Kudos to you C.J. Carnacchio (re: Making a deal with the Devil). I agree 200 percent.
My biggest question is: Why is this a Dr. Skilling and/or Oxford School Board decision (to use school property to allow the building of a dormitory for Chinese/international students)? Why doesn’t this come before the taxpaying residents of Oxford for a vote as to whether we want our tax dollars spent on educating Chinese and other foreign students.
Maybe everyone should Google ‘Confucius Never Said? by Helen Raleigh. That’s a real eye-opener about modern Chinese history.
Years ago, my family hosted a student from Japan for one school year. The purpose was to expose the student to a different lifestyle and also to give a new view of education?..American style. It was also a good experience to share the Japanese culture with my family. In no way did this great exchange of cultures have anything to do with ‘global economics.? It was a ‘living experience? for all involved. It has been almost 30 years and my family and my exchange student and her family still stay in touch through Facebook and phone calls and my exchange student’s return visits with her family back to Oxford.
However, bringing in 200 foreign students (mostly Chinese) is over-the-top for any foreign student exchange program.
Have the people here in Oxford forgotten the Communist Regime in China?
Personally, I do not want my children or grandchildren or great grandchildren to be exposed to the Chinese way of thinking. I’m not blaming the students, but my gut tells me there is a red herring in here somewhere. If things are so great in China, why do they want to ship their students to Oxford for education?
There is a hidden Chinese government agenda in there somewhere. Where did all the Chinese corporations get their money to buy up so much land in the United States and build so many buildings and invest in so many U.S. corporations? Why do they need our oil? Why do we sell them our oil? And why do we pay so much for our own gasoline? One of the worst sins of late is the fact that a lot of our American flags are made in China. Doesn’t that seem wrong to you?
On another matter ? if the top scholarly students need the Chinese language to succeed in the new global marketplace, why not do it in college? Oxford Grade School, Oxford Middle School and Oxford High School should be concentrating on getting the ‘average? students through the education system and back to basics with reading, writing legibly and basic math skills.
This nation still needs carpenters, plumbers, electricians, auto mechanics, painters, factory workers, truck drivers, bus drivers, cooks, food servers and general maintenance workers.
I don’t think learning the Chinese language and culture will make them any better at their chosen fields of employment. I’m sure they will do just fine with English.
There has been a lack of guidance and concern on the part of the Oxford Schools for some time now with regard to educating to the best of their ability the average students, not just the high-achievers.
I would ask this whole Chinese matter be tabled and put to a vote of the people of Oxford, not just Dr. Skilling and the Chinese people.
P. T . Pitel
Oxford

We object to turning our school property into housing by the Weiming (Education) Group. This should have had a vote of the people to give away our school property.
It will be our monies paying to educate these 200 foreign students with state taxes. Then we will be funding them after the first year as their tuition money won’t cover all their expenses.
Also, we will be at 100 percent capacity for our school building, so we will be asked to fund a new school in a couple years. We would rather see the property used to build a vocational education building for our students and let the Chinese government pay to educate their students.
We are being taken advantage of BIG time by China, the Weiming Group, our school board and (Superintendent) Mr. (William) Skilling.
Carolyn Boots
Addison
Editor’s Note: The state foundation allowance goes to the general fund to support all students. That allowance is only paid for foreign students in the first year. Taxpayer money will not be covering them in the second year. The second year is covered by the $10,000 tuition the students pay. ? Staff Writer Trevor Keiser