Editor:

The recent column titled “Two ridiculous proposals for schools surface” by Mr. Sullivan showed his bias about the second issue discussed in his column: charter schools. Charter schools are an alternative to Mississippi’s public school system which is one of the worst school systems in the country. This has led parents to look for alternative and affordable ways to educate their children properly. Mr. Sullivan main argument is that charter schools will take money away from the budgets of public schools and that only the impoverished will be left in the public schools system. What he fails to understand is that education does not revolve around more and more money being spent for government school systems that fail to properly educate Mississippi even though three quarters of our state budget is spent on education. His solution for better education is for even more money to be sent to failing public schools systems, smaller class sizes and to extend the school year. All of these things cost more money to the taxpayer.

In addition, Mr. Sullivan felt compelled to compare charter schools to council schools and somehow infer that those who want charter schools want to return to the days of segregation. He forgets that the taxpayers are the ones who want to get more “bang for the buck” in terms of education and they feel that charter schools will bring that about. Charter schools have nothing to do with race like the council schools and they are working wonders on improving the education in many northern states and the city of New Orleans where many of those in the charter schools are minorities.

Sullivan’s recent column shows bias

Jack Onstott