Blame School Politicos for Low Test Scores

Re “State High School Exit Exam Gets Poor Grades From Activists,” March 4:

There seems to be a direct link between parents shouting “Hey, hey, ho, ho, exit exams have got to go!” and Iraq anti-war protesters chanting “One, two, three, four, we don’t want to go to war!” They are all products of a pathetic school system that swamps society with mental dwarfs who after 10 years of schooling are “freaked out” and “totally overwhelmed by the sheer demand” placed upon them to find answers to embarrassingly simple test questions.

The dismal statistics cited in the article are hardly new and should come as no surprise. They are direct reflections and the result of continued massive failures of a corrupt political culture that allows the plundering of taxpayers’ pockets year after year under the pretext of improving public schools. What is most tragic is that an apathetic public seems paralyzed into inaction while banner-toting activists and their apologists espouse the abolition of criteria used to measure a student’s academic competence. The UC Board of Regents’ recent inexcusable, politically motivated recommendation to abolish the SAT opened a Pandora’s box.

In a competitive world requiring increasingly more knowledge, only the best have a chance. The statistics of non-performers and underachievers as reported by your article paint an ominous scenario for the generation of tomorrow.

Dan Fenske

Fountain Valley