If photos can't be published, let the probe begin

The U.S. Senate has been debating whether to make it illegal to publish photographs showing detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Obama may sign an executive order to block the release of these photos. CIA Director Leon Panetta defends policies that refuse to release information about interrogations of detainees on the grounds that the details would provide effective propaganda materials for Al-Qaida.

The bad news here is that the arguments for secrecy are probably correct. In Sen. Joe Lieberman's words, releasing this information "will lead to the death of Americans," which is a chilling indictment of the content being withheld. But if our actions in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Guantanamo were so terrible that we can't talk about them, then that is all the more reason to investigate those in the United States who created such good propaganda materials for Al-Qaida.

PAUL BUDDE, MINNEAPOLIS

Minneapolis School District shouldn't mess with success Regarding the proposed "mega-school" put forth by a minority of parents in Minneapolis' Kingfield neighborhood, the entire plan rests on one tenuous assumption: that the excellent programs at Lyndale and Barton schools would survive the move.

What businessperson would voluntarily move a highly successful business, while nearly doubling its staff and changing its customers (students) radically -- and expect to still be able to deliver the high-quality product or service that made them successful in the first place?

While there is no evidence that the Barton and Lyndale programs would continue to flourish, mountains of evidence suggest success would be a steep uphill climb.

The "mega-school" plan is risky, and does not have the best interests of students in mind. The school board should support other, better proposals put forth by the district experts.

JEFF FORESTER, MINNEAPOLIS

To fund single-payer plan, tax tobacco I don't know if Allina's retiring CEO Dick Pettingill intended it, but his comments in the June 4 Business section clearly are the best argument for a single-payer health system.

Second, why are we always comparing Canada's system? I have heard that Australia's is much better. I'd like to know more about it and why it's better.

Yes, preventive medicine is always better than reactive.

I suggest the following based on Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall's constitutional opinion that "the power to tax is the power to destroy." Tax tobacco used for smoking and chewing so high that people will be forced to quit. Since it is claimed that up to 70 percent of health problems would cease with the cessation of tobacco usage, the cost of a single-payer plan would be drastically reduced!

KENNETH SACHS, MINNETONKA

Rights, needs and citizenship I have read so many times over the past few years about health care being a right. Why should health care be a right over our basic needs? Where's the cry for our right to free water, food, shelter and clothing?

CHUCK CHARNSTROM, WATERTOWN

Math standards and math textbooks The Star Tribune's June 4 editorial indicates that Minnesota needs to do better at matching the high school state math exams to the math curriculum. There are two problems with this assertion: (1) There is not just one math curriculum in use. (2) More important, it is curricula that should be aligned with the state standards.

Both the 2003 and 2007 K-11 state standards are well-focused on the appropriate mathematics for all students. They leave open the possibility of somewhat different curricula for various localities.

But it is also true that there are textbooks that have large deficiencies as compared to the standards while nevertheless having too many pages, a consequence of treating many peripheral topics not included in the standards.

It is not always easy to ascertain whether a particular textbook is aligned with the state standards. I quote from Page 56 in the Final Report (March 2008) of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, of which I was a member: "Another source of lack of coherence and potential confusion in some textbooks is the table of contents. Tables of contents should provide students, teachers, and textbook adoption teams with a sense of the organization of the mathematical topics in the book. In some textbooks, however, tables of contents emphasize not the mathematics but rather specific applications."

Even with well-organized books, it is a time-consuming process to check them for alignment with the standards, while at the same time assessing their quality. It is important for school administrators to account for this fact when creating textbook adoption teams.

BERT FRISTEDT, BLOOMINGTON; MORSE-ALUMNI DISTINGUISHED TEACHING PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, TWIN CITIES

Charged with murder: abortion seekers? Anti-abortion activists who equate Dr. George Tiller's murder with an abortion have been quick to say that "both are wrong," as one of your letter writer's did. However, I can't help but hear a tone of quiet satisfaction in the tone of their statements, one that implies that Tiller essentially got what he deserved.

I wonder what their reaction would be if it had been one of Tiller's patients who been murdered in her church while her husband sang with the choir?

It's telling that we never hear what antiabortionists think should be done to the women who seek out abortion procedures. If abortion is equated with murder and made illegal, are they prepared to charge women who seek out abortions -- and there will be such women -- with murder?

HANH TRAN, MINNEAPOLIS