Blame educational woes on parents

To the editor:

There is much with which to agree in Greg Barone's Sunday Viewpoints commentary, "Mass-produced ignorance." Indeed, for decades, American media (including the Review-Journal) have chronicled the doleful history of slackened educational expectations and grade inflation, which Mr. Barone decries.

However, I disagree with one conclusion expressed in the commentary. After one paragraph in which he describes teachers worn down by student and parental badgering for better grades without performance, Mr. Barone says, "Make no mistake, the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the students -- but the consequences are growing every day."

Most of the students do not know better. They have been taught the goal of schooling and key to their future is the Almighty Diploma, then let in on the secret that administrators are more desperate to hand it out than they are to receive it. Is it any wonder they goof off, then demand passing grades?

The fault is not in our students, but in ourselves -- in parents who expect so little from their schools, in administrators who insist on social promotions, in teachers who oppose reforms which would weed out incompetence, and in a society which fails to convey that the purpose of education is to produce adults who understand the world sufficiently to make informed choices and prosper in it.

Rodney M. Jean

LAS VEGAS

Life in an association

To the editor:

Your Saturday edition included the article, "Where others see trash, he sees dollar signs," about a man, Roger Anderson, who has a dozen shopping carts full of trash and two nonworking cars sitting in his front yard. Another article, "Homeowner association bill criticized," was about dozens of homeowners fighting a bill that would limit the power of HOAs.

All I can say is, I can guarantee that Mr. Anderson does not live in a community with a homeowners association. If he did, he would never have had the chance to accumulate any trash on his lawn. The moment he did, he would have gotten a letter from his HOA demanding it be cleaned up immediately. Then he would probably have about 10 days, with a fine imposed every day, before the HOA hired a crew to clean the mess up for him. Finally, the cleanup bill, along with the daily fines, would be placed as a lien on his home so if it were ever refinanced or sold, the bill would be paid.

ARI STOTLAND

LAS VEGAS

Abetting mayhem

To the editor:

I am alarmed by recent articles in the Review-Journal and Jane Ann Morrison's Thursday column concerning Senate Bill 362 and homeowners associations.

If the intent of the bill is to render HOAs powerless, then it looks like our legislators are on the right track. Legislators appear to be supporting about 20 percent of HOA members, who spend six figures to buy a home in a nice neighborhood and then are amazed by the rules they agreed to when they signed for acceptance of the association's covenants, codes and restrictions.

As a volunteer who serves on the board of directors of an association, I take pride in my neighborhood and want to enforce the standards of the rules to maintain the community's attractive appearance.

If your legislators pass the pending bill, which would neuter the boards of directors, then you will not get volunteers to serve on the boards, and you will be abetting mayhem.

Gerry Brodeur

LAS VEGAS

Revisionist history

To the editor:

Sycophantic Republican pundits have been experts in revisionist history for decades, but your editorial of March 27 (republished Sunday as part of your Weekly Editorial Recap), was a feeble April Fool's joke.

You claim: "the Founders ... created the Electoral College to both recognize a federal union of sovereign states and assure small states that the country's major population centers wouldn't be able to swing every election."

You are overlooking the fact that in the late 1700s, when the Constitution was drafted, there were only thirteen small colonies and no major population centers. There were also no means of rapid communication, as we now have. Instead of traveling at the speed of light, word of election results traveled at the speed of a horse. Hence the need to provide a means of accurately collecting the votes as soon as possible led to the Electoral College, where representatives of the popular vote carried the results.

The Electoral College was created for one purpose only: to assure an accurate and honest counting and compilation of the popular vote, which followed the accepted premise of "one man, one vote."

Because each individual vote can be tabulated and transmitted immediately to any election center in the country, the Electoral College has no useful purpose and should be abolished completely. It's only use today is to facilitate the manipulation of presidential election results by dishonest politicians, as was unfortunately the case in 2000.

Donald R. Davis

FORT MOHAVE, ARIZ.