Michael R. Wigley's counterpoint ("Witness the conscience of a liberal: It ain't pretty," Nov. 21) is, to be kind, obfuscatory (Mike, that's a big word I learned in public school).
My lawyer and politician friends would say the letter is "riddled with baseless allegations." My dad (also a public-school graduate), if he were alive today, would say it's a crock. My point is, I've read some of Wigley's propaganda before and, as is usually the case with him, the article is long on innuendo and short on data or research.
To quote his letter directly, for example, he says, "While legislators and bureaucrats are hand-wringing, analyzing and politicking, children are not learning to read or write or do arithmetic ... ."
He offers no proof of this grandiose allegation, and there's a reason. It's just not true.
A recent study from the Center on Education Policy is the latest in a long line of such studies showing that, among other things, when you compare students from similar economic and social backgrounds:
• Public-school students score as well or better than their private-school peers on achievement tests.
• Public-school students are just as likely to go to college as private-school students.
• Public-school students are just as satisfied in their jobs and are just as engaged in civic activities as private-school students by the age of 26.