To the Editor:
Listening to Trump’s news conference today where Apple’s Tim Cook talked about an increased $100B investment in the US to a total of $600B….and then Trump adding billions more that other firms are investing in the US….well it was all mind boggling.
It’s hard to add all the investment going into this country for AI and its support. However, I was able to track about $1T just for AI facilities in the next two year alone. Added to that is the semiconductor investment required to support AI needs. And, if you use a multiplier effect for each AI job created by a conservative 5X, the employment increase will be phenomenal. It’s also been reported that since its inception, the AI income generated has a compound growth rate of 32 percent a year.
We’re witnessing a new economy that my imaginations just can’t comprehend. However, this evening I went to ChatGPT for a meatloaf recipe. My wife said it was delicious.
-Frank Mazur, South Burlington
To the Editor:
I attended the meeting last Thursday evening regarding the reconfiguration of Taconic and Green school district [serving Danby, Dorset, Landgrove, Londonderry, Manchester, Mt. Tabor, Peru, Sunderland, and Weston].
Don’t be confused, while the Governor recently proposed a new school reorganization scheme, the Taconic and Green reorganization has been percolating for several years and the Board selected option is to close Sunderland, Currier and Dorset and build a middle school-next to MEMS.
It may come as a surprise but while you were working and raising your family, the progressive democratic party was consolidating power so that by law the school board has the legal right to close schools even though parents want local neighborhood schools. Yes the progressive democratic party will use their power to formulate education policy without parental input because they think they know better than you.
While the schematics showed the new middle school constructed next to Manchester Elementary/Middle School (MEMS0, parents noted a lack of athletic ballfield space and open space for our children. One suggestion was to explore using the fields at Riley Rink.
More importantly the proposed configuration will require long bus rides for young children. What will this proposal do to vibrant rural communities which will no longer have community schools? And what about young children on long bus rides? Does consolidation take parents ideas and proposals out of the decision process?
The second part is the cost. There was no estimate of the cost of building a new middle school nor an estimate of the cost of refurbishing the schools that will remain open. Remember the architect estimated the cost to refurbish existing schools to be $65 million because the buildings are at the end of their useful lives. However, the proposal did contain an estimate of the savings in operating expenses over a 30 year period to be $300 to $400 million. Our current budget is $36 million so am I to believe that the cost of the reconfiguration, which has not been disclosed, will reduce the operating expenses by $10 million per year? Something does not add up.
Increasing costs of education are caused by rules imposed on local school boards by the Vermont Agency of Education. Eliminate the rules and have parents reclaim the power given to the Agency of Education by the progressive democratic party. Parents are in charge of their children’s education. Nowhere does the proposal from the school board mention how the reconfiguration will improve sagging grade proficiency levels.
-Eric Salat, Manchester