Paul Noel’s May 23 letter “Search for cause of deficiency” advocating judging the value of schools on a business model of “costs vs. benefits” is far afield. This kind of mentality drives legislative action, including funding for schools, as well as the push for ludicrous levels of testing.
In every year from 1944 to 2002, I spent at least nine months in public schools. Don’t try to tell me of “woefully deficient and getting worse by the year” public schools. Even when asked to meet the needs of more and more of society’s ills, today’s schools are better and today’s teachers better qualified. More students are graduating and more are attending college or specialized training.
While I cheer the success of the “son of immigrants from Europe” mentioned as Noel’s example of superior education from an European school, I can point to a huge number of superb students, born, raised and educated in local public schools who have excelled and achieved marvelous accomplishments in every field of human endeavor. The nonsense espoused by this letter does nothing but apply the whip to those who are passionate about their work and know they’re doing a good job. They don’t deserve this kind of criticism any more than they deserve to be evaluated on the basis of student tests that are poorly designed and help no one except the corporations supplying the tests.
Students are not products. They are complex human beings. Schools deserve funding and public support.