Education letters 7/27

Tenure is not the problem in schools

John D. Marshall’s tired condemnation of tenure is symptomatic of blame-shifting by too many administrators and private school snobs like the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School head. Tenure protects academic freedom. It never has nor ever will protect incompetence. Administrators do a good enough job of that themselves.

U.S. public schools will not be the envy of the world as long as myopic critics blame poor performance on tenure rather than addressing inner city and rural poverty, poorly educated parents, faddish educational “reforms” and aloof administrators. Good education is no secret. It takes parents who expect performance from their children, dedicated teachers and administrators who discipline.

Let’s end this silly apples and oranges comparison between private schools/charter schools and public schools. The former are successful because adults want them to succeed. The later are not because adults neglect and marginalize them.


Frank Ruechel, Kennesaw


Quality requires a return to the basics

There’s an easy answer to Maureen Downey’s question about what is a good school, but we’ll likely never see it put into practice: Go back to the three R’s. Texting, Twittering and anything that doesn’t require studying fills most of the today’s students days.

When children can’t read well or don’t know math basics, they will fail at secondary and college levels. Computers are fine teaching tools, but they’ll never replace reckoning based on a firm knowledge of numbers and how to express those numbers.

My great-granddaughter is in the second grade and is reading at a fifth-grade level, and she’s learning her tables: And she wouldn’t be doing this well without her mother’s dedicated help. Also, no teacher will ever be able to teach without the authority to remove unruly students from the classroom.


Jack Franklin, Conyers


Benefits would multiply if schools trimmed days

I thought Murray County’s idea of longer hours and fewer school days was brilliant. I think it should become the law of the land. Do the math: Multiply the anticipated $124,000 in savings to Murray County by 180, the number of school systems in the state. The savings would be almost $22 million.

Multiply that by 50 states, and it’s more than a billion dollars in annual savings.

The school kids would love to be out three full months (like we were as kids), June, July and hot, hot August. Just think of how many gallons of fuel would be saved by this simple idea.

If we had 100 good ideas like this one, we would actually start to get our budget and fuel problems under control. Maybe even one day start to see the positive changes that we were so promised in the election.

Dottie Green, Kingston

It’s their politics, not degrees, that matter

Maureen Downey’s article on whether voters will elect a governor without a college degree was very interesting. I think you can consider the issue from another point of view: Washington is full of college-educated idiots.

The column cites Casey Cagle and Karen Handel. While I don’t intend to vote for either of them, it has nothing to do with their education or lack thereof. It has to do with their politics. One of the best congressmen to represent Georgia was Mac Collins, who didn’t have a college education.

I am one citizen who does not consider formal education when considering a candidate. I might use it as a tie-breaker, but otherwise, no, I don’t consider it.

Fred N. Chitwood, Rex