Myles B. Hoenig's "Stop scapegoating teachers" (June 16) acknowledges the failed state of the public education system but failed to offer any solutions to the problem other than to say that blaming teachers isn't one of them.
What do we know? First, we know that there is a problem in public education, that our children test very poorly relative to those in other countries and that if we don't fix the problem we are in all likelihood doomed as a global economic superpower.
Second, we know that the answer does not lie in public school funding, which has increased at a tremendous rate over the last few decades and which is at the very top of education spending in the world.
Third, we have no reason to believe that American children today are any stupider than previous generations of Americans or than other children around the globe.
Finally, we know that the only glimmers of hope come from charter and private schools that have as their primary objective distancing themselves from typical public school administration policies.
Hence, I'd like to know exactly what Mr. Hoenig thinks we should do to fix the education system. Finger-pointing is no longer good enough — politicians at administrators, administrators at teachers, teachers at parents and parents back at the politicians. Someone has to be accountable.
A primary focus of the Save Our Schools organization that Mr. Hoenig touts is on ending the use of testing for the purpose of evaluating students, teachers and schools. What does Mr. Hoenig propose we put in its place? How should we evaluate teachers, or shouldn't we even try?
Do we have the right to fire underperforming employees, or do we go back to the days of the New York City rubber-rooms, where incompetent teachers sit and read the newspaper all day while waiting to collect their pensions?
Mr. Hoenig apparently didn't like the movie "Waiting for Superman." But I think it should be required viewing for any teacher, administrator or politician who has a say in public education.
Michael DeCicco, Severn