Education markers point to loss of academic rigor
Re: Maureen Downey’s column, “Let’s pause before cheering Georgia’s high school grad rate” (Oct. 17), I am an accounting professor and my students learn to be very wary when one key number is moving opposite of other indicators.
For example, they know to be on guard if management says that sales are up, but they can clearly see that the number of customers and employees is down. This type of unusual pattern is precisely what Maureen Downey is noting in the high school realm: graduation rates are up to historic highs, but many other indicators of educational quality and student learning are down, some markedly so.
Such a pattern is suspicious and calls the credibility of the diploma into question.
The heavy push toward higher graduation rates in both high school and college is, I fear, inducing an entirely predictable reaction among many educators and administrators: dumb it down and get ‘em through. Ultimately, a loss of academic rigor will have terrible consequences for our country, including an ill-informed citizenry and an inability to compete globally.
DANA R. HERMANSON, MARIETTA
House Republicans should move toward bipartisanship
The Republican tax cut of 2018 was always intended to be a battering ram to be used to cut spending.
Republicans never worried about deficits when they had the White House. It’s only when they think they can force Democrats to make cuts that you witness the foolishness we saw on a recent weekend.
Mainstream Republicans knew they would get blamed for a government shutdown, so they were willing to make a deal to keep the government running. In fact, it was the MAGA crowd that was driving towards a shutdown, mainly because Donald Trump wanted it.
It’s time to move past the MAGA narrative and take more steps toward bipartisanship. Sadly, Trump missed out on the job he was truly qualified for. He lost Wheel of Fortune to Ryan Seacrest.
BOB LOWTHER, DALLAS
