Sunday’s “Island Voices” commentary supporting NextEra’s takeover of Hawaiian Electric Co. rests on the questionable assertion the result will be “lower electric bills” (“Hawaiian Electric with NextEra would free up capital for local needs,” Star-Advertiser, Jan. 31).

This will magically supercharge Hawaii’s economy and generate billions of dollars in tax revenues to solve a long list of critical needs from fixing the roads to housing the homeless.

What the authors fail to explain is that this wonderful outcome lies decades in the uncertain future.

They highlight the fact that NextEra presumably will invest billions of dollars in Hawaii’s electricity system. However, they admit that “ratepayers will pay for those investments through their bills over time.”

That will take decades, after which there may or may not be the “lower electric bills” that, by their own logic, are key to producing Hawaii’s miracle economy.

The argument that the arrival of NextEra promises a windfall of billions of new dollars sounds like pie in the sky.

David Leake

Kaneohe

Let teachers arrange travel for students

The Hawaii State Ethics Commission’s decision against teachers accepting free travel from tour companies that arrange school travel was a legalistic, nitpicking and inhumane decision with no regard for the welfare of the teachers or children affected (“Bill defies a warning to prohibit teachers’ free travel,” Star-Advertiser, Jan. 30).

Life is not black and white, and these ethics rules, while important to fight corruption in cases of serious infringement of public employees, are not helping anyone here.

Teachers are underpaid as it is and most already subsidize classroom materials out of their own pockets. Hawaii teachers especially face an extremely high cost of living, and they’re obviously limited by geography; to give their students exposure to greater U.S. culture and history beyond the borders of the island of their residence, they must fly.

Tour companies have always offered freebies to group leaders. Without this benefit, most teachers would never be able to afford travel costs.

Let’s pass House Bill 1713 and do the right thing by Hawaii’s children.

Gene Vricella

Manoa

Students gain a lot from off-island trips

This letter supports teachers who receive complimentary travel while acting as chaperones for school trips (“Bill defies a warning to prohibit teachers’ free travel,” Star-Advertiser, Jan. 30).

I retired from the state Department of Education some years ago and we regularly took our students on field trips. In Central District, we would have a weekend leadership curriculum at Camp Erdman for all of our students council officers. In addition, we had a partnership with the military so our sixth-graders had an overnighter on the battleship Missouri.

This was hard work for teachers and chaperones, with 24-hour shifts. Students absolutely benefited and parents were grateful. Off-island trips are more demanding.

In an era of high-stakes test taking, educational trips have an even more important role to play. It seems unethical to take them away.

Jim Wolfe

Nuuanu

Dengue battlefield is challenge for Ige

U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard blasted Gov. David Ige for not declaring a dengue fever health emergency for Hawaii island, and that triggered a memory of old folks saying “gambatte kudasai,” urging us to keep going and to do our best in challenging times.

Why? Because the governor’s lack of action is a way of telling those of us in the dengue battlefield, “gambatte kudasai.”

This means spending food money for repellents that poison us throughout the prolonged epidemic; being worn down by the daily fear of being bitten by an infected mosquito; hundreds who have contracted dengue could contract another strain of dengue with risky health complications; pregnant mothers are at risk for fetal complications; more small children will suffer greatly; and we won’t have a good protocol in place when the Zika virus hits.

I hope Ige will do his best for us in this challenging emergency. Gambatte kudasai!

Merle Hayward

Hilo

Clinton telling truth about her emails

Shame on The New York Times article and Star-Advertiser’s misleading headline about Hillary Clinton’s emails (“Clinton server held ‘top-secret’ emails,” Star-Advertiser, Jan. 30).

The headline should have read, “Clinton’s email version confirmed.”

As she has repeatedly said, no material termed classified at the time came or went from her computer. Current review of these more than 10-year-old emails indicate classification has been changed in subsequent review. That is not Clinton’s fault.

This article misleadingly places the facts supporting Clinton five paragraphs into the article. State Department representative John Kirby said that “none of the emails had been marked at any level of classification at anytime they were sent through Clinton server.” That quote should have been the lead and the headline should have so stated.

Hillary haters have for a long time tried to make a bad issue out of these facts where none exists. They should give it up.

Jane Wylie

Makiki

Cooler schools could use IT upgrade, too

It is refreshing to hear that Gov. David Ige has placed a comfortable learning environment for our schools on his short list of priorities (“Ige vows to cool 1,000 classrooms,” Star-Advertiser, Jan. 26).

Let’s also not miss the opportunity to include technology teaching tools when designing the electrical infrastructure upgrades.

Jason C. Takara

Palolo