‘Educational ‘Progress’ Leaves Youths Behind

Re “Educational Catastrophe Didn’t Come Cheap,” Commentary, April 11: I agree that the $125 billion spent over the last 25 years has produced dismal results, but I know what problems Michael Kelly avoided mentioning. Has he not thought about the role parents in the past have played in their children’s education, such as having books in the house, tutoring them, talking positively about school and education, seeing that they do their homework and be in school every day? Has he not thought about latchkey children who need a parent at home instead of the luxuries which seem more important?

Has he wondered about how television has preempted reading and conversation that leads to cultural literacy, without which reading comprehension becomes more difficult? Is he aware of the effects of coarseness on the big screen and TV that affects classroom behavior? What about poor diets, dismal school facilities, thousands of unprepared teachers and ignorant tinkering by politicians?

LEONARD DOERFLER

Huntington Beach

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Kelly misses the obvious point. If the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress results indicate that the nation is becoming more and more divided along class lines, then the challenge to President Bush (“I will leave no child behind”) is to reduce the separation between the classes. No, it’s not about school vouchers and more testing. It’s about using the budget surplus to help the working poor achieve a decent standard of living. When the parents of poor children can afford to work only one job, buy a computer, sign their kids up for SAT prep classes and just have the time to read to their children, I think we’ll see a significant decrease in the gap in reading achievement scores.

LISA ALIZADEH

San Clemente