THE PUBLIC MIND: READER FINDS FAULT WITH SPEAKER'S CONCLUSIONS, PAPER'S REPORT

To the Editor:

I am rather dismayed about a recent article in your newspaper. The article reported on a speech by Allan Brownfeld delivered before 200 high school students attending the Freedom Forum last week. Some of the fault lies with Mr. Brownfeld, who misinformed the students about the level of America's educational funding and displayed at least one astounding, acrobatic flight of logic. But then your reporter and headline writer further compounded Mr. Brownfeld's distortions with their own poor judgment.

Although I didn't personally hear Mr. Brownfeld's speech, he apparently suspects our nation's public schools are in deep crisis. Of course, Mr. Brownfeld's opinion is heartily shared by many other in our society. However, unlike most of public education's critics, Mr. Brownfeld is willing to acknowledge a root cause for the situation the breakdown of the American family as a viable institution.

So far, so good, until we come to Mr. Brownfeld's solutions. Brownfeld advocates the dissolution of public education in favor of something called school choice, and/or there's that mystical panacea merit pay, and/or teacher testing for competency (whatever that is). Nowhere in the article (and presumably in the speech) did Mr. Brownfeld demonstrate how these three solutions could miraculously halt the decline of the American family, which Brownfeld cited as the root cause of our present education predicament.

I suppose the logic of it all is so readily apparent that no explanation is required. It's not to me, and I would have like an explanation. In addition, Mr. Brownfeld reportedly told the students our per pupil expenditure is the highest in the world. Actually, we're 13th in our per pupil spending on secondary and elementary education.

But what didn't your reporter seek a logical connection between Mr. Brownfeld's solutions to education problems and his own purported root cause? And why did your reporter choose to lead her story with the statement that the nation's schools are in disarray (the effect), instead of leading with Mr. Brownfeld's observations on the disarray of the American family (the cause)? Seems backward to me an error subsequently duplicated by the headline writer. I think the story could have been better reported and written.

Raymond J. Peats

Jackson