LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

By:
Set high goals
and expections
To the Editor
I have been surprised that it is controversial that great schools have high levels of measurable academic achievement and outstanding programs of co-curricular activities. For suggesting this, I have been called, "an elitist", "a bully", "exclusionary", "demeaning to those who do not aspire to learn Mandarin," and worst of all, "a big fat meanie."
I believe that if you aspire to great things and set high goals, it is worthwhile, even if you fall a little short. But if you aspire to little, you will certainly not be disappointed.
Stating an aspirational goal that schools should strive to be excellent in all areas does not imply Lawrence Township schools are excellent in no areas at all. This is silly. The school system is filled with extraordinary students and teachers. LHS championship sports teams, such as football, ice hockey, and cheerleading have set a measurable standard of excellence to be emulated by all of the competitive co-curricular organizations. The key is to provide an environment where potentials can be reached in all co-curricular activities and in academic performance.
Improving academic achievement is all about providing more opportunities for our children and giving them better preparation for higher education and the workplace of the future. Higher SAT scores do matter because they provide greater opportunities for our children. A student whose scores are higher may get into their first choice of college rather than their second or third choice. Students with higher scores may feel more confident in applying to colleges or universities with higher average SAT scores for admitted students.
Standardized tests measure mastery of material that will be critical for our children to possess to adapt to an increasingly complex and competitive workplace. Placing an emphasis on increasing standardized test scores (including the SAT) overall, in no way diminishes the important accomplishments of special education students. Excellence in special education is also a hallmark of great schools and we must continue the momentum in this area as well.
Excellent schools focus on foundational fundamentals and measurable academic achievement. They also provide course offerings that provide diverse opportunities for students with different interests and abilities. This is why great schools often offer a wide variety of language courses, courses in journalism and writing, as well as vocationally oriented offerings.
I believe that our diversity is a strength and that we can have high levels of academic achievement for all of children, regardless of their economic, racial, and cultural backgrounds. Together, we must set our goals high. One of the worst types of bigotry is the bigotry of low expectations. We can build on past successes so that all of our kids can reach their potential, that they can achieve greatness in the future, and that our community can have the best schools in the county and the state.
These are my personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of the Lawrence Township Board of Education.
John Gregg
Rosedale Road
Member, Lawrence Township
Board of Education
High school freshman defends
board members’ recent comments
To the Editor:
As a student at Lawrence High School, I am quite insulted by all of the negative letters written concerning John Gregg’s opinion of our schools. He is under no disillusionment as to the condition of our schools and I applaud his efforts to improve them, though it is obvious that with the lack of support offered by you, the citizens, it may be difficult.
Completing ninth grade, I have three years of high school before me, and if every letter received is an attack on the idea of improving our school, what am I looking forward to? Is it a stagnant Board of Education blinded to the advances that can be made in our quality of education? Will I look forward to boredom because of inadequate levels of difficulty in my classes? I hope not, and I defy anyone to tell me that it isn’t my right as a citizen of the United States to claim the best public education I can. I know many students who have entered private schools to claim that education, but I contend it shouldn’t be necessary.
Are we an average school in most respects? Certainly. To deny that would be folly and lies. But we become a much better school with help from the community. Extracurricular activities, for one, can always be improved. These take support from local parents and teachers. One writer pointed out that Odyssey of the Mind went to worlds in 05-06, but I know it wasn’t without fighting apathy and lack of support from the school. Many of the letters have only pointed out that we have extracurricular programs, without caring to notice that they could be better. Indeed we should not stop until we have top-rated programs. Saying "what we have is good enough" is more of an insult to the current students than striving for the best.
More than half of the letters received on June 14 professed to feel some level of insult for the outgoing class of 2007. Is acknowledging the possibility of improvement considered an insult? We can congratulate our current students, but I fail to see how anyone can find it demeaning to offer Mandarin Chinese, as one letter writer suggested. If stating that our school can get better is seen as criminal by this town, I fail to see what kind of an environment this can be to grow up in. The citizens need to start raising their children with the expectation that they should seize the best, instead of settle for average.
This reminds me distinctly of the United States Legislature. Everybody is too busy trying to make themselves look good to hand out the truth. The stark reality is that our schools can get better. Just ask high school students before you start defending them. Ignorance and inaction are the greatest threats to our education, and unfortunately both are explicitly conveyed in the text of those letters.
Jamie Titus
Spring Beauty Drive
School board voter asks member
to ‘do his homework’
To the Editor:
I voted for Mr. Gregg because I wanted change on the school board, because people I know supported him and without exploring his philosophies on education, or his thoughts on Lawrence Township public schools. For that, shame on me. Maybe he thinks his beliefs are shared by many in this township but he couldn’t be more wrong as demonstrated by the so eloquently written letters in last week’s paper.
Hopefully Mr. Gregg will look upon all of this as an eye opener and do his homework next time before he starts lecturing on the lack of greatest of our public school system here in Lawrence Township. I certainly will do mine before I cast my vote in the next election.
Teal Ranney
Shirley Lane
Open Space:Long-term funding
solution required
To the Editor:
The funding crisis facing New Jersey’s open space and land preservation program should be of great concern to our community. Though Governor Corzine has offered $25 million for the budget until 2009, and recently advocated issuing $200 million in bonds to temporarily prop up the program, neither of these solutions provides adequate long-term funding.
We need adequate long-term funding before open space, farmland and historic sites disappear forever. Competition by developers for limited undeveloped land in this state is fierce.
Even more distressing is Corzine’s plan to fund the Garden State Preservation Trust by using money from the sale of the Turnpike and Parkway, the lottery, and other state assets. This is a partial, short-term fix, and in the long-run the state will miss out on generations worth of future revenue, as well as be left vulnerable to toll increases by private or foreign companies. It is unacceptable that New Jersey’s environmental future has been held hostage by a shaky plan that will jeopardize the state’s assets for decades.
What the people of New Jersey want, and deserve, is a ballot initiative in November that allows them to decide whether they would like to use part of the existing sales tax revenue to fund open-space programs through the Garden State Preservation Trust for at least the next 10 years. We need our Governor and our legislators to commit to our environmental future with no strings attached.
Bob Martin
Hopewell Township
15th District Republican
candidate for the State Senate