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A letter that was sent to the C-J concerning public schools:

Dear Editor,

I enjoyed David Hawpe's trip down memory lane with Dr. Doug Rees (4/29/01), but not the conclusions he drew from that trip. Hawpe claims that Rees' success "illustrates the success of public schools". In fact, Rees' story provides evidence for the success of public schools-- in 1970. And Rees' story provides evidence for the success of public schools-- for one student. (Actually, one could argue that Rees would have done even better at a private school.) In any case, anecdotal evidence is not particularly useful in determining whether public schools are "effective".

Instead, it would be more useful to see a story on whether local (and/or
national) university faculty received a disproportionate amount of their
elementary and secondary education at private or public schools. And it'd be interesting to know if this proportion has changed over time. The essay
begins with Lee Todd's contention that UK "can compete". It'd be nice to see a little more competition in elementary and secondary education-- or perhaps we should look into forcing Kentucky high school students to attend Kentucky universities.

Sincerely yours,

D. Eric Schansberg
Professor of Economics