Readers views: Insulting story + educational priorities
Insulting story
Reporter Kayleigh Skinner from Mississippi Today should be fired.
When the top story and headline of my newspaper is a scolding for not meeting a quota that soothes the reporter’s liking, then that reporter needs to go. I don’t know Ms. Skinner’s background and credentials, nor do I care.
Her article on the democraphic makeup of the state Legislature was condescending, insulting and divisive in its entirety. It is articles like this one that are the reason people turn off the news and cancel subscriptions.
I would remind Ms. Skinner and the Sun Herald editors that nowhere in the Constitution does it say that voters need to meet a certain quota based on race, religion, sex, creed or political bent.
I also hold the editors who approved this article responsible as well. Do they know the job of an editor?
Adelbert L Wilber
Biloxi
Study the numbers
In America, it is extremely hard to get anything passed through Congress now.
This is due to the separation in ideology between Republicans and Democrats. This is seen in a graph on voteview.com, which shows both Republicans and Democrats trending in relation to the moderate side of American politics.
According to the chart on voteview.com, in 1980, both the Democrats and the Republicans both had overlapping views, but as time went by, Republicans started moving further away from the Democrats.
To put this into perspective, if you look at the same chart from voteview.com, one will see that the Democrats’ ideas have barely changed since they’ve had people in Congress, while the Republicans have seen massive changes in their party’s ideology.
The Republicans, in 1980, started moving further from the moderation line and gained 23 points away from the moderation line in 30 years, while Democrats have had changes that are regular minor fluctuations that happen in statistics. The move by Republicans is small, but causes the massive party controversy between Democrats and Republicans which holds Congress back from doing anything.
Brooks Richardson
Gulfport
Education priorities
An article appeared in the Sun Herald on Dec. 28 titled, “State officials: Exact teaching vacancy numbers unknown.” It discussed teacher certification, but absolutely nothing about education effectiveness. Perhaps more emphasis on how to improve education effectiveness would have been more appropriate. It seems the arrow is pointed in the wrong direction to guide education results.
Certainly education leaders who influence education decisions mean well in their efforts.
However it seems they’re distracted from improving the heart of education by focusing on the wagging tail.
It’s been well documented by research that dollars spent per student and upgrading the quality of teachers do not have a direct impact on education outcome. The state sales tax increase of 1 percent in the mid-1990s was to be earmarked specifically and only for education. Education results never improved.
The boldest education research survey ever conducted was the Equality of Educational Opportunity Survey conducted in 1966 by Professor James Coleman. It surveyed 567,148 students, 44,193 teachers, and 3,941 principals. Coleman’s original conclusion was that education effectiveness was determined more by family, cultural background and income than by anything the school hierarchy could offer.
Perhaps education leaders are distracted by only one of the three parts of education. That would be education opportunity. They haven’t acknowledged the other two parts: cultural conditioning and personal motivation. It’s unlikely these two can be targeted until a national acceptance of the clear purpose for education is established. A clear goal must exist to be achieved.
Will Clark
Diamondhead