Editorial Letters Continue

Well said!:

Transfers education driven

I am writing in response to The Press Sept. 18 article "Like us or leave us, GR board tells parents." Shame on Grand Rapids Board of Education member Arnie Smithalexander! Parents are not trying to transfer their children out because of how other children look. Who's racist now?

I am a Grand Rapids citizen, and thank goodness my children do not attend the Grand Rapids Public Schools. Yes, I am one of those parents, a lucky one! They do not attend for one simple reason: academic standards. It seems to me parents want out now because of remarks made by a GRPS boardmember. Who can blame them now? They are only thinking about their children's education, not racism!

-- BARB JACOBS/Grand Rapids

Lower school costs

I am responding to the Sept. 19 Press article "Can low-funded schools catch up?" Low-funded schools? Wake up, Michigan! So our public schools are struggling with unequal spending per child per district? That is unfortunate, but look at the amount being spent. The lowest amount listed per student for 2006-07 was $7,100 (Comstock Park). And that price doesn't even include the cost of the buildings.

We send our children to a local Christian school where our students are educated for about $6,000 per year. That includes paying for our buildings. Shame on our state government for the waste of spending that is going on in our public schools.

As a taxpayer, I would love it if our state government gave me a voucher for $7,100 to pay for our kids' Christian school tuition.

The whole system needs a higher level of accountability in order to break the monopoly that the Michigan Education Association has over our schools. Equal rights for taxpayers! Let parents choose where that per-pupil funding goes! That would introduce competition between schools, which would lower cost and increase quality in all the schools.

-- MEG CUSACK

Grand Rapids