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Evaluating remote learning up to states alone

COVID-19 has been an enormous challenge to the nation’s public school system. It has forced tens of millions of students to stay at home, often for months at a time, rather than go to class. Give educators credit for doing what they could with “remote learning.” Thrown suddenly into a whole new way of trying to reach students, many teachers have done remarkably well. Still, there is no substitute for having students in seats in front of a teacher. Arguing that technology can be a substitute for regular human contact is dreaming. In the wake of the epidemic, the great task ...

We must insist on fair, honest election

President Donald Trump’s insistence that the November election was plagued by vote fraud are being dismissed by many. They should not be ignored — or forgotten. President-elect Joe Biden’s victory seems sound. His vote margins in critical states were wide enough that it is difficult to believe fraud occurred widely enough to reverse the verdict. Biden will take office in January. Still, insisting there was no vote fraud is absurd for a very good reason. Even if it did not occur frequently enough to affect the presidential election, fraud is unacceptable at any level. A few ...

California-style renewables policy could be disastrous

During his successful election campaign, President-elect Joe Biden insisted he did not favor a “green new deal” approach to energy. Now, however, it appears he may be poised to deliver a one-two punch in that very direction. First, Biden said he will name former secretary of state John Kerry as his climate change “envoy.” Then, late last week, there was speculation Biden may choose Mary Nichols to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Nichols’ current position is head of the California Air Board. She oversees the most stringent air quality regulations in the ...

Change is needed on a basic level

President-elect Joe Biden is being urged by some to include a Native American in his Cabinet, possibly as secretary of the Interior Department. If he does that, the person named would be the first Native American ever to serve in the Cabinet. Proponent of such action have a person in mind: U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M. Haaland is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna. Whether Biden names her or another Native American to his Cabinet, he should remake reforming the government’s relationship with Native Americans a priority. That could be accomplished through the Interior Department, ...

America needs basic COVID-19 relief package

Federal CARES Act assistance has been invaluable for many American families and businesses. Without it, what appears to be a record-setting recovery from the financial crisis caused by COVID-19 would not be occurring. Millions of families with laid-off breadwinners would be in desperate trouble. But most of the nearly $3 trillion in assistance authorized by the original CARES Act has been distributed. With the coronavirus hitting in a devastating new wave of death, more help is needed. Without it, a significant number of employers will collapse. They will not be part of the economic ...

Congress must ensure safety of veterans at VA facilities

For years, veterans of military service and their families have worried about the Department of Veterans Affairs. News of lengthy wait-lists, enormous cost overruns on new facilities and similar outrages was, to say the least, worrisome. It got worse in 2018, when what happened at a VA hospital in Clarksburg, West Virginia, came to light. At least eight veterans were murdered there. Earlier this year, a former nursing assistant at the hospital, Rita Mays, pleaded guilty to killing the men. For more than a year, she had been injecting her victims with lethal doses of insulin. How ...