January 13, 2014
To: news1@callnewspapers.com, letters@post-dispatch.com
Subject: Your article "Top Story of 2013"
The Call recently reported that the top story of 2013 was the "Riverview Gardens" decision to bus students to Mehlville. Might I suggest that this story is just a small part of much larger story, which is government's (at all levels) inability to focus on what is causing a problem and actually fix it.
Justifiably concerned Mehlville parents were told "not to worry", that their concern should be with these children who have to travel miles just to get an education. But as parents, their first concern should be with THEIR own children who attend a school which already has very limited resources and which voluntarily took on the education of the children of others.
Certainly we know that education is important to all children and the best way for a better life for any child is a good education. Let’s not forget who it is who actually is failing the students in the failing districts. It is THEIR own districts where the majority of their students STILL must attend the failing schools. Shouldn't we put the focus on attempting to change and fix the school BEFORE they fail? I am sure it did not happen overnight.
Since 1979 when the Department of Education was established, we have spent Billions of Dollars but seen the quality of education in public schools steadily decline as well as our national tests scores decrease in ranking compared to other nations. We rarely hear political candidates voice their solutions to these problems.
How about this? If government can't seem to focus and/or fix problems, maybe the "problem" IS government and maybe the FIX is to give government as little control as possible. Though I have not read the State Law that allows students from a failing district to travel outside of their district to a non-failing one, I would assume that there are provisions that actually require the schools to make certain changes when they get a "failing" grade. It would seem that allowing a small percentage of their students to travel outside the failing district would spread the problem and stress the receiving districts making them even closer to failure. Perhaps the focus should be on stopping the decline first.