From the Mailbag

Another satisfied customer...

Dear STS--

Thanks for the job you're doing. Please consider printing this.

I am so tired of hearing how Morrisville test scores "stink" and the students and teachers are all under-performing slackers. Here was another uninformed and ignorant comment today about how the schools system is completely responsible for the decline of Morrisville's home values.

"Borows, you're right again. But how do we increase property values and improve our borough at the same time? It's easy, have an excellent school district with outstanding test scores. Then everything would fall into place. Better businesses and families would flock here. The trouble is no matter how much money is pumped into that school district the test scores stink and people don't want to live here because of that. So instead of the bloggers being worried about money (lord knows we've had plenty, 20k per student) why don't you consider ways to improve academics in the schools?"

I won't speculate on who anonymous is. I'll tell you right now that I am proud of the education my two children have received in this district, from kindergarten to the present. I have one child who completed 11th grade and one who completed 9th.

I can only speak to what I know. I know I have worked hard as a parent to ensure how my children learn and what they learn. I know that the Morrisville teachers have been uniformly one of the most dedicated and experienced groups of people I have had the pleasure to work with. I have had dealings with the present administration and find them to also be extremely dedicated and responsive. I'm still waiting for the current board of education to get back to me on items from January.

I had a good education in a middle sized district in central New Jersey. My SAT and NJ evaluation test scores were pretty darned good back in 1978 and 79. My son's SAT and PSSA scores are just as good and better in many areas. My daughter's PSSA scores are also excellent, and I'm expecting her to exceed my SAT scores.

I'll sit down with you, Anonymous, and we can take the placement tests together.

The test scores across the country are lower. That makes it an American problem, not only a Morrisville problem. Assuming that every teacher is at fault for this is ludicrous. Assuming that throwing money at the problem is the answer is also ludicrous. What is needed here is a solid and sober look at how to make things better, not tearing them apart for the sake of tearing them apart.

The problem here is leadership. The school board has abandoned any sense of leadership by slashing and burning their way through the oversight of the schools. The aim is to have a takeover of the school system by anyone else, no matter how it is achieved. Ignorance is not bliss and solving problems by ignoring them or handing them over to someone else is no solution. After reading those stories about the Arkansas district's problems, why would we want to try the same thing?

A leadership problem also exists on the boro council. A great example of the lack of leadership is Gateway. Instead of letting the process do the job, they simply abdicated responsibility and wanted problems to go away. The boro council is responsible for the condition of Morrisville's tax base. Instead of slash and burn, here it's just inaction and indifference. Thinking that with a better school system, everything will "fall into place" sounds just like the prevailing ostrich style thinking of the boro council.