Wednesday letters: Democrats’ debate schedule leaves foul taste

On Aug. 6, the Democratic National Committee Chairwoman, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida), announced the presidential primary debate schedule. She brought news that there would be only six Democratic debates, with just four of them occurring before the earliest states make their votes for the nominee.

By the time the Democratic Party has its first debate on October 13, the Republicans will have already had three, keeping America’s attention on them the whole time. If the DNC wants to prevent having a huge disadvantage in coverage and exposure, they would be better served to allow more debates.

In the 2008 election cycle, while the DNC still hosted only six debates, news organizations were allowed to host their own. Networks such as MSNBC, CNN, NPR, and others hosted a total of 26 debates. In contrast, this cycle’s Democratic candidates must abide by a new exclusivity clause that bans them from taking part in any unsanctioned debate.

This could cost the Democratic Party the next presidential election. While Donald Trump increasingly becomes a household name and a serious contender, Hillary Clinton’s leading primary opponent, Bernie Sanders, remains unknown by a large percentage of the American population.

Wasserman Schultz continues to refuse to compromise on the debate schedule, despite protests at the Iowa State Fair and Martin O’Malley’s DNC summer meeting speech in which he called out the “rigged” debate schedule. Democrats need to make their voice heard by letting the DNC know that they will not stand for the new limited debate schedule.

Ryan Sullivan, Lake View

CPS, beware of move by L.A. charters

Here’s an idea: Get most of the CPS students into charters and parochial schools and save a bundle of money on teacher contracts and pensions. It could be the wave of the future. According to the Los Angeles Times, the L.A. Unified School District already has the most charter schools of any district in the nation. Now, the Broad Foundation and others want to raise $490 million to ultimately get half of the district’s students into a charter, according to a memo obtained by the Times.

Thomas Cechner, Lockport

Walker’s out; Carson to follow?

Now that Scott Walker has dropped out, we don’t have to build a fence to keep Canadians out or convert the nation into a giant amalgamation of right-to-work states with no hope of rising incomes. In fact, when he returns to Wisconsin he should focus on adding the jobs he promised and balancing the budget. Perhaps Ben Carson is next now that we know he’s a climate-change denier who wants to “reform” the tax code to make it even more favorable to the top 1 percent (his donors).

Tom Minnerick, Elgin

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