LETTERS: EDUCATION, NOT GREED, IS IMPORTANT

To the editor:

Too many college graduates can't read or figure out how much change they should get back after putting down $3 to pay for a 60-cent bowl of soup and a $1.95 sandwich. This isn't the fault of the students and not necessarily the fault of the colleges, because these students should have learned this before fifth grade.

The fault lies in a school system which is operated by our inept federal government. Back in the days when our schools were controlled locally, our children learned as well or better than any in the world. Since the federal government has bribed our local schools with our own tax money into relinquishing control of our schools, they are worthless as institutes of learning.

Our school are a huge complex of restaurants, sports, counseling, psychiatric evaluation, studies in sexual degradation and plain old brainwashing.

The biggest goal of the school administrators is not teaching the children, but money. They are constantly whining that they don't have enough money, yet they are spending or wasting our money faster than the politicians can raise taxes. And that's about as fast as the speed of light.

If people would take notice of their county tax bills, they would see that they are paying somewhere between two-thirds and four-fifths of their taxes for schools. And that does not include what the federal government is pouring into our schools in order to control them. This is bad enough, but when you consider the fact that we are getting less than nothing for our money, then it is time to wake up, refuse bribe money and run our own schools ourselves.

It's easy enough to look at how our schools used to be controlled and how they are controlled now and compare the results. Greed for federal money which so many people stupidly believe is free is the thing that has gotten us into this situation. Placing the education of our children above the greed for money will get us out of it.

RAY UMBDENSTOCK

Cape Girardeau