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Patrick Connolly's Feb. 19 commentary "What my family learned after a St. Paul carjacking" describes a harrowing experience in which repeat offenders endangered his family. A very small number of repeat offenders commit a very large number of crimes. For this reason, prior record is an important consideration in sentencing, parole, pardon and bail decisions. Removing this small number of offenders from the streets can seriously reduce crime. People deserve a second chance, but not a third, a fourth and a fifth.

Connolly concludes that the system has failed these young people. Our system may be failing them, but they are also failing us. Crime rates will fall only if individuals make the personal decision to remain within the law. What our culture fails to do is instill that crime-deterring sense of personal responsibility in these individuals.

The culture overemphasizes rights and entitlement to the neglect of civic and personal responsibility. Many of the issues discussed in this paper — from payment of light-rail fares, shoveling walks and return of library materials to drug use, carjacking and shootings — ultimately come down to individual decisions to do the right thing. Ultimately, nothing society does will succeed unless it instills a sense of responsibility for the moment of decision.

Mark L. Davison, Maple Grove

Katherine Kersten declares early on in her Feb. 19 commentary "Teacher licensure gets squishy in Minnesota" that "we urgently need to strengthen the quality and effectiveness of classroom instruction." Agreed.

The problem is that, despite the urgent situation she describes at length, she proposes no real solution.

Her first target is the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB) which, she contends, is diluting teacher training programs in the name of "equity" and seeking to drop passing scores on entrance exams to "rock-bottom." Next, she criticizes teacher preparation programs, stating that there are "none" in Minnesota that adequately prepare prospective teachers. Her final salvo is directed at Gov. Tim Walz, who she believes is eliminating licensure exams completely. That's a lot to digest in one reading.

I will admit that there is nothing wrong with pointing out problems with existing state education policies. Fundamental problems do exist in Minnesota's current K-12 system. However, when Kersten clearly states in her opening comments that Minnesota needs to strengthen classroom instruction, then provides no true remedy, her discourse becomes little more than an exercise in finger-pointing and casting blame.

And who wins in that scenario?

Don Leathers, Austin, Minn.

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Kersten's comments on the teacher licensure standards make a great deal of sense. I can only hope the Legislature will take them to heart.

Certainly, if there are questions that are biased or racist, remove them, but do not lower the overall standards. Lowering the overall standards and saying it creates racial equity is, quite simply, insulting and wrong.

Let's say I have two groups of students. I send those in group A to a well-known and highly respected medical college, where they receive a top-notch education. I send those in group B to the post office to pick up their mail-order course they complete on their own. At the end of both groups' education, I administer an extremely easy test that 95% of the students can pass. Can I now safely say I've provided both groups with the same high-quality education? Under PELSB's logic, I can. It's not the test or the standard that is at fault, it is the preparation for it that is in dispute.

As Kersten points out, lowering the standards has foreseeable, negative consequences. In addition, addressing racial inequities involves more than jumping on the latest bandwagon. Perhaps instead of worrying about what is politically correct at the moment, our Legislature could focus on what is best for Minnesota in the long term, show a little backbone and exercise common sense.

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As a retired teacher, I know that teaching is both an art and a science. Unfortunately, Kersten's article, and much of current educational policy, are based on the assumption that "if you know it, you can teach it."

If I ran a school and I interviewed a teaching candidate who had great rapport with students and knew how to get them engaged, but was a little shaky on a topic such as physical science, I would hire that person. Together, we can fill in that gap. But a person who is whip-smart in the academics but doesn't know how to reach kids? Nope — I can't fix that one, but I might encourage them to apply to a school run by Kersten.

Mark Brandt, Minneapolis

I was disheartened to read about the phenomenon of transfers affecting the competitive high school sports scene ("In search of a better fit," Sports, Feb. 19). For most of my life, now numbering seven decades, I have looked forward to the boys' and girls' basketball and hockey tournaments that have entertained me annually as I've awaited spring and my own outdoor activities. But, in remembering my own time as a high school athlete, what we were most about and most treasured in our youth, was of just being neighborhood kids playing the games we grew up loving, and with each other as friends and neighbors. The bond this created among us, both in and out of sports, has remained to this very day.

James Boyer, Minneapolis

When it comes to safeguarding our water, Minnesota appears no brighter than the drought-stricken states of the Southwest ("Farm water rules lenient, often abused," front page, Feb. 19). Our license plates may show canoeists on a lake, but that idyllic scene is apparently just window dressing.

Proposed legislation would allow the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to fine water permit violators up to $40,000. That is a stronger law than exists presently. Forty thousand? That is peanuts for a blatant violator. Rewrite that proposed legislation!

Are we also bright enough to realize that we should keep our national human population within a desired range? If we always desire more and more population growth, more natural-resource abuses are bound to happen as we have more mouths to feed, house and transport.

Loras Holmberg, Minneapolis