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We must defend
foreign students’ rights

Re: “Loss of visas is jolting to colleges” (Page A1, April 8).

Grant Stringer reports that the Trump administration has revoked the visas of dozens of Bay Area students, merely for demonstrating or speaking against the U.S.-funded massacres in Gaza. Students at Berkeley, Stanford, San Jose State and other schools now face deportation and live in fear of ICE raids.

These students have broken no laws. They are not endangering or harming Jewish people in any way. Yet, they are called terrorist-supporting and antisemitic because they oppose the Israel-U.S. slaughter in the Middle East.

As a Jewish Bay Area resident, I say protect these academics’ and all of our rights to speak and protest. Our universities are among our greatest treasures; we must protect them from a government that attacks education and speech, and calls it “fighting antisemitism.” These attacks are not about protecting Jews; they’re about continuing Israel-U.S. wars.

David Spero
San Francisco

Require teaching kids
about financial literacy

Financial literacy should be a mandatory class in high schools and colleges. Many young people graduate without understanding how credit works, how to manage debt or even how to budget their income. These are real-life skills that affect every aspect of adult life, but they’re often overlooked in our education system.

With rising student loan debt, inflation and economic uncertainty, it’s more important than ever to teach students how to make smart financial decisions. A required financial literacy course could cover topics like saving, investing, credit, taxes and more, empowering students with the tools they need to succeed.

If we truly want to prepare the next generation for the future, we need to stop treating financial education like an option instead of a priority.

Edwyn Burgara-Arias
San Jose

Tariff strategy was
built on another lie

It has been reported that Peter Navarro, who convinced Trump that tariffs are a great idea, had cited a supposed economic expert named Ron Vara to support his theory. It turns out that Vara is a made-up person, a bald-faced lie.

There was no expert, so the very idea of reckless use of tariffs that has rocked the world is based on a fraud, like much else in this administration.

Larry Guernsey
San Jose

DOGE defender is one
who must open eyes

Re: “Protests dishonor work of DOGE, Musk” (Page A6, April 10).

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Letters: Protesters misguided in targeting Tesla

Perhaps it is the writer from Hollister who needs to “open his eyes.” Does he really believe that in a short two weeks or two months, careful analysis and auditing were done to determine that more than 100,000 people should be fired from numerous government positions?

He believes there is a patriotic bone in Elon Musk’s body. But if there was, then Musk would not accept contract money for his own benefit while working in the White House. It is a clear conflict of interest. In spite of his Tesla brand suffering, he will make millions of dollars on the backs of taxpayers.

Maxine Shea
San Jose

Tariffs fly in face
of economic reality

President Trump’s tariffs are a “ruin-thy-neighbor” effort, a philosophy he thinks is wise, even brilliantly wise, but it isn’t.

God bless Trump, for he needs a blessing. He should go to an economic church and listen to the sermon. Perhaps he will learn something and will change his behavior, but do not hold your breath that he or his advisers will do this or are even capable of comprehending long-known economic concepts.

In the meantime, everyone’s economic situation will worsen, especially those of retirees and low-income families. What a crying shame.

When you add in the large number of government workers being laid off (by Elon Musk, Trump’s unelected oligarch co-president), the situation in the United States only gets worse. Especially cruel and onerous is laying off aid workers, educators, researchers and veterans.

Normal citizens, grab your life vests. The American ship is sinking.

Larry Dorshkind
Redwood City

Column exposes
threat tariffs pose

Re: “How tariffs destroy what makes America great” (Page A7, April 4).

What makes America great are columns like those by David Brooks.

Brooks starts by including the Bay Area with the most innovative places in world history. He references other writers, too, discussing places, networks and channels for ideas. He continues with the importance of America’s great universities that include foreign students. And, finally, Brooks outlines the values that make America so great — in a word: cosmopolitan … having roots in one town, but “treasuring and learning” from others.

I’ll practice what his column preaches tonight by “putting myself in an unfamiliar situation” — ballroom dancing with a Bay Area and Asian vibe.

Jerry Sheahan
San Jose