Letters to the Editor

Evidence argues against 'enlightened' electorate

Bass Trumbo (Letters, Nov. 24) discusses the important connection between democracy and education.

Since the time of Aristotle, it has been known that democracies cannot function with an uneducated electorate. Mr. Trumbo then details the failures of American education at the K-12 level and also higher education. He blames the failures on low salaries for teachers.

The opposite seems to be the case. School districts with extravagant salaries and per student expenses often have abysmal scores and graduation rates. One example is the New York City school district which pays $100 million dollars per year (salary and benefits) to 1,000 teachers who do not teach. Teachers in the classroom receive comparable salaries and benefits. Small religious schools often with low teacher salaries have high graduation rates and test scores. Home-schoolers usually outperform their public school counterparts and the parents receive no salaries. America has one of the worst K-12 systems in the developed world according to several evaluations including the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).

Most teachers are "educated" in college "schools of education" and this is where the crisis begins. Here, faculties, including many Ph.D.'s, vote to abolish math and foreign language requirements for graduation, surely a sign of rank ignorance not low salaries. Their place is taken by numerous absurd courses concerning identity politics. Hitler was one of the first identity politicians and described such ideas as the basis of National Socialism (Nazism) in Mein Kampf: "For me and all true National Socialists, there is but one doctrine, people and fatherland ... Every thought and every idea, every doctrine and all knowledge, must serve this purpose. And everything must be examined from this point of view and used or rejected according to its utility."

One non-royal student at the University of Michigan demands to be addressed as "Your Majesty" and under current identity rules the demand is met.

Many colleges and universities have no requirements in math, science, literature, or history for graduation, (see "What Will They Learn" at GoActa.com). Freedom of speech and intellectual freedom are continuously under assault. Statements found to be "offensive" are "micro-aggressions" and may lead to the punishment of the speaker. The listeners may retreat to "safe rooms" or participate in "cry-ins." This is no education at all.

R. Arun, in his book Academically Adrift, notes that fully one-third of college graduates have learned nothing more than they learned in their abysmal high schools. College students today given high school exams from sixty years ago perform poorly. Even more damning is the recent poll taken by the American Council of of Trustees and Alumni of 1,000 18- to 49-year-olds. Almost two-thirds of them believe a college education is mainly a waste of time and money.

Nevertheless, Mr. Trumbo then informs us such a worthless education is invaluable for an enlightened electorate! The opposite often seems to be the case.

Donald Engels

Fayetteville

It's time for U.S. to give up Electoral College

I'm astounded by the comments from people defending the electoral college and their arguments on keeping the small states relevant. Why would you defend a system that has failed to recognize the will of the popular vote twice in the last 16 years? If this system is so great, why do we as a nation run every other election process, from school board to state senate, in a different -- and much simpler -- way?

The electoral college was the product of a time when slavery was commonplace in the Southern states, and this system gave them greater weight in the process by counting non-voting slaves as part of the population. I have no doubt that our Founding Fathers today would implement a popular vote.

In our modern world, there is no justification for introducing weighted allocation factors (and thus rounding errors) when we can simply count every single vote regardless of geographical location of the voter. Your one vote in Arkansas will have the same weight as someone else's vote in New York. A million votes in Arkansas will have the same weight as a million votes somewhere else.

We should not be assuming that ideas formulated in 1787 are still adequate. We've changed the Constitution 27 times already. It is high time to do it again.

Peter Elzer

Fayetteville

Commentary on 12/04/2016

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