Georgia Attorney Tries to Educate the President about the Promise of Public Education | janresseger

Georgia Attorney Tries to Educate the President about the Promise of Public Education | janresseger:

Georgia Attorney Tries to Educate the President about the Promise of Public Education

Posted on March 14, 2014 by janresseger

Two weeks ago Valerie Strauss printed this very profound letter written to President Barack Obama to protest the education policies of the Obama Administration.  The letter was written by Bertis Downs, a public school parent and an attorney in Athens, Georgia.

The letter is an almost perfectly written plea from a constituent to an elected official.  Downs thanks the President for honoring a guidance counselor from Athens’ Clarke Central High School.  Then Downs enumerates in personal and very moving examples the ways Clarke Central High School represents what a quality public high school ought to be.  Clarke Central is diverse and inclusive,  and it even celebrates its own diversity.  The school provides myriad opportunities to learn; it has won awards for closing the achievement gap; it sends many promising students to college.  “Clarke Central strives to educate any and every student within its community.  By and large, it succeeds.”

But, writes Downs, this school (like the majority of public schools across America) “faces significant challenges in an era of dwindling state budgets.”  Downs then celebrates the teachers and other staff who are, he says, the school’s “main strength.”

And now Downs’ plea to the President:  “The policies currently promoted by your Department of Education are actually hurting — not helping — schools like ours.  He explains how