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I was disappointed in the simplistic way Fareed Zakaria portrayed U.S. public schools ["When Will We Learn?" Nov. 14]. Comparing the U.S. with South Korea and Finland, which have such different student populations from ours, is like comparing apples and oranges. Yes, we need higher salaries to attract quality teachers. But the biggest predictor of test scores is socioeconomic status. Public schools are a microcosm of society; as poverty increases, schools are forced to provide expensive academic intervention. We have to fix our whole system, not point fingers at hardworking educators and students.
Angie Nelson, AUSTIN
Zakaria is right that the way to improve education is to hire the best teachers and motivate students to work harder. However, he does not focus at all on how to do that or why the best and brightest no longer go into education. Teaching has lost its prestige in this nation, and teachers are perennial scapegoats, the focus of both media criticism and funding cuts. I am a high school Spanish and French teacher in a district where modest measures to maintain current funding at both the state and local levels were voted down recently by landslides. National funding cuts continue to loom on the horizon. Why would any top university graduate go into education?
John Park, LOVELAND, COLO.
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