Dear Editor
Dear Editor Appeal In response to your fund appeal, ] enclose a check for $25. Although, perforce, it has to be the "widow's mite," I send it in gratitude for what The New Leader has meant to my...
...TONI S. MAYER Historical Hindsight A fairer title for John P. Roche's article, "The Pentagon Papers and Historical Hindsight" (NL, July 12), would have been "The Road to Hell Is Paved with the Best of Intentions...
...the idea of a voucher plan reflects the public's sensitivity to the concept of accountability in education...
...June 14), Richard J. Margolis describes an incident involving a black student who was told that he did not belong in an honors mathematics class but who stayed to earn an "A" in the course...
...I can do something, however, to express my appreciation for what your magazine has done to keep my mind from becoming small...
...Long Beach, N. Y. WALTER SHELDON China G. F. Hudson's argument for the new dominance of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in Chinese politics ("China's New Order," NL, July 26) appears sound...
...By coincidence, another article in the same issue of The New Leader offers a better answer...
...Lekachman's thorough analysis of the various voucher plans clarifies the differences between the many diverse proposals that have been made...
...GORDON KUNDE Minister, Worthington United Presbyterian Church Vouchers As Robert Lekachman's report on "Vouchers & Public Fducation" (NL...
...I was appalled by the naivete of the parenthesized question, .. if the teacher's remark implied racism, what did the grade imply...
...July 12) points out...
...Most particularly, I appreciate his presentation of an idea I have sought in vain to get across to advocates of the voucher system, namely, that Jencks et al...
...George Washington In "The George Washington Story: The Agony of an Urban High School" (NL...
...Although Roche never completely answers his own question?Why would Lyndon Johnson have wanted to get mixed up in a war in Indochina...
...The self-flagellating mood that seems to be gripping our country today affects education as well as other institutions...
...I wish it might be more, and I hope that your eloquent appeal will achieve its objective...
...I hope that in a future article he will relate bis analysis to the new turn taken by Chinese foreign policy...
...NL, 340 E 52nd Street, N.Y.C...
...What is more, its convincing logic, flowing from value assumptions I share, helps us to see the frustration that awaits us if these schemes are implemented...
...Good luck...
...that has not been written or applied primarily for the benefit of the middle and upper classes and to the detriment of those most in need of the services...
...and had we heeded the foresight of those advisers, both the American and the Vietnamese peoples would have been spared untold misery...
...New York City LEO PFEFFER Special Counsel, American Jewish Congress I enjoyed immensely Robert Lekachman's incisive article, and I agree with him that the voucher plan is more likely to reinforce unequal education than the opposite...
...That was not "20-20 hindsight...
...EWALD B. NYQUIST Commissioner of Education, State of New York I feel impelled to express my pleasure and agreement with Robert Lekachman's views about the voucher plan...
...The gap between the plan they envisage and what would be adopted by inte res t-gro up-oriented legislatures is far too great to be breached even by legislators with the highest ideals and motivation...
...Thus I see any voucher system without additional institutional arrangements to safeguard the rights of the disadvantaged as affording advantage to those who least need it...
...1 regret to say...
...When a mediocre leadership sells an ill-advised policy to an uninformed public, nobody should be surprised if the results are disastrous...
...Reinhold Niebuhr I am a clergyman in a small church in a small western Pennsylvania town with...
...At present, I am neither uncritically enthusiastic about nor mulishly intransigent toward the proposal, but I believe we should have some trial programs to test the scheme before it is advocated on a wholesale basis...
...AH this sounds very reasonable, but is it...
...In "Learning About Asia," Richard I. Margolis puts his finger on the average American's abysmal ignorance about the Far East, an ignorance that reaches even to the highest echelons of our government...
...Only a person of insensitivity could fail to recognize that...
...While I recognize the weaknesses in the present public school system...
...If one wants a fair and reasonable prediction of what would happen to public education in competition with publicly financed private education, one should compare New York City hospitals such as Bellevue with any of the "private" hospitals in the city...
...T for one would sure hate to see The New Leader go under...
...Further, I am extremely skeptical of the capacity of free-market mechanisms to solve complex socio-cultural problems...
...Stockbridge, Mass...
...I think it is considerably stronger and better than people give it credit for...
...CHARLES HOFFMAN Assistant Academic Vice President, Professor of Economics, State University of New York A special section, featuring an extended discussion of Robert Lekachman's "Vouchers & Public Education" by prominent educationists, will appear in our next issue.—Ed...
...Mrs...
...But to call the President's admittedly reluctant decision to escalate that policy "a natural and legitimate consequence" of the people's wish is putting the cart before the horse...
...But there is also much to be said for attempting to achieve some of the same ends as the voucher system by creating "alternative schools" within the current framework of public education...
...a commensurate salary...
...Does Chou En-Lai's ascendancy imply a setback for Lin Piao...
...New York City ERNEST DIXON WRITERS?UNSALABLE" BOOK MANUSCRIPT...
...To blame the American people for having misjudged an area that it had no competence in is simply adding insult to injury...
...Such departures are now under way in Berkeley, California, and a few other cities...
...Obviously, the grade merely showed that the teacher had the objectivity to recognize academic ability regardless of color...
...Among the questions which might be treated are: Does the pla really favor better relations with the U.S...
...Sound and controlled experimentation with the voucher plan may help its redemption...
...Stony Brook, N.Y...
...Worthingion, Pa...
...he suggests that "the President's reluctant decisions were a natural and legitimate consequence of the American people's then staunch commitment to freedom for South Vietnam...
...There were qualified people who recognized the danger of becoming bogged down in the Indochinese quagmire and wbo saw as far back as 1945-50 that we were getting on the wrong track in the Far East...
...Despite the presumed benefits, restricted experimentation is warranted in the light of the negative consequences that have been postulated...
...Berkeley, Calif...
...10022...
...Thus we should not hesitate to put the blame where it belongs: on the inability of our leaders to properly evaluate the millions of words of intelligence about Southeast Asia that have been flowing into Washington every day...
...I have yet to see a law providing for public support of benefits such as education, housing, hospitals, etc...
...If I had to choose between the liberal and conservative approaches in inaugurating a voucher plan, I would take the liberal alternative, which, as Lekachman observes, promotes "a number of objectives high on standard liberal agenda...
...Instead of raining more blows on it, we ought to try to redeem it...
...Albany, N.Y...
...are living in a fantasy world...
...it did not alter the fact that his initial response, prompted solely by the sight of a black face, was indisputably racist...
...Although, perforce, it has to be the "widow's mite," I send it in gratitude for what The New Leader has meant to my husband and me over the years...
...TRY AUTHOR AIR ASSOCIATES, Dept...
Vol. 54 • August 1971 • No. 16
