Correspondence
Correspondence FAST EDDIE EXPOSED AFTER YEARS OF CONSERVATIVES from the Wall Street Journal to the Heritage Foundation heaping praise on Ed Rendell as "America's Mayor," it was heartening to read...
...our society is coarsening fast enough without The Weekly Standard's help...
...GUY CIARROCCHI Paoli, PA A GUTLESS MAJORITY CHARLES MURRAY ADMITS in his review of Gertrude Himmelfarb's One Nation, Two Cultures that the cultural elites are largely responsible for the emergence of the American underclass ("Common Ground...
...Finally, as was reported in newspapers across Pennsylvania and in the Wall Street Journal, on the evening in June 1999 when the state legislature was preparing to enact the most sweeping parental choice bill in the nation, Rendell called members of the General Assembly one at a time to lobby against legislation that would have offered Philadelphia's public-school parents school choice...
...CURSES, CURSES I AM WRITING REGARDING the use of the "f" word in Andrew Ferguson's article on Sen...
...While I hesitate to kick a man when he's down, I must add two important points to Matthew Rees's otherwise informative article...
...Sheepishly he confided in me that he could not read...
...Second, to say Rendell achieved "next to nothing" in education is to ignore what he did...
...I'll never forget handing a newspaper article about our football team's success to an African-American teammate, then a junior...
...Not "Fast Eddie...
...JOHN P BLADEL Fairfax, VA LEARNING VALUES IN REVIEWING NICHOLAS LEMANN'S book on the history of the sAT, Mary Campbell Gallagher falls back on a common fallacy when she argues that by giving minorities a break on SAT scores in college admissions "we will not force ourselves to improve the grade schools and high schools that minority groups attend" ("Test Ban...
...Schools with high expectations and without excuses will achieve better results, regardless of home background...
...Strict nineteenth-century public and parochial schools taught millions of non-English-speaking and often rural immigrants to read...
...As one who attended a racially diverse inner-city public school (where busing was in effect), I can assure Gallagher that the quality of the school had much less to do with a student's success than the culture whence that student came...
...Therefore, Rendell's one actual "accomplishment" must be viewed in this context: He was forced to act responsibly...
...EVAN J. WINER Evanston, IL MARY CAMPBELL GALLAGHER RESPONDS: When a student is big enough to play football, it's time to stop blaming his mother if he cannot read...
...Nov...
...Given that the typical suburbanite opposes tight abortion restrictions, school vouchers, and tax reform, and embraces most cultural trends from "gangsta rap" to women's studies to Jerry springer, it appears that the current bourgeois morality does not extend beyond the confines of gated communities...
...In my view, use of that word is unacceptable even when quoting someone, as in Ferguson's article...
...Nov...
...He believes, however, that America still has something of a moral majority...
...Evan J. Winer, by contrast, has no expectations for his teammate's literacy, and refuses to hold the Chicago public schools accountable...
...When education is not emphasized in the home, as it clearly wasn't for my illiterate teammate, the best schools can do only so much...
...Correspondence FAST EDDIE EXPOSED AFTER YEARS OF CONSERVATIVES from the Wall Street Journal to the Heritage Foundation heaping praise on Ed Rendell as "America's Mayor," it was heartening to read a fair, measured, and factual account of what really happened (or did not happen) in Philadelphia over the last eight years ("Bill Clinton's Favorite Politician," Nov...
...This oversight board compelled Mayor Rendell (and the city council) to adopt balanced budgets and reasonable five-year financial plans...
...First, when studying Rendell's budgetary "success," it is imperative to note that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania appointed a state oversight board...
...While improving the schools should be a top priority, let's not fool ourselves that this is a panacea...
...Ten minutes later he was still working on the first sentence...
...Progressive...
...How to instill cultural values of learning, and not just lip service to it, is a far greater challenge...
...Reformer...
...He did sue the Commonwealth, twice, for more state funding of Philadelphia's public schools...
...using "f" with dashes is sufficient to convey what was said, even though it may not come across with as much clout...
...I urge you to help maintain community/family standards with an editorial policy proscribing the use of such words...
...What differed was the emphasis on learning, or lack thereof, that students brought with them...
...At first I thought he was kidding, but sadly he was not...
...RICHARD O. SAVOYE Annandale, VA...
...The city has 12 percent of Pennsylvania's students, yet already receives 18 percent of state education dollars...
...Maybe Stephen Goldsmith, John Norquist, or Rudy Giuliani...
...John McCain ("The McCain Rage," Nov...
...The books, the building, and the teachers were the same for all students at Sullivan High School in Chicago...
...What he does not stress enough is that it is a gutless majority...
...He is "credited" as the single most important factor behind the bill's defeat...
Vol. 5 • December 1999 • No. 13
