LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Public Schools are easy target for critics

Posted

TO THE EDITOR:

As a retired public school teacher I wish to take issue with a recent editorial in the RI Catholic entitled “Educational emancipation through voucher needed in the Ocean State too.”

In my 35 years of teaching never once did I, or my colleagues think that our students were enslaved in a broken and failing public school system. Quite to the contrary, classroom achievements were more than satisfactory and often outstanding. The records are there for all to see. Anyone who is so inclined could easily go from Woonsocket to Westerly, in schools large and small, and see the amazing work being done by dedicated teachers working, in many cases, under the adverse conditions of limited budgets and constant criticism.

Public schools, perhaps more than any institution reflect every facet of society. They are easy targets for critics. Public schools by legal mandate must accept every child who walks through the door and, at the same time, teach them, protect them, feed them, nurse them, counsel them and send them out as productive citizens. A daunting task!

No one would deny that problems exist. Much work remains to be done, but much work is being done.

Vouchers and charter schools, while they may have merit, simply decrease desperately needed revenue to public schools.

It is very easy to speak in generalities and to toss around words like “failure,” “enslavement” and “elite,” but it adds little to the dialogue. Denigrating one system for the sake of another is intellectually dishonest.

In the end, our common goal should be a literate populace. Society demands as much.

Deacon John Needham

Rumford