Public schools no worse than private schoolsScott Burn’s article “Beltway blowhards are real American idiots,” about the public school system indicates he was educated in a private institution. To start, I would like him to take a little Web trip to nces.ed.gov to find the four best statistics for predicting the academic success of a student. You should notice that, while they include parents’ disposable income, how many parents are living with the child, how many hours of television the child watches per week and the number of books in the home, they fail to include whether or not the student attends a public or a private institution, or anything about a “formal” education. Though it is just pure speculation, I guess you would like to see more school voucher programs. While you may have an opinion that, in your area, it is common knowledge that private schools are usually better than public ones, statistically, you are wrong. Nationally, there is no difference in academic success based on whether or not a student attended public or private school; just go ask an education professor. A national voucher program would destroy the schools in America by draining money from public institutions and eventually you would see the best students would still be the ones from the wealthiest families. With no alternative for parents, after the system has destroyed the public system, the price of a private education would increase, and most students born in a low economic class would never have a chance to attend a school with any notion of going college. By doing this, you are creating a class system where the individuals have no way of bettering their circumstances. You should look into what is the true determiner of success in America — how wealthy one’s parents are. Most of the time in America, you end up where you started, economically speaking. Finally, take a look at national literacy rates in 1852, and you will see they are well below our levels today. The schools were probably better in 1852, but guess what? The majority of people in the U.S. did not have access to any education, and those that did attended extremely expensive private institutions. We started public schools in America to give everyone a chance at an education. If we want to change the system, we should focus more on early child development and look beyond our preconceived notions of education.Neil ThompsonEnglish-secondary education juniorWesley GuzzetaEnglish-literature junior