Letters to the Editor

I have some questions regarding Philadelphia's public-school violence crisis ("Assault on learning," Tuesday):

With Catholic elementary schools closing because of low enrollment, couldn't we save some by merging them with poorly performing public schools?

As I sit here in my lily-white school district, should I wonder if segregation is really illegal?

As Pennsylvania has 501 school districts, each paying a superintendent about $200,000, should we consolidate them all into one statewide district (or at least into 67 county-wide school districts) to save money? If we did, we'd address the questions above, and the cycle of poverty, and many other problems that haunt Philadelphia, Norristown, and Chester would eventually disappear.

Should we continue to throw money at education, especially at the Philadelphia School District, which has a $600 million deficit?

Ron DiNicola

Collegeville

rond21953@aol.com

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I taught school for 35 years, 28 of them in Philadelphia. I worked with remarkable people who on a daily basis worked to keep our schools safe havens. We were clear about what we would and would not tolerate, and so were several of our administrators. We had fights in our rooms and in our schools, and were always told to handle our problems in-house. When, occasionally, a disruptive student was transferred to another school or a disciplinary setting, we'd get another equally disruptive student in the revolving-door policy established by district leadership.

That Superintendent Arlene Ackerman claims never to have had such occurrences in her classrooms and in her schools would be as much attributable to good fortune as to some specific knack that she had that she believes so many teachers today do not. If Ackerman really said this, she owes an apology to the hardworking teachers who, on a daily basis, attempt to do themselves the job that rightfully belongs to our society as a whole.

Stephanie Harper

Swarthmore

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If Arlene Ackerman were the great leader she believes herself to be, she would acknowledge that the failures in the Philadelphia public schools are more complex than simply bad teaching. She must take into account the poverty level in the district, the lack of parental involvement, and the absence of resources. In many classes, teachers are not even supplied with basics such as paper.

I don't doubt that there are some bad teachers, just as there are bad apples in every profession. But I am certain that the path to a better school system is not one that includes destroying the morale of all the teachers in the district.

Relentless violence in the classroom interferes with good teaching. And it is not the teachers who are inciting the violence.

Kristin Vosburg

Philadelphia

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That parents must send their innocent children into dangerous schools is both tragic and unfair. Bad kids come from bad parents, peers, and places. Intensive corrective programs such as the restorative justice community counseling program used with effect in Baltimore can be helpful, but a more incisive solution is to remove violent children from their circumstances and have them raised by the state.

John Brodsky

Swarthmore

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Doesn't anyone get it? The teachers are afraid of the principal. The principal is afraid of the administration. The administration is afraid of the parents. The parents are afraid of the children. The children aren't afraid of anything.

Ronni Weinberg

North Wales

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As usual, talking heads seek to exhibit some sort of wisdom about the meaning of President Obama's decision to intervene in Libya according to their own personal interests ("Obama calls Libya action successful," Tuesday).

Obama's conundrum is how to satisfy both sides of the argument. This is perhaps his last chance to put his own stamp on U.S. foreign policy. And hopefully, by observing the fallout from his action, by observing the activities of his political enemies and his putative allies, he will finally seek to develop a more involved and populist leadership stance, both in foreign and domestic policy.

Howard A. Jones

West Chester

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The decision to go into Libya without a vote by Congress is more evidence that we are headed to a dictatorship (Tuesday). Informing a few members of Congress does not satisfy the constitutional requirement that it is up to Congress to declare war. The legal course at the United Nations was a sham.

Since when can only the president, the secretary of state, and a few advisers take the country into a conflict?

Joseph Andrews

Ambler

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Steve Kelley's cartoon (Friday) poking fun at Elizabeth Taylor's marriages, only a few days after her death, was ill-timed and in poor taste. This woman was honored for her humanitarian work. I'm confident that countless other subscribers were also not amused.

Harvey Cohen

Sewell