Education Not Timely Topic for Presidential Candidates, Focus Locally!

How do the editors of our local rag select letters to be published? Timely? Controversial? Well-written? Expressing the editors' opinions? Surely they're not selected on the basis of general platitudes!

The lead letter in Sunday's edition fits the latter description. A "retired school administrator" wants the presidential candidates to provide vision that will erase the country's educational deficiencies. We can assume that Brooks Moore did not specialize in political science or even history. Education has never been the bailiwick of the federal government. Oh, yes. We know that there exists a U.S. Department of Education that tries to prove otherwise, but as recently as the 1980s its existence was under fire. 

What could either Trump or Clinton provide besides the usual expected shibboleths? Education must improve. It must be better funded. It must "enhance equal educational opportunities" (whatever that means). You can read the following letter and not disagree with a single sentence, but what then? 

Moore calls for making education a top priority in local elections as well. Perhaps the editors should pay heed. Here we are weeks away from local elections for district school board positions and constituent school board elections. 

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

It's a secret apart from their filing information. The P&C would never actually demean itself to focusing on local candidates. Voters are left in the dark.

That's a more promising place to begin.

Letter: Education is the most important issueOct 16 2016 One of the key issues of the 2016 presidential campaign should be public education. From the start of the primaries to the general election neither candidate has publicly shared a vision for how to improve, fund and enhance equal educational opportunities for all our citizens.
At the foundation of a strong nation is a strong public educational system. Everything from our quality of life to our national defense is predicated on how we educate our children. Education has been and still is the main catalyst for improving one’s economic status and broadening one’s understanding of how our political and democratic processes work.
Education provides the broadening of one’s mind and generates an understanding of other cultures. At the core of tolerance lies education. As a retired school administrator, I have seen firsthand how public education has enhanced the lives of young people. If we want to improve our economy, reduce crime, provide better health care and reduce poverty then it’s time to make public education a top priority, not only in presidential contests but in the state and local elections as well.

Brooks P. Moore
Blue House Road
Ladson