Letters to the editor

Taking attendance

The lucky kids are present in top-flight schools

Editor, The Times:

Seattle School Board member Michael DeBell offers a laudable set of ideas for improving Seattle schools' academic quality in "A vision for Seattle schools" [Times guest commentary, June 7], but his vision falls flat with a proposal to limit school-choice options. DeBell calls Seattle's choice system inequitable because middle-class families can "navigate the system." This statement is a red herring. Providing choice does not create inequities in student achievement, it just exposes them by showing how desperate people are for options in a school system with pervasive inequity.

Seattle's seventh-grade African American students score 30 percentage points lower than their Caucasian peers in math, and Latino graduate rates lag 25 percentage points behind Caucasian students. South-end schools have, on average, 23 percent new teachers annually, compared with 16 percent elsewhere in the city. Families that have the means flee low-performing schools in south Seattle by moving to the north end or the suburbs, exacerbating existing racial and income divides. Could you imagine a more inequitable system?

Don't blame the meager choice options low-income families currently have for our system's inequities. Blame a School District that tolerates low achievement and under-invests in our city's neediest neighborhoods.

— Robin Lake, Seattle

Absent logic

Editorial columnist Lynn Varner's "Race's enduring impact on public education" [editorial column, June 7] contained the following statement: "Minorities fare worse in public schools, including the Seattle School District."

Do these minority students fare better (rather than "worse") in private schools (rather than public schools)?

When Varner speaks of "minorities," does she actually mean some subset of the minority student population? In fact, could the cohort of Asian students fare better? Better than what?

Do minority students fare worse because they are minority, or do they fare worse for some other reason?

Any statistician will tell you that it is very risky to infer causation from correlation. Varner subtly or naively employs the logical fallacy of sum hoc ergo propter hoc — at the same time as something, therefore because of the same something.

I do not think very much light was provided by Varner; in fact, distraction from solving problems might have been the real outcome.

— Eric Tronsen, Seattle

Late lamented substitute

Lynn Varner's admonition to the U.S. Supreme Court, "Before you consider dismantling Seattle's racial tie-breaker system, consider what you'll use to replace it," is misplaced.

The Supreme Court's role in government is to rule on constitutionality, not formulate programs to replace what it strikes down. With respect to public education, the latter is the job of each citizen and of the state and local school boards.

Like many programs of racial preferences, racial tie-breakers are a temptingly expedient way to provide a quick fix to long-standing problems by focusing on how a student body "looks."

All the inequalities Varner cites point to the critical need to avoid such quick fixes and face up to the need to engage in massive, long-term investment in reforming our school systems, from preschool through high-school graduation.

This effort will require sweat, commitment on the part of everyone, tax increases, and many other difficult decisions. Then we can seriously say we're addressing the enduring impact on race.

— James Paden, Blaine

Another race

The agony of victory

I read with disgust editorial columnist Joni Balter's political advice to Washington's senatorial candidates ["U.S. Senate foes need to massage their messages," editorial column, June 8]. She writes, "[Maria] Cantwell ought to admit her position on Iraq no longer makes sense. It is her job to figure out the proper wording and appropriate amount of groveling to voters." She goes on to say, "What if — tell me the Democrats haven't thought of this — McGavick beats her to the punch? What if he turns anti-war?"

Let me translate her advice to Cantwell for the readers:

"Girl, you have got to say or do anything to get re-elected. Even if it means renouncing your support for the Iraq war. It doesn't matter what you originally believed. Nor does it matter if our troops rely on our politicians for financial and moral support, or that our citizens look to elected officials like you to provide for our national security. For the sake of our state politics and for the future of the Democratic Party, you must change your mind before Mike McGavick beats you to the pacifist punch."

No wonder America becomes more and more cynical about our media, and doesn't trust the Democrats with our national security.

— Eric Aplin, Snohomish

The thrill of defeat

There is one sure way Mike McGavick can defeat Sen. Maria Cantwell this coming November: He can reverse his positions on two issues, and discontented Democrats, and independents, will come tripping over their shoelaces to vote for him.

McGavick's current position on the war in Iraq is the same as Cantwell's: He claims to think the aggression was right, and the occupation should continue. His position on oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is the opposite of hers; he supports it, and she's against it — and this is about the only hold she has on her base in this election.

McGavick already has two major assets in this race. First, he's pro-choice — big plus in this state. Second, and more important, he has a touch of humility, a quality Cantwell could never match. And since McGavick has it, unlike Cantwell, he could admit a mistake. He could admit he's wrong about the war, and that he's wrong on Arctic drilling. And he'd win.

The Democrat establishment apparently thinks it's stuck with Cantwell, despite the strong disapproval of her stand on the war by a majority of Democrats, and independents, so it has resorted to hardball tactics to win her the nomination. Undeservedly, it will probably work.

But if the Republicans are smart, they can beat her. I've just told them how.

— Norman Marsh, Darrington

Poetic justice

Seize the day

Regarding "DeLay takes his final bow" [News, June 9]:

The people celebrate the day

When Congress moves without DeLay.

— William Valenti, Seattle