Thank you for the opportunity to comment on a few recent stories and issues.
First: Unfortunately, an “invasion of the sign snatchers” is again plaguing our local elections. Some of my election signs mysteriously disappeared within two hours of being situated! North Hempstead Republicans Lee Tu and Jeff Bass’s signs have been found ripped up in the middle of the street. Signs are expensive! For those of us with small election budgets, a major portion of our limited funds is spent on signs. It is distressing and unfair when these signs meet untimely ends. Could whoever is stooping to snatching and destroying our election signs please cease and desist?
Second: News coverage regarding recent local election litigation did not mention the wasteful impact of the Democratic Nassau County Election Commissioner’s insistence upon holding four completely unnecessary Republican primaries. A bit of background: Four Republican legislative candidates filed their election petitions with the stated condition that the petitions would only be effective if the new legislative districts would be in effect in 2011.
After the New York Court of Appeals postponed the effective date of the new legislative districts until 2013, the Republican Election Commissioner sensibly sought to remove from the ballot the Republican candidates who had filed conditional petitions, in accordance with these candidates’ wishes. However, the Nassau County Democratic Election Commissioner refused to remove these candidates from the ballot, and instead insisted on going forward with four completely useless primaries. This cost Nassau County $258,000.00 – an enormous waste of precious county tax money.
Third: The proposed $20.5 million Great Neck library expansion raises serious concerns. The proposal will close the library for two years and significantly increase our taxes. There are much less expensive and much less disruptive ways to improve our library.
Fourth: Thank you to the Great Neck News for an excellent editorial speaking out about how honest students were unfairly hurt when an ethically-challenged, intellectually-gifted 19 year-old allegedly accepted money to impersonate and take SAT exams for seven Great Neck North students. I hope that this “cash from flunkers” scandal will finally lead to reforms to curtail cheating on the SAT and in the college admissions process. When I took the law school admissions test (LSAT) many moons ago, the LSAT collected our thumbprints to deter students from taking the test for others. (To allay privacy concerns, the thumbprints were not digitized, and were destroyed after five years if no cheating issues arose. The LSAT substituted photos this summer.) The SAT should adopt similar methods to assure that test-takers are who they say they are.
Other forms of cheating also need to be addressed. According to past Great Neck North students, some of their classmates obtained phony disability diagnoses in order to receive extra time to take the SAT. This sort of abuse is extremely unfair to those who take the test within allotted time limits, and to those who have real disabilities who really need more time. Also, advertisements are regularly posted on Craigslist for professional writers to write students’ college applications (for $500 per application). Some sting operations could help stop this. Again, students who take the honest route are unfairly penalized.
The students who cheat also lose out. Those who cheat their way into a college for which they may not be qualified are often among the first to flunk out.
Elizabeth Berney, Esq.,
Great Neck
