Letters to the editor | FortWayne.com

DISCUSS

Planning the way to future success

Like others throughout Indiana, our community has both challenges and opportunities. Local and regional leadership can help reduce the former and create more of the latter, but ultimate success also relies on a clear vision for the state.

Indiana Vision 2025, a long-range plan coordinated by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, is that missing piece. A task force of statewide business and community leaders developed the plan. Now, the Indiana Chamber is spreading the word and taking additional input.

A regional forum with 40 area champions is taking place June 6 in Fort Wayne.

The Indiana Vision 2025 plan strives to ensure that Indiana is the best in four driver areas:

Outstanding talent

Attractive business climate

Superior infrastructure

Dynamic and creative culture

Talent focuses on a variety of education and work force development initiatives. The attractive business climate includes policies and practices in taxes, regulatory and legal environments, efficient delivery of government services and more. Ensuring adequate and reliable energy and water supplies is at the core of the infrastructure driver, while not overlooking transportation and telecommunications.

Finally, dynamic and creative culture centers on providing the finances and resources to grow businesses and create jobs.

The Indiana Vision 2025 plan is available online at www.indianachamber.com/2025. It can be the blueprint needed to help make our state the absolute best it can be in the years to come.

Bob Taylor, president, CEO Do it Best Corp. and Paul Chodak III, president, CEO Indiana Michigan Power

Air conditioning not a necessity for schools

Christopher Law interpreted my concerns about school improvements to suit his own agenda.

I clearly stated I supported money spent on structural problems. My issue is with asking homeowners to pay for air conditioning, which is not a necessity. I would be glad to see the students get it, but why is it callous and in poor taste to ask the schools to come up with some creative, frugal ideas to pay for it?

Underinformed, indeed not. Wouldn’t that be a switch in society to find more ways to be frugal with tax dollars? We cannot have that — that would mean the school administrators and parents who get free public education would have to make an effort. It’s easier to just stick it to homeowners.

I went to school just like every other child in this community and had no air conditioning. We did, indeed, use fans and as I stated. No one suffered heat exhaustion. I grew up in a home with no air conditioning.

Was it the responsibility of the taxpayer to put air conditioning in every home where a child studies so they can learn better? I did just fine, graduated with honors from high school and college. And no mention from Law about changing the school schedule to avoid the higher temperatures.

And who is doing the improvements? Union workers, no doubt, who make double what an average worker makes.

So for Law, no alternative was acceptable. In the end, it is not my responsibility to pay to help raise anyone’s child especially when I have no say in how they are raised. But you should be happy, Mr. Law, because I will have to help pay for it anyway.

Laura J. Smyser