http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/opinion/rich-school-poor-school.html 2016-09-17 21:32:14 Rich School, Poor School Readers discuss a Connecticut judge’s sweeping indictment of inequities in the state’s education system. === Readers discuss a Connecticut judge’s sweeping indictment of the inequities in education. To the Editor: Your fine report about two Connecticut high schools located close to each other but sharply divided by a socioeconomic gap is close to being poetic in revealing a serious problem in our country as we pass from the post-World War II era into a new, challenging world (“ The fact that a fifth grader in an inner-city public school can read only at the kindergarten level is no doubt repeated throughout the country. The human capital gulf is a manifestation of our society’s coming apart. Only a third of eighth-graders nationwide can read and do math at grade level. And of the many millions of 2016 high school graduates taking the ACT test for college readiness, 34 percent did not pass in all four groups — English, reading, science and math — up from last year’s 31 percent. The benchmark for Most likely the vast majority of the failing group graduated from schools like the one in your article, Warren Harding High School in Bridgeport. Forget about college tuition subsidies and spend the money on restructuring the K-12 system. BERTRAND HORWITZ Asheville, N.C. To the Editor: Your article focuses on the inequities in how schools are funded, linking this to the success or failure of students in wealthy versus poor districts. What generally gets left out of these discussions is the luxury that affluent school districts have to establish their own private “ CHARLES YOCHIM Yonkers To the Editor: Re “ This Unfortunately, I expect that only one element of the court’s decision will be addressed by the Legislature — an increase in school funding for the state’s poorer districts. No powerful constituencies exist for the changes necessary to implement the other parts of the court’s decision. MARC F. BERNSTEIN New York The writer, a retired school superintendent, is on the adjunct faculty at Fordham Graduate School of Education. To the Editor: Re “ In the wake of the court’s ruling in Connecticut about the state’s public schools, legislators should look to California as a model. In January 2014, the state Board of Education unanimously WALT GARDNER Los Angeles The writer’s To the Editor: The educational reforms of the past decade, with its Common Core curriculum, reliance on high-stakes tests and the new world of digital technology, and calls for more charter schools, have done little to end the achievement gaps in the United States. The So what is to be done? States should dissolve current local school districts and collapse them into districts that integrate urban districts with suburban districts; establish per-pupil funding levels; and provide for extended social services for families in poverty, including parent education. Until we muster the political leadership and the courage to really address the needs of disadvantaged children and integrate our schools, the current crop of educational reforms will do little to improve the quality of public education, and schools will remain highly segregated. JOHN FITZSIMONS New York The writer is a former public school teacher and superintendent. To the Editor: Re “ Judge Thomas G. Moukawsher’s sweeping critique of Connecticut schools did, indeed, sound like an indictment of school failure nationwide. After decades of efforts to raise standards, few policy makers see the improvement they wished for. The major problem, I think, is that the entire standards movement has focused so exclusively on goals, scores, ratings and statistical outcomes that it has overlooked the most important consideration — the child. Children begin life curious and enthusiastic about learning, but schools have failed to nurture their intense urge to learn. Experienced teachers know that much of their art consists of building on children’s spontaneous interests, but this art has received little appreciation in recent years. To improve schools, this must be changed. WILLIAM CRAIN New York The writer is a professor of psychology at The City College of New York, CUNY.