Letters to the Editor

What you should know about Letters to the Editor

Some things to keep in mind when submitting a Letter to the Editor and 9 tips for getting published.

Some things to keep in mind regarding Letters to the Editor

We read every letter we receive.

Every letter gets equal consideration.

Letters picked for publication are acknowledged within several working days. You most likely will be contacted by phone and will be asked to verify that you sent the letter and intended it for publication.

If it's published, your letter probably will appear in the daily or Sunday Greenville News within two weeks after we receive it.

Because of the high volume of letters submitted, we cannot acknowledge or return letters that will not be published.

We strive for balance, but there are times when we may only receive letters representing one side of an issue. If your opinion differs from those you see printed, write and give us your perspective.

We don't publish form letters, anonymous letters, letters that cannot be verified or letters that have appeared in another publication.

We don't publish obvious organized attempts to flood us with mail on a given topic.

We give preference to writers in our circulation area.

To maintain civility and to prevent disagreements between letter writers from becoming personal, we do not allow letter writers to refer to each other by name. Exceptions are made for writers who are public officials or public figures.

We do not publish poems from readers or material forwarded to us that has appeared in another publication.

Tips for Getting Published:

• Write a brief letter (maximum of 250 words) on a timely public issue, preferably one that has been covered by this newspaper. 
• Make your point quickly. 
• Include your name, home address and a daytime telephone number. (If you don't include your name, address and telephone number, we can't consider your letter for publication.) 
• Remember, all letters are subject to editing. 
• Most letters are edited for length, clarity, grammar and good taste. 
• Choose your words carefully. Letters that contain potentially libelous or slanderous statements will likely be edited or rejected. 
• We prefer to have letters submitted in typed or electronically transmitted form. However, we will accept handwritten letters, providing the handwriting is legible. 
• If you are sending handwritten letters by fax, please make sure the writing is dark enough to transmit clearly. 
• Letter writers are limited to no more than one letter published every 30 days.

Teach for America leaves Black Lives behind

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Why Do Rich Kids Do Better Than Poor Kids in School? It's Not the "Word Gap," Molly McManus

Why Do Rich Kids Do Better Than Poor Kids in School? It's Not the "Word Gap," Molly McManus

Scoppe: We can’t throw these kids away

Scoppe: We can’t throw these kids away

Cindi Scoppe, Associate Editor, The State

COLUMBIA, SC 

Abraham Lincoln. Thomas Edison. Ben Franklin. Bill Gates. The voice on the message followed each man’s name with the meager amount of schooling he completed. The Harvard dropout who turned us into cyborgs looks like a scholastic overachiever alongside his predecessors. Of course they are separated by centuries that have, for better and worse, exponentially increased the need for formal education, and of course that’s beside the caller’s point.

Cindi Ross Scoppe

His point was that while it was “statistically” accurate to say that a better education leads to a better outcome, the many notable exceptions negated my suggestion that South Carolina needs to provide a decent education to all children.

Then his bottom line: When children don’t get a good education, it’s not the schools’ fault — and by extension, it’s not the state’s fault; it’s the children’s fault. Children who want an education will get one no matter how bad the school; children who do not want a good education will not get one, no matter how good the school.

Truth be told, there’s a lot of truth to that last part; much less, but still a tiny bit, to the first part. But even if we imagine that there are no shortcomings in our poorest schools, and that the problem is the children instead of the schools, we are left with this reality: We can’t wash our hands of the problem.

ARE WE REALLY WILLING TO DOOM A CHILD TO A LIFE OF FAILURE BECAUSE SHE HAS BAD PARENTS? FOR HOW MANY GENERATIONS WILL WE VISIT THE SINS OF THE PARENTS UPON THE CHILDREN?

The “liberal” reason is fairness: When children don’t value education, it’s often because their parents don’t value it. Are we really willing to doom a child to a life of failure because she has bad parents? For how many generations will we visit the sins of the parents upon the children?

The “conservative” reason is this practical fact: We can’t throw those children away. Can’t ship them off to another state. The children who don’t get a decent education in our state are the ones who will stay here, and they will continue to drag us down.

They will end up with lousy jobs, held afloat by government safety-net programs. Some will become criminals, and we will have to spend more on police and courts and jails to defend ourselves against them. They will raise children who are just like them.

And this takes us back to that argument about Messieurs Lincoln, Edison, Franklin and Gates, which seems so reasonable … until you take about 10 seconds to think about it.

Then you recall that “statistically” speaking is the only way we can speak of whole populations, particularly when the statistics are so lopsided.

You remember that exceptions are … exceptions — and that the overwhelming majority of us are not so extraordinary as our Renaissance men. Our society could not have built the technological foundation from which Mr. Gates built so much more if we had relied solely on the few geniuses among us. A good education allows the mediocre — which, statistically speaking, is most of us — to become productive and creative. It allows those who are below-average to become contributing members of our communities.

INSTEAD OF COMPLAINING, SC LAWMAKERS SHOULD BEAT SUPREME COURT DEADLINE ON EDUCATION ORDER

You realize that Gov. Nikki Haley and the Legislature would not be under court order to provide a decent education to the children in South Carolina’s Corridor of Shame if those children had access to the exclusive preparatory school Mr. Gates attended, much less his two years at Harvard.

If I were placing blame for the children who don’t work hard enough to overcome the obstacles our state puts in their paths, I’d place it on the parents. It is the parents’ responsibility to make sure children get the best education they can. But when parents can’t or won’t instill in their children the value of education, can’t or won’t insist that they do their homework every night, can’t or won’t make sure they read books over summer vacation, we as a society have to do that. If not out of altruism, then out of pure self-interest.

We have to teach children to value education. Then we have to make education take, whatever their learning style. And the place we do that is in the public schools.

COURT’S FIRST DEADLINE IN LANDMARK SC SCHOOL-EQUITY CASE WILL PASS UNMET

It is difficult to know how to do that — although it would be much less difficult if we stopped worrying about turf protection and job protections and making sure the right people get lucrative contracts and pursuing our ideological goals.

It is difficult to get our legislators and our governor to ignore those distractions. But it is their job to do that.

Once we figure out how we need to change the structure and governance and curricula and funding of our schools so that they will deliver a decent education even to the kids who don’t want it, the jobs of teachers will become much more difficult. The jobs of everyone who touches education will become more difficult.

But when have Americans said we won’t do something just because it’s difficult?

Doesn’t American exceptionalism flow from our willingness to do the difficult work in order to achieve success?

Aren’t we the nation that was inspired to rocket to the moon and defeat the Soviet Union and become the most prosperous people on the planet after a president reminded us that “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard”?

The sad thing is that as difficult as it will be for our leaders to develop a plan and our teachers to implement it, the hardest part could be convincing ourselves that it’s worth doing.

Ms. Scoppe writes editorials and columns for The State. Reach her at cscoppe@thestate.com or (803) 771-8571 or follow her on Twitter @CindiScoppe.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/cindi-ross-scoppe/article40203777.html#storylink=cpy

Schools exacerbate the growing achievement gap between rich and poor, a 33-country study finds

Schools exacerbate the growing achievement gap between rich and poor, a 33-country study finds

Social Construction of "Race," Warren Blumenfeld

Social Construction of "Race," Warren Blumenfeld, Instructor at University of Massachusetts Amherst

The Greenville News: Let all students write education success story, Ellen Weaver

The Greenville News: Let all students write education success story

Ellen Weaver

Every child deserves a high-quality education that allows them to reach their full potential.

South Carolina students are blessed with a growing number of personalized education options, but many families aren’t aware of their full range of current choices. That is why we’ve launched “Empower Opportunity,” an online catalog to educate parents and showcase the learning journey of Palmetto State families just like them.

For example, the Lisinskis found the perfect fit for their young twin boys at Carolina Voyager Charter School, a public charter school in Charleston. The open, diverse and parent-friendly school is providing their sons with the flexible, personalized attention they need to thrive.

The Williams family in Chapin found that their son excels at Spring Hill High School, a public magnet school program where students develop business plans, market, staff and manage school “stores” as a hands-on part of their education experience. This has taught him how to be an entrepreneur and inspired him to see that college is possible.

The Hollingsworths were nearly at their wits’ end trying to meet the unique challenge of educating their grandson, who struggles with severe autism. Thankfully, South Carolina’s Exceptional Needs Tax Credit Scholarship has allowed them to enroll him at Greenville’s Hidden Treasure Christian School, where he has blossomed, giving them incredible peace of mind.

Virtual schools, private schools, home schools, and many traditional public schools are also creating a thriving environment for South Carolina children. Unfortunately, too many students still don’t have access to these high-quality options. This simply cannot stand.

We don’t have to look far to find other states that are innovating in bipartisan ways to empower every student with a customized, world-class education.

Georgia, Louisiana and Tennessee have created Achievement School Districts (ASDs), designed to oversee the turnaround of their state’s lowest performing schools. By placing high-caliber, accountable leadership over these schools and removing bureaucratic red-tape, ASDs are providing the autonomy and flexibility necessary to create truly transformational, student-focused environments.

In 2013, Louisiana established the Supplemental Course Academy, which gives public school students access to high-quality online courses offered by a variety of providers that they otherwise wouldn’t have. This has proven to be a huge boon to families living in rural communities. The program is growing by leaps and bounds, with students enrolling in 19,000 classes in 2014-15, a 700 percent increase over the prior school year!

Modeled on the popular idea of Health Savings Accounts, Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) are now available in Arizona, Florida, Tennessee, Nevada and Mississippi. ESAs are the “iPhone” of education options, giving parents direct access to their child’s funding from the state student funding formula to create the ultimate customized education. The state deposits the money into a dedicated personal account and parents may then spend that money on a wide variety of approved service — including tuition, therapy and tutoring — whatever their child needs. Unused funds can even be rolled over from year-to-year to save for college! It’s a bold idea that South Carolina’s lawmakers would do well to explore.

And we can’t forget to support and grow our existing options: South Carolina’s charter schools — public schools in every way except for their form of governance — currently receive no transportation money and very limited access to facilities funds to develop new schools.

Demand for South Carolina’s exceptional needs scholarships — and a similar parent tax credit enacted this year — far exceeds what’s currently available. Lawmakers should raise the caps on these popular programs and make them permanent law … and even consider other students like foster children and military families who could benefit from this same type of opportunity.

What are the results where innovative choice is expanding? Rising graduation rates, higher college enrollment in minority communities, increasing academic achievement among the students that need it most, taxpayer savings … and students, parents and teachers who enjoy being treated as unique individuals, not just part of a system.

There is no silver bullet to fix education inequities in our state. But that’s the point: only a wide and growing array of options can provide the best chance for every child to find the education that’s right for them. Let’s give every South Carolina student the opportunity to write their own education success story.

Ellen Weaver is president of Palmetto Promise Institute. The “Empower Opportunity” catalog can be found at www.mysceducation.org.

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