School nurses are vital. Richland shouldn’t be trying to cut them | Opinion

A good education and good health

I’m writing to urge the Richland School District to reconsider its decision to cut nursing staff from 15 to 9, raising the nurse-to-student ratio from 1:933 to 1:1,556 for our 14,000 students.

Budget constraints are real, but evidence shows school nurses are vital to student success, reducing absenteeism, managing chronic conditions like asthma and diabetes (affecting over 25% of U.S. students), and maximizing classroom time.

The National Association of School Nurses recommends a 1:750 ratio — Richland’s new 1:1,556 falls far short, risking student health and academics.

Studies, like one in JAMA Pediatrics (Wang et al., 2014), show full-time nurses improve health outcomes and save $2.20 per dollar spent. Chronic absenteeism drops, graduation rates rise, and emergencies are handled expertly — benefits paraprofessionals can’t replicate.

With 23% of kids facing mental or behavioral challenges, nurses are often the first responders. This cut could widen health disparities and invite liability.

Public support is overwhelming: 87% of adults value school nurses (NASN, 2024). Richland should explore Medicaid reimbursements or other funding, not reductions. Our students deserve better — let’s prioritize their health and education.

Meghan Jones, BSN, RN, NCSN

School nurse, Pasco School District

Americans voted for this

Whenever Donald Trump does something stupid or awful, people say, “This isn’t what Americans voted for.”

Au contraire. Trump was reelected by people who resent this or that group for its status, its wealth, its influence, its political power, its class condescension, etc., and electing Trump—again—was a way to get back at “them,” “the media,” “elite,” etc.

Nobody voted for Trump for policy reasons, because he has no policies. Nobody voted for Trump for philosophical reasons, because he has no philosophy beyond, “I am your retribution.”

From 2017 to 2021, the Trump administration offered a clown-car parade of lying, lawlessness, incompetence, imbecility, corruption, cruelty, craziness, cowardice, and so much whining that you’d think they’d be sick of it.

Now the Trump wrecking crew is back.

Elect a game show host, get a game show host. Elect a criminal, get a criminal. Elect a coup plotter, get a coup plotter. And, as a bonus, you also get an administration full of toadies and henchmen who are themselves criminals and coup plotters and others who are simply willing to work with criminals and coup-plotters to obtain their own goals.

Does anyone seriously believe this will “Make America Great Again”?

William Petrie, Richland

Support vital energy tax credits

I want to thank Representative Newhouse for joining 20 House Republican Conference members in support of maintaining sector-wide energy tax credits from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

More than 80 percent of the $129 billion build-out of the Inflation Reduction Act and associated tens of thousands of jobs go to Republican congressional districts.

In our 4th Congressional District, there are 17 energy or manufacturing projects worth $5.4 billion that depend on IRA tax credits. Statewide there are $8 billion in projects.

Without these energy credits a shortage of electric power in the future is predicted due to increasing residential and industry (e.g. data centers) energy demands.

If electricity tax credits are repealed, residential electricity prices are predicted to increase by 14.6% and commercial/industrial electricity prices will rise by 18.8%.

In the spirit of Earth Day, I hope that we can all come together and support these vital energy tax credits and the environmental and economic benefits they bring to our region.

Sara Cate, Yakima

Plastic bag bans are right solution

In the recent op-ed published by The Herald about Washington’s bag ban, Meyers argues that the U.S. contributes little to the ocean plastic pollution crisis, but this is far from the truth.

The decade-old research Meyers cited has since been updated and found that the U.S. is the third-biggest contributor to ocean plastic pollution and number one generator of plastic waste globally.

When it comes to plastic bags specifically, Americans are estimated to use 100 billion plastic grocery bags each year, and plastic bags are also one of the most commonly found items polluting beaches and waterways worldwide.

Furthermore, numerous studies have found that plastic pollution is highly deadly to marine life – even a single piece of plastic swallowed has been shown to kill a seabird, and baby sea turtles have died from swallowing less than half a sugar cube worth of plastic.

Bans are proven to be effective in reducing plastic bag pollution. So while there’s no silver bullet to the plastic pollution crisis, we know that when it comes to plastic bags, bans are the right solution.

Anja Brandon, Ocean Conservancy, Portland, Ore.