DPS testing and closure of Manual High
Re: “Bennet’s bonus tied to CSAP performance,” April 21 Denver & The West story.
While I am not surprised the school superintendent’s salary bonus is linked to student CSAP scores, I am shocked that he admits it. If any public school parent ever doubted that the CSAP and the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind are primarily about money and not student achievement, we need doubt no more. If our children don’t score well, Mr. Bennet won’t get his extra $40,000, and more public schools will close, only to be taken over by private enterprise. Money is the bottom line of the punitive CSAP test by taking money out of the public sector and funneling it into the private sector – and we all know who loses: our children.
Catherine Wiley, Denver
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Manual High School does indeed serve as a community focus and I see a solution to the current discussion other than shutting it down. I remember when Manual was well-regarded due to its emphasis on vocational training. Students who did not choose to go to college received excellent training in many useful skills which are still needed and should be highly valued: car mechanics, carpentry, electrical work, plumbing, hair stylists, etc. I see no reason to think that every student needs, wants or should go to college. This emphasis is causing great frustration among students, parents, teachers and administrators. I believe that it also causes many students to drop out due to frustration with the academic work.
Having been a school psychologist for 20 years in the Denver Public Schools, I worked with many students who were in the eighth grade but read at a third-grade level: each day they came to school, they faced frustration and possible ridicule and many would decide by the ninth grade not to put themselves through this any longer. There is no evidence or reality that “all students will be proficient in reading and math,” and it would be a very positive step to acknowledge this and offer those students alternate courses in which they could be successful and prepared to go into a trade. Let us see that all students are encouraged to find their niche and to achieve up to their potential.
Instead of closing Manual High School, maybe a better solution would be to offer both vocational and academic courses there once again.
Harriet Strong, Englewood
Visit to America by Chinese president Hu
Re: “Insults, mistakes confront visiting Chinese,” April 21 news story.
Ah, there’s nothing like being on the world stage and making a regal state visit look like a skit from “Saturday Night Live”!
You’d think with the president of one of the world’s largest nations visiting your official place of business, you’d want it to go off without a hitch. Uh, guess again.
First, we have the Chinese president’s speech noisily interrupted by a heckler – but not just any heckler, mind you. She’s a bona fide protester who happened to infiltrate the press corps. Moreover, she disrupted the proceedings for a full three minutes before security could locate and remove her.
Then there was the band incident. The band leader announced they were about to honor their visitor by playing the national anthem for his country, “The Republic of China.” It was a small error, really, but for the fact that the “The Republic of China” is the official name for Taipei – the renegade territory that is such an annoyance to China. (It should have been the People’s Republic of China.)
And lastly, we have our commander in chief acting like a middle school hall monitor. As Hu was leaving the staging area by the wrong stairs, he was abruptly stopped by someone pulling at the hem of his suit jacket. It was none other than Bush, towing him back and telling him he was going in the wrong direction.
Shakespeare wrote that leaders are often defined not by their decisions, but by those of their lieutenants, by those who finally get the leader’s vision as it is filtered down through the ranks. Judging from this diplomatic fiasco, we can see, yet again, that ineptness is the defining characteristic of this administration.
Packard N. Brown, Centennial
Lender licensing
Re: “Hard lesson in state’s risky mortgages,” April 21 editorial.
We are long overdue for licensing lenders. To better protect the consumer, we should also prohibit real estate agents from being the lender. The worst offenders in putting people in junk mortgages are real estate agents who are also the lender. They don’t care what happens to the buyer as long as they get the commissions.
As one Realtor told me, “You spend too much time explaining the programs. Just talk about the monthly payment and if they don’t like it they can walk away from the closing table.” Regretfully, this is way too common.
Chip Allen, Branch Manager, Lakewood Residential Mortgage, Lakewood
Training sailors
Re: “Sailors get land training for Iraq relief,” April 24 news story.
It has finally happened. The United States is out of troops. The Republican administration’s mismanaged conduct of the war in Iraq has completely drained the capability of the Army and Marines.
According to the article, “The Navy is sending thousands of men and women to Iraq and Afghanistan to relieve pressure on Army and Marine Ground forces.”
President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld can grouse all they want about the pointed criticism from retired generals, but the “proof is in the pudding. In this case, the proof is in the empty bowl that has been needlessly squandered and wasted.
The use of minimally trained sailors for ground combat operations is idiotic and insane.
How many more lives must we sacrifice to support this failed policy?
Tom Bunge, Littleton
Not high on Carmelo
Re: “A new level of celebrity,” April 21 sports story.
So, Carmelo Anthony wants to achieve the same status and popularity as John Elway. Good luck. Until he disavows the gangsta video he appeared in a few years ago, it’ll never happen.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who will never attend a Nuggets game so long as he is on the team.
Jerry Goad, Golden
