Letters: Housing, education and more

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Kai Ryssdal: We’re going to start letters today with the housing industry — one woman’s take on it, and frankly, part of why there was the boom and then the bust. A lot of you wrote about my chat with author Meghan Daum and her book about the ups and downs of searching for that perfect house. Bill Gee wrote from Morristown, N.J., to say that he identifies with Meghan’s need to find that house, but he does wish she’d gone one step further in her reflections.

BILL GEE: That perhaps she had learned something from her mistakes like I did. There are much more important things in life than owning a crumbling piece of infrastructure in the vain hope of turning it into your “dream home.”

Our story about state budget cuts and public schools got some letters. Best estimates are that 300,000 teachers and staff members across the country might lose their jobs as a result. One thing that’s going to happen as a result of that is bigger classes. Nothing, says Jared Van Leeuwen of Kirkland, Wash., to really worry about.

Jared Van Leeuwen: When I was in elementary school, the smallest class size I was in was 32. Yet I still graduated from university, have a good paying job, and feel that I am well-rounded.

The chairman of the Washington Post Company said last week he’s thinking about selling Newsweek. It was taken as just another nail in the print-media coffin — fighting, as it is, what looks to be a losing fight against digital. Richard Shore from Albany, N.Y., doesn’t believe it.

RICHARD SHORE: How about train stations? Greyhound bus stations? Subway stations? Crowded city blocks? My point: There will always be a marketplace for the hard-copy media of this world.

In our Mother’s Day commentary, Betsy Stevenson pondered children as measured against happiness. Does having them make parents happier? That touched a nerve among parents and non-parents alike. Wil Schrieber of Ely, Nev., offered this.

Wil Schrieber: Asking a mother, “knowing what you know now, would you still choose to have kids,” can be like asking a politician if he supports a government-sponsored day of prayer. Society at large will only accept one answer; and you definitely don’t want your children to ever suspect that they are less than the sum of all your ambitions.