Re: “Denver Public Schools continues to fail at-risk students,” Feb. 9 guest commentary.
I find this article a long time coming. As a former Denver Public Schools teacher of 17 years, I completely agree that DPS has failed its children.
The school district has eliminated teachers that actually require students to think and question. It has hired people who have no business teaching our children. The district has done everything to get rid of qualified teachers, including cutting them and placing them in schools and positions in which they are not experienced. Anybody with years in this district is a threat.
We have seen the same programs that were introduced years ago brought back as something new. Itap not reinventing, but sticking with what actually works. How many programs in how many years? It is always a quick fix, rather than taking the time to get it right and having the right people to do it.
DPS has kept administration top-heavy and not put its resources into the kids and the teachers. I guess when you take shortcuts and eliminate those qualified teachers, this is what you end up with.
ٳʴDZ,Denver
Children in poverty start school behind the rest of their peers for a variety of reasons. Lack of resources and cognitive deficits due to stressors beyond their control are two that are foundational if we are truly interested in improving public education. The schemes of the educational reform movement have failed because the focus was put on profit for educational entrepreneurs, re-segregating the haves from the have-nots via charters and scapegoating educators for problems beyond their control, thus creating the inevitable shortage of teachers.
I look forward to the day when voters see this educational reform movement for what it is: yet another failure and a waste of taxpayer dollars. So the next time some politician posits an answer to some educational problem, demand evidenced-based scientific data to prove their claim.
Gerry Camilli, Englewood
Submit a letter to the editor via or check out our for how to submit by e-mail or mail.
