Unfettered Letters

Help someone learn to read

Mary Sanchez’s column “Dropout rate shows it’s not just students failing” (3/24, Opinion) rightfully takes the school system to task for poor academic performance in area schools. Whether or not the school district is entirely to blame, one sad fact is certain: about 250,000 Kansas City adults read below the fifth-grade level and are considered functionally illiterate.

Poor readers who have the courage to step forward and say “I need help” can turn to the remarkable program at Literacy Kansas City, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is “literacy for all.” Its unique system of one-to-one, phonetics-based tutoring has so far helped more than 4,000 area adults learn to read. About one half of the students in our program have high school diplomas.

Area illiteracy is one problem you can help solve. Literacy Kansas City is now in critical need of volunteer tutors. If you like to read and want to make a difference in your community, call 816-333-9332 and attend the next volunteer orientation meeting. You have the power to personally help an adult whom the schools — and the system — have failed.

Mike Kreiter
Volunteer tutor, Literacy Kansas City
Overland Park

Improve education in Missouri

The Missouri State Legislature has a chance to “show me” that children and families are a priority by voting “yes for QRS.”
The Quality Rating System, House Bill 387, is a five-star rating system that will improve quality in early childhood and school-age programs across the state. Programs that voluntarily enroll in QRS will receive technical assistance, professional development for teachers and updated materials and equipment. QRS will raise public awareness as to what quality really means, and parents will be able use the star rating as a guide in choosing the best program for their child.
Missouri’s investment in high-quality programs for children will provide a substantial return through a reduction in the need for special education, social welfare programs and the criminal justice system. Missouri will also benefit economically because high-quality programs for children allow parents to work and children to succeed.
It is a win-win situation. Parents are working, teachers are working, and children are being well prepared for the future.
Mary Cosgrove Spence
Public policy chair, Missouri Association for the Education of Young Children
Kansas City

Sympathies to family and driver

My thoughts are with the fire truck driver going on a call, as well as the family of Obarimomoya Nkani, the boy who was killed as he tried to run across the street (3/3, Local, “Tragedy on student’s walk home”).

Any driver is subject to this chilling prospect. Children have to learn to avoid unsafe acts. But no matter how often they are cautioned to “be careful,” they are tempted to try to beat their better judgment.

Anyone who has watched “America’s Funniest Home Videos” on TV knows adults also lapse into childish thinking and bad examples. Only experience, instruction and example in being cautious are learned as one grows older.

To kill an animal running into traffic is a soul gripper, but to kill a child must be almost beyond solace.

Marvin Goodman
Lenexa

Learning from consequences

Reporter James Fussell is right on (3/7, FYI, “The success of failure; Cushioning the falls — for our children or our banks — might cause more harm in the long run”). History is important to understand what happened and the consequences. It is useful to learn from these consequences and change the behavior that caused the bad outcome.

The word “outcome” was popular in the ’90s, as in “outcome-based education.” There, no one was allowed to fail, and the brightest or hardest-working students were held back to wait for all the others.

When will this world ever learn that there is a right and wrong, hard work and honesty pay off, and consequences are the result of dishonesty or laziness? Not in this bailout society, whether in school or government.

Jan Langley
Kansas City

Save money and Kansas schools

Here is a plan to close the Kansas budget gap and save our public schools.

Cut spending by consolidating many of the too numerous rural school districts, which result in high administrative costs.

Shift revenue raised by the lottery and gaming to education and the general fund.

Raise revenue by restoring the oil severance tax to its historic levels prior to the cuts of recent years.

This plan helps public schools and the average taxpayer.

Bill Roush
Overland Park

Lessons from father

As we watch our privileged elected officials irresponsibly spend our dollars and continue to jeopardize our financial future as well as that of our children, some basic economic principles come to mind as shared with me by my father.

When I was a youngster, he taught me the importance of developing a respectable work ethic, coupled with disciplined savings. Along that idea, he shared the dangers associated with the temptation of credit cards and the immoral intent of credit-providing organizations.

My father also stressed the importance of purchasing American-made products exclusively, reflecting the value and importance of maintaining our manufacturing jobs, which are our economic foundation.

And without fail, the collection plate was always one envelope heavier when it passed our family.

Thanks Dad, for serving our blessed country, flying our flag, and leading by example with faith and integrity.

Christopher Scarcello
Kearney

Four-day school week bad idea

The Missouri House of Representatives granted approval to give Missouri school districts the option of going to a four-day school week (2/25, Local). The bill now moves forward to the Senate for approval. The reasoning behind this bill is to help our Missouri schools save valuable dollars.

I am a firm proponent of our school districts saving taxpayer money. However, is this idea the best that our legislators could come up with? Did they consider the financial stress that this option would put on the families of millions of Missouri children?

Most working parents have a five-day workweek with no option of moving to four days without losing salary. Those parents will then have to make care provisions for their children who are unable to stay home by themselves. This is an expensive proposition, as anyone with young children can attest.

Further, what about the thousands of hourly school employees who could lose a significant amount of income as a result of this option?

We are all struggling in this economy, but the ramifications of this bill reach much further than our legislators have taken into account.

William Crouse
Liberty

Gifted students need support

As an educator and parent of gifted children, I would like to recognize Missouri’s Gifted Education Week, March 1-7, by sharing some of the challenges our brightest students and their families face, and by dispelling the myth that smart kids don’t need support. It is harmful and incorrect to assume gifted students can make it on their own. Unfortunately, this assumption has led to an inadequate investment in gifted programs and teacher training, which often results in an inferior education for this student population.

Gifted students throughout the nation are, as a whole, underserved and overlooked, with high-achieving students from high-poverty communities hit the hardest. While low-performing students from disadvantaged backgrounds have made encouraging academic progress in recent years, the learning progress of their classmates who were initially high performers has stagnated. Recently, we’ve learned that U.S. student performance has remained flat in science and is only middle-of-the-pack compared with students around the world.

To regain our position as a world leader in education, lawmakers must focus now on getting these students what they need and deserve — an opportunity to do their best.

Sue Winter
Past president, Gifted Association of Missouri
Columbia, Mo.

Bravo to drill team

Thank you for the inspiring story of the Blenheim Elementary School drill team on the front page of The Star (2/26, A-1, “Days of thunder drum up new hope; Blenheim Elementary is bursting with pride over a drill team built from scratch”).

It is so encouraging to hear stories about people having the dream to help kids and the heart to get it done. I, too, believe they are changing lives, and I applaud them. Bravo!

Rosalind Jorn
Plattsburg, Mo.

Make sport of academics

Excellence through competition is primarily addressed to school boards, school officials and PTAs. Some people are misled by all the press and hoopla that sports is at the top in importance. However, there are some who believe education and learning should have the top spot in our schools.

Could we perhaps give some thought to the idea of the schools competing in head-to-head competitions in academics? Wouldn’t a school that sees it scored near the bottom in, say, the math competition, try a little harder? Wouldn’t The Star and other papers be enhanced by adding a section showing scores on academic competitions?

Vince Fellner
Belton