LETTERS - Oct. 17

ISSUE | ISIS

Roots of problem

George W. Bush's war in Iraq was a national tragedy of epic proportions - a story of a president who attacked by creating a myth that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction ("Leaders need to look ahead," Oct. 1). U.S. forces won the invasion but lost the occupation because Bush didn't understand that to control Iraq's 25 million people and protect them from attack would require 500,000 American soldiers. Furthermore, his biggest mistake was not asking this question: What will happen to stability in the Middle East if the Iraqi army is destroyed?

The present crisis with ISIS is the result of the former president's inability to assess the consequences of his unnecessary war. Yet commentator James Jay Calafano of the Heritage Foundation - defender of Republican ineptitude and mediocrity - extols Bush's leadership by quoting his warning in 2007 about the "premature withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq." As a combat veteran, I find Calafano's positive comments about Bush offensive.

|C.L. Garelik, Philadelphia

ISSUE | CHILD SAFETY

Room to parent

While many will applaud recent legal changes that restrict certain types of corporal punishment in Pennsylvania, it is important to note that the Child Protective Services Law changes also cast a wider net. Dedicated parents and caretakers could be labeled abusers ("Law catching up on punishment vs. child abuse," Oct. 15). The new definitions will be more likely to capture accidental injuries that occur in the course of children's lives, such as falls and burns. They also increase the chance that reasonable decisions by parents about their children's health and welfare will land them on the child-abuse registry even when no injury occurs.

Because of the wide-ranging implications of being placed on the child-abuse registry for life, due-process protections for the accused should be tightened. Easy fixes such as simplifying the procedures for obtaining a hearing would help protect innocent people. Pennsylvania should also include a meaningful process for individuals to be removed from the registry after an extended period of time without incident.

|Janet Ginzberg, senior staff attorney, Community Legal Services, Philadelphia, jginzberg@clsphila.org

ISSUE | CONTAINING EBOLA

Hazardous-waste experts have much to teach

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should take advantage of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's extensive experience in Superfund cleanups to protect hospital workers from Ebola. In my 25-year career at the EPA, I helped clean up hazardous-waste sites, including anthrax spores in the Hart Senate Office Building. Anthrax posed a high risk to workers, including death, if inhaled, and required high-safety-level protective equipment and decontamination protocols. In that sense, anthrax was more challenging than the Ebola risk because its spores posed an airborne threat. Yet the EPA conducted this cleanup using federal employees and contractors, without a single case of anthrax among its workers.

In addition, the EPA and its contractors are experts in cleanup protocols for many toxic substances, including dioxin, radiation, and chemical-warfare agents at Superfund sites across the nation. That's why the CDC should take advantage of all the lessons learned in EPA cleanups - and, in particular, the use of a bleach solution to spray workers leaving an Ebola hot zone. The spray reduces the risk of accidental contamination from clothing, and it is being used at some of the Ebola treatment centers in West Africa with good success.

|Frank Vavra, Washington Township

Television news doc made a bad patient

Dr. Nancy Snyderman, NBC's medical shill, has lost all credibility for breaking her 21-day Ebola quarantine ("Breaking quarantine," Oct. 15). She was quoted as effectively saying she knew better than federal health officials who set the quarantine time limit. The African traveler who died in Texas did not show any symptoms either when he was flying here, and we know how that turned out.

Once again, if you are rich and famous, the rules don't apply. NBC has lost a viewer until Snyderman is let go for her smugness and selfishness.

|Stephen Cooney, Pottstown

ISSUE | PAYING FOR SCHOOLS

Feel-good scholarship tax break no subsitute

The Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC), however well-intentioned, divert desperately needed funds from Philadelphia public schools ("Scholarships offer lifeline to Pa. students," Oct. 10).

Although they're billed as business donations, taxpayers foot almost the entire bill for the programs, paying up to 90 percent of the elementary and secondary school scholarships and 100 percent of those given to students attending pre-K programs. The taxpayer cost makes these tax credits publicly funded school vouchers, plain and simple.

An average voucher of $1,000 does not make private school any more affordable for low-income students. Whether children who receive the scholarships perform better or even graduate from the schools they attend is unknown. The program operates without transparency, with state agencies prohibited from collecting all but the most basic information on student recipients, the schools that educate them, and student performance.

More students would get a chance at future success if the state picked up its fair share of school funding, particularly for the poor districts hurt most by recent budget cuts. Clearly, good intentions are not enough.

|Waslala Miranda, education policy analyst, Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, Harrisburg, miranda@pennbpc.org