Letters to the Editor - Sept. 25

Do away with Common Core

Dear Editor:

What is Common Core? It is a National Standards curriculum that was signed onto by almost every state. Montana held out for awhile but they jumped on board by 2010.

I asked myself how could this happen?

After some research I found that there were two reasons the states signed onto a National curriculum that no one knew anything about.

The First reason was that the Obama Administration Blackmailed the states by threatening to withhold Title I Funding for states that didn’t sign on.

The Second reason was the states were bribed when the Obama Administration waved $4.35 billion in ‘Race To The Top’ to all the states that signed onto Common Core. The ones in Washington DC acted like it was free money but it was all coming from us taxpayers.

The Common Core Standards was signed onto without any input from teachers, administrators, the public or legislators.

Most school districts don’t have the money to pay for all the new texts required, training of teachers and administrators, the hiring of outside agencies to grade exams and the purchase of the tests.

Bill Gates and The Gates Foundation has partnered with Pearson, the giant text book publisher, to create online curriculum for Common Core which will drive the volume of testing. Just in Texas the grand total from 2000 to 2015 that Texas taxpayers will have paid Pearson – nearly $1.2 billion for developing tests and related materials. Common Core is all about money!

Joan Carroll,

St. Regis

Internet Speeds are too slow

Mineral County Chamber member businesses:

Is slow internet speed a problem for your business? David Lawrence of Pangaea River Rafting would like to try to remedy that situation if possible. Please read David’s letter below and let us know - or contact David - if you are interested in trying to find a solution to this problem.

My name is David Lawrence, owner of Pangaea River Rafting in Superior, Montana. I’m writing in regards to current internet speeds in our area. I spoke with someone at Blackfoot who encouraged me to write you.

Currently, the 1.5 megabyte speed at our location is frustratingly slow. As a successful local business, we rely on a solid, snappy internet connection to run our phones, reservation systems, website and internal processes like credit cards processing, guest inspired business reviews written on location and guide management.

We also do a brisk online photo business, but can not upload our photos because it takes more than 12 hours to upload a weekend worth of pictures! Right now our photographer takes our photos to Missoula to upload them which has become too burdensome to continue.

The current speeds prove on a daily basis to be too slow for our needs. Often our VOIP phone system is rendered useless because other internet systems running at our business clogs the metaphorical internet “pipes”.

Currently, there are no other internet providers in our area. Nor does Blackfoot provide greater internet speed packages in our area that we could upgrade too.

As local commerce moves faster and faster and more and more online, our region must stay current. Just like our state and region needs the interstate upgraded and maintained to keep Superior alive and healthy, high speed internet capable of handling more traffic and more activity to run a local business is not just a need, it is a must.

I’m afraid Mineral County and the local businesses inside and outside of town will fall further behind regional competitors whose internet infrastructure outpaces our own. Currently, small towns across Montana, like Superior, are held hostage by single internet providers like Blackfoot, who choose year after year to keep progress suffocated despite their ability to provide much needed internet improvement to our area.

I think the lack of not just internet, but internet speeds capable of handling regional commercial needs, is the next epidemic of small communities across America, especially here in Montana.

The regional news and chambers should address this issue now before we fall further behind!

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Please contact me directly for more information or for comments.

Leave Boring Behind!

David Lawrence,

Superior