state legislators and governor to be more fiscally responsible and accountable is a bad thing, and cutting cost is not a realistic approach. As if tax and spend, then borrow and spend, was the correct approach!

They just don’t get it! WE ARE BROKE! It’s gone; you have received more than you should have. Please let me keep what I have left. I have worked too darn hard to allow you to squander what is left.

Michael Graham

Waynesville