Letter to the Editor: Boothe

Dear Editor

Thomas Sowell is a writer with whom I can generally relate. Although he can be radically conservative, quite opinionated with political issues, his article in the Sanford Herald on Aug. 17 was one I found myself at extreme odds with and take umbrage with most of his criticism.
As an experienced public school educator, I am sickened by the continuous castigation of schools in America. Seemingly, the fusillade of attacks if repeated over and over, no matter how erroneous, can often leave a residue of untruths often perpetrated incorrectly. I heard the same mantra at Donald Trump’s address this past week when apparently his speech writer repeated the same boast about “charter” schools, the need to eliminate tenure, the selfishness of teachers, and the evils of unions.
Anyone who has been in the position of hiring or firing knows that due process is provided assuring equity and fairness. One cannot be arbitrary and capricious if one is dealing properly with another’s employment. In all of the cases where I had to terminate an employee, tenure did not impede the process.
Ironically, 98% of the employees knew teaching just wasn’t for them. If you work or have worked under a tyrannical environment, you know all too well the importance of justice. To repeat over and over, the word tenure with the belief that it is among the evils in public schools along with the other memorized, critical terms and the insistence that charter schools are the answer simply doesn’t make the argument. Most who work in public schools will say, “Wait a minute.” Shifting millions of dollars to small, unregulated, unaccountable schools where non-credentialed educators often lack professional standards is not the panacea and can never be comparable to public schools and the demands placed upon schools and their employees.
Such attacks, even by Sowell, are cheap, slanted, right-winged, and a creation of those wanting to privatize schools. When the doors are closed upon all American students, from all walks of life, from all cultures, religious groups, intellectual strengths or deficiencies, and from differing economic and ethnic backgrounds, we will return to the old “separate but equal” existence where narrowness of bigotry, bias, and condemnation thrived. Yes, some charter schools have brought wonderful outcomes. Too often I reflect upon the tales such as the $500,000-paid principal in Orange County who even hired her hubby for a hefty salary while teachers made $8 an hour. Quality? I don’t think so.

Dr. Beverly Baird Boothe
Sanford, Fla.