Educators would drive us all off the cliff if allowed

Educators would drive usall off the cliff if allowed
EDITOR:
I am getting a little tired of reading letters to the editor by writers complaining of how under funded the Ohio and local district primary and secondary education systems are. The "No Child Left Behind Law" applies only to primary and secondary students; not colleges and universities. The reason charter schools are being funded is to give the parents an option of where to seek an education for their youngsters. The parents who have chosen to send their children to charter schools are obviously upset with the quality of education being delivered by the mainstream school systems.
"No Child Left Behind" will close the Youngstown and Warren schools. It will "punch" the teachers' teaching certificates and issue vouchers for the remaining students to seek an education in other districts or charter schools. With a dismal graduation rate near 50 percent in the Youngstown and Warren school systems and getting passing marks of 4 or 5 of a possible 27, how can you blame intelligent and concerned parents for seeking other alternatives?
As to funding, out-going Secretary of Education Rod Paige, in an op-ed piece in the Oct. 30, 2003, Wall Street Journal, wrote, "In raw terms this president has increased educational spending by $11 billion. As a nation we spend $470 billion a year on K-12 education locally and federally -- more than on national defense. What is 'underfunded' about that?"
Secretary Paige goes on to answer the question of underfunding. "But in Washington, the land of meaningless jargon, the educational establishment is in favor of the status quo and says the law is under funded because it was appropriated at a level below what was 'authorized.' As someone who is not a creature of Washington politics, let me translate this into plain English: an authorization is usually a 'limiting' number -- the legal maximum level of funding. To use a highway metaphor, it is a guardrail that keeps wildly spending appropriators from driving the federal budget over the cliff. Only those reckless enough (administrators and teachers) to want to grind against the guardrail would want them to reach these levels. The appropriation is usually a number that is closer to the median of the road, the realistic number that is needed to do the job. Appropriations are rarely anywhere close to the authorization levels, and that is true across the entire federal government."
Local writers who complain "The No Child Left Behind Law" is underfunded don't know what they are talking about.
THADDEUS M. PRICE
Warren
Youngstown clinic receives well deserved recognition
EDITOR:
I'm tickled the Youngstown Community Health Center under the leadership of Dr. Ron Dwinnells is getting presidential recognition.
Two quibbles are worth nothing. I pay $10 out-of-pocket for an appointment at the YCHC, twice as much as $100,000 a year executives where I work, who have a proxy health care bidder (i.e., an employer-paid insurance policy) assigned to them.
I'm guessing you meant "underserved" rather than "undeserved" in your Dec. 3 story, but that raises the issue of what connection there actually is between vocational merit and distribution of health care. What are the actual rules by which people get health care? What are the actual rules by which health care is extended to those without health care? Are there any rules at all?
Many working-age folks with employer-paid health insurance benefits are eager to believe the formula that work equals health care. This can be fairly easily challenged, but people are awfully frightened by the notion that their good fortune in having employer-paid health insurance is serendipitous.
YCHC does a great job of demystifying health care distribution by the simple expedient of providing cash patients medical purchasing parity (via a government subsidy) for primary care with fully insured patients.
JACK LABUSCH
Niles