Letters: Hype over Hite makes no sense

I AM TRULY PUZZLED with your paper's admiration for Superintendent William Hite. As an educator, I can tell you that he has been toxic for education in Philadelphia. He has brought churn and turmoil to a district that needs leadership and collaboration. Almost 50 percent of principals have been replaced, assistant principals are becoming extinct as are school librarians. Many of these new principals are inexperienced and have not worked in an urban district before. In efforts to divest of veteran teachers many are receiving low evaluation marks for the first time in their professional lives. Hite has presided over the destruction of school communities by closing schools (now he terms it consolidation or merger). He has opened a few new schools that serve under 1,000 students total. My basic question is: What about the rest of the students in our district? Don't they deserve a great education, too?

The social fabric of this country has been shredded. Few think about the whole; they are concerned with their own child/children. Hite feeds into this mentality wholeheartedly. His policies are not about everyone, they are for the few.

His recent shake-up at school district headquarters is very disturbing. I have researched some of these outsiders being brought into high positions and my findings are unsettling. It appears as if Hite is seeking to put Philadelphia into the arms of charter operators (two out of three I researched come directly from charter organizations). He has not disclosed their salaries. How come there is not enough money for Bartram High School, a struggling neighborhood school, to keep its art program and yet there is money to hire all these new people and create more infrastructure via networks? Hite claimed there would be an annual savings after closing 24 schools - where are the numbers to show this? Now he has found $34 million to give to a private company to hire substitute teachers? I call it magic money because it appears when he needs it.

He is determined to sell off positions and services to private operators over whom he will have no control. These outsiders are totally unaccountable to taxpayers whose money goes to fund them.

Karel Kilimnik

Philadelphia

Trump wins her vote

I can't even begin to imagine how the family of beautiful Kathryn Steinle can go on living without their daughter who was taken by the hands of that illegal immigrant career criminal low life!

It's those kind of monsters that Donald Trump was referring to, so wake up NBC and Macy's and smell the stench that these losers are bringing to America!

I guess the cities (Philadelphia included) that want to keep these animals in our country are real proud of themselves hiding behind the Fourth Amendment!

Mr. Trump, you have my vote!

My deepest condolences to the Steinle family.

Janice DiJoseph

Philadelphia

Stu's backward logic

Applying Stu Bykofsky's own infallible logic, gays shouldn't marry, women cannot vote, and whites are entitled to own and trade blacks as commodities. The Native Americans are to be shot on sight.

Because those were the laws then. And by his own argument, he would have supported these laws.

He would also contend that our Founding Fathers and those who fought the Revolutionary War were a bunch of arrogant, disrespectful lawbreakers.

Mr. Bykofsky fancies himself a crusader of law and justice. He cares about neither. He only uses the narrow, skewered aspects of the law to promote his hate and bigotry. Guns kill tens of thousands of people every year. He does not care as long as they are legally obtained.

It is beyond comprehension how someone like Bykofsky is not only allowed to splatter venom and toxin in your paper, but also is financially compensated. As long as the Daily News employs the likes of Bykofsky on its staff, it will fail to be the "People Paper" that it proclaims to be.

Yuji Miyakawa

Philadelphia

Strings attached, eventually

Your editorial about the lack of accountability attached to private school scholarships funded through the Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program was predictable. Sooner or later, whenever government money is involved, strings follow. Those strings could take many forms, from required academic testing to conflicts over religious freedom versus discrimination.

The essence of being private is freedom to decide what is best for the institution. For religious institutions, especially, this is vital to their character. It is really disturbing that, by accepting scholarships funded through a tax credit, their freedom of conscience is endangered.

Gloria C. Endres

Philadelphia

Laws, not just lives, matter

Human dignity begins with the rule of law - by following the law and not behaving as if it applies to everyone else instead. If some folks wouldn't commit crimes, they wouldn't need to play the victims and feel as if they're being unfairly treated. It's time for the liberal media to do its job by stopping the spin and deflection. Progressive urban policies have historically failed. The world doesn't owe people anything!

Jonathan R. Verlin

Philadelphia