It seems a shame that the excellent letter "What Is The True Cost Of Testing" by KT Tobin was buried away while the acronym-laden nonsense from "private citizen" George Heidcamp, Saugerties school board president, was prominently presented on the opinion page.

I'd written a tongue-in-cheek letter ("Refuseniks", published March 12) saying that parents ought to shut up because government knows what's best, and anyway schools are not for the kids. Further that Common Core was about government and money and the teachers' job is not to educate, but to teach to the test.

Now here comes this "private citizen" telling us precisely that, how the Governor, the teachers' union president and education commissioner had all shaken hands on grabbing Fed money at the expense of our kids' education and repeating my absurd arguments for bullying kids (and parents and teachers) in order not to, perhaps, risk losing state aid.

Well what is the price one is to put on the future of one's children? The Lord stayed Abraham's hand from sacrificing Isaac, but who will stay your hand from sacrificing your own flesh and blood on the altar of phony educational progress.

It is not testing per se that is bad; it is an entire framework being put in place which hijacks a broad curriculum for the one-size-fits-all, "expert" construct, the Common Core.

Even if it were a good curriculum (and it is most certainly not), spending all this high stress energy geared to meaningless test results rather than learning is not only wasteful, but is actually harmful to our children.

The school boards are not representing us here but rather taking the side of the bureaucracy and all the entities that profit from texts and testing. The teachers are not allowed to be on the side of the kids in calling out the sham. Rather, they are forced to abandon good practices, follow orders, participate, and are sometimes even forbidden to speak against the evil they must undertake to garner good evaluations.

We are left with no avenue to discuss serious modification of the Core. Our only recourse is to "Opt Out" and save our own children, one by one. If enough people do this, our rulers will be forced to reconsider.

All my expertise in mathematics and pointing out what is seriously wrong with that aspect of the Core falls on deaf ears. Parents must do the job. End the abuse and "Opt Out."

Bob Prener
Grahamsville

New York State has sprayed herbicides containing glyphosate, a probable carcinogen, on all state roads, including along reservoirs and streams for 30 years. It will cost less in dollars and less in environmental damage to our pollinators and our health to plant wildflowers and milkweed like the state of Illinois.

If you would like to help stop this practice, please sign a petition that will be delivered to all parties by the beginning of May. Every signature counts. Please go to: www.spiritofbutterflies.com. On the home page is the link to sign the petition.

Maraleen Manos-Jones
Shokan

The film the students made and showed at the Roundout Valley High School about the Dream Act has drawn some hasty comments from the Board of Education.

Contrary to those who claim that students should not be exposed to difficult or contentious issues, it is impossible to feed students pap and pablum and, at the same time, commit them to an educational future.

Feeding students drivel because it is "safe," because the social problems pointed toward have easy answers, makes education seem trivial and irrelevant. We citizens, who are spending substantial sums to finance the education of our community's children, want this education to lead somewhere beyond the minimum-wage and temporary jobs so readily offered. We need students to "keep going on" with their education. My 39 years in the classroom have repeatedly shown they do not commit to their education because we tell them they should, or even that they have to, in order to survive well in today's economy. They commit to education because, in the long run, it is more exciting than video games, more self-satisfying than "selfie" photographs, gives more to think and wonder about than twit tweets.

Try and accomplish that with social drivel — with an education that does not mention the politics of race, gender, immigration, environmental degradation and so forth. You will wind up with an Ulster County of poor people and weekenders who got their education elsewhere. We owe those filmmakers who made the Dream Act film, and Ileen Cutler who trained them to do such films, an enormous debt of gratitude for teaching students about the real issues, issues where there are no easy answers.

Gerald Sider
High Falls

Recently, two concerned groups, Health Care STAT and MergerWatch, met with David Scarpino, chief executive officer of HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley, to clarify details about the proposed affiliation between Westchester Medical Center and HealthAlliance. We also wanted to secure assurances that the plan, at worst, would not negatively affect women's reproductive services and, at best, would improve the delivery of services to all members of our community, particularly Medicaid and Medicare recipients.

We are also aware that Westchester Medical Center is in negotiation with the Bon Secours system and, because it is a Catholic health system, we wanted assurances that it will not force all providers within the Westchester Medical umbrella to bend to their restrictive care caused by religious edicts. Health Care STAT already worked hard to ensure that this community had access to comprehensive reproductive health care and we want to make sure those services are not at risk of being lost again.

We were given assurances by Scarpino that the HealthAlliance hospital will remain non-sectarian, the quality of all health care delivery will improve and that Catholic restrictions have no chance of coming to HealthAlliance.

Health Care STAT will continue to monitor this affiliation to ensure quality health care remains and even improves at HealthAlliance. In addition, our community deserves transparency as far as this transition goes. Apparently there will be no requirement for public input because a certificate of need is not required. Perhaps a public forum is in order. The hospitals owe this to the community.

Jo Shuman, RN
Cottekill

The neglect regarding maintenance of our Government Center is the main reason it is in need of major repair. The egos of our past and present county executives are the driving force behind partial tear down and renovation, which would waste taxpayer money. The mayor of Goshen agrees the county should not sell because of the time factor involved. Mr. Mayor, slow and steady wins the race. (If I had to put money on it, I'll go with Mr. Kaufman's project taking less time than the county's plan anyway.)

Let Kaufman buy the building and create an art center incorporating new buildings to house the government offices. This makes sense. This option preserves a renowned architect's building; brings more culture, jobs and creativity to Goshen; saves the taxpayers millions of dollars; and the list goes on.

Mr. Diana and Mr. Neuhaus: Do you repair your homes or simply tear them down and rebuild? My 113-year-old house requires a lot of maintenance. It is my job to see it gets done. I don't believe you have (are) doing your job with the best interest of people you served (serve).

Loretta Breedveld
Warwick Valley Bed and Breakfast

As a native-born Goshenite, I am in favor of the purchase of the Rudolph County Center by the Kaufman group. As a retired attorney, I think that the Sussman faction should lose their lawsuit to force the county to accept the Kaufman offer.

Why the dichotomy? Very simply, the suit is a frivolous one with no chance of success. A court will not overturn a governmental action that is essentially a business one unless there is a showing of corruption or the transaction is so one-sided that it "Shocks the conscience of the Court."

The real villain is the Village of Goshen, abetted by FEMA and the Office of Court Administration. Without a zoning change, Kaufman cannot provide residences for the artists, which is necessary to make his plan work for him. The village refuses to make that change. FEMA and the Court Administration are threatening to withdraw funds unless the county acts quickly. Thus, if the Kaufman faction wins, the county will be forced to sell a property to an unwilling buyer. This spells more delay.

The conclusion is that legally the county is correct in rejecting the offer because: 1. The village will not grant the zoning change to make it work for the purchaser, and, 2. FEMA and the Courts Administration's threat to withdraw funding unless the renovation of the Rudolph Building proceeds quickly.

This is not the conclusion I would prefer but the one based on the facts.

John T. Mayo
Goshen

This morning I joined Ulster County Executive Mike Hein to tour a section of the future rail trail along Ashokan Reservoir and to reiterate the Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) support for the project. The trail proposed by Ulster County is consistent with DEP's goals of protecting water quality, enhancing outdoor recreation in the Catskills, and expanding free-of-charge access to public lands that surround New York City's water supply.

In 2013, DEP committed $2.5 million toward developing the 11.5-mile trail along an easement owned by Ulster County on the north side of Ashokan Reservoir. Those funds, which can only be used for building the trail, are designated for projects that will meet or exceed watershed protection standards and address localized erosion issues, such as washouts along some stretches of the corridor. In addition, DEP will build, operate and maintain a number of access points along the trail. Our commitment came after Ulster County determined that a trail would be the highest and best use for that portion of the easement in the future.

Over the past several years, DEP has worked with nonprofit groups and local governments to open eight recreation trails on city-owned land in the watershed. Two additional trails are scheduled to open in 2015. These trails provide safe and scenic opportunities for low-impact recreation such as hiking, jogging, cycling and snowshoeing. They also bolster public health by encouraging outdoor exercise, and they support the outdoor recreation and tourism economies that are vital to the Catskills. Importantly, the growing network of recreation trails help achieve these positive outcomes by offering free-of-charge access to public lands for the benefit of watershed residents and visitors.

The proposed rail trail at Ashokan Reservoir offers a truly unique opportunity to expand this vision, as it is the city's only reservoir in the Catskills that has an established corridor running through its border lands. In addition, the trail at Ashokan will fill an important gap in a regional trail network that stretches across parts of Dutchess, Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties. DEP fully supports the plan outlined by Ulster County and we look forward to collaborating on this exciting trail project.

Emily Lloyd, Commissioner
NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection