Just for openers, I have a degree in elementary education and taught fourth grade. I have a dyslexic child who has suffered in public and private schools. Home schooling would have been the perfect solution for us, but I was unaware of that option.

I have been engaged in the problems of government schools as a parent. I know of the arrogance “educrats” take towards those who dare question: Why can’t our kids spell, read at grade level, give correct change or even hold a pencil correctly? We used to do all these things before socialist John Dewey and his band of “progressive educators” took over our once highly successful education system.

I was taught phonics, and my younger brother was taught the look-say, whole-word, Dick-and-Jane nonsense. He is a verbal cripple. He’s not alone. College graduates, military officers, teachers and, yes, newspaper journalists have trouble writing and spelling today. One newspaper described a five-course meal as a “five coarse meal.” The computer’s Spell Check system flunked its designed purpose of correcting misspellings. So did the editor.

Over 100,00o studies on the problem of teaching reading literacy have concluded that phonics teaches children the secret to decoding a word, which eliminates guesswork. So why do we allow the more-money-is-better gang to hold us up again by saying they have developed newer and better methods of teaching? It’s hard to improve on what has always worked when used.

North Carolina has invested nearly $1 billion in the past several years for “education reform.” We have learned that master’s degrees confer no advantages and reducing class size has little effect on test scores. (John Hood in Carolina Journal, “When Dollars Fail,” Oct./Nov. 1999).

Who really cares for our children? The teachers unions, and state/federal bureaucrats protecting their $90,000-$125,000 salaries, while teachers (paid, on average, $36,141.00) must follow their mandates? Or the parents who pay twice, once for the failed government system and again for private, parochial or Christian day schools? Boston Tea Party, anybody?

Bonnie Dougherty