Letter to the editor: Student success barometer for country's health

If you are wondering what is wrong with America lately, just look at “education.” Annually we pay over $600 billion to educate more than 50 million students. So what do we get for our money? Half of our students are not proficient in either mathematics or science and 40% are not proficient in reading. Every year, nearly 15% of students do not graduate.

Money is not the problem — it is the lack of accountability by everyone involved. Students who are disrespectful, entitled, spoiled and lazy, parents who don’t teach respect and work ethic, teachers who do not enforce discipline and just go through the motions, administrators and school boards that tolerate poor performance and dumb down curriculum, and finally politicians who are more worried about votes and being politically correct.

Student performance and high school graduation rates are the barometer for the health of American society and the skill level of our future workforce. We need to demand accountability from everyone — standards must be set and adhered to, constant performance feedback implemented, consequences and rewards made clear, strict discipline enforced up and down the line, and collective values established and reinforced. It is the only way we can survive as a nation.

John Meskanick

Lincoln Place