Column educated nobody

Regarding the Jan. 17 “Smart Bomb”: If anyone reads, they can’t help but learn that America’s public schools continue to slide toward oblivion. The rate at which Idaho high school grads went directly to college in 2014 was 45 percent compared to the U.S. rate of 63 percent, thus ranking Idaho 50th out of 50 states.

Our public high school teachers hand out grades knowing well that their students don’t need to know the material to gain a passing grade. Today, teachers are very “busy” with over-socialized concerns about breakfasts, lunches and backpacks full of food. The creation of endless alternatives to our public education system clearly points out that our public schools have melted down.

I’d guess Gary Crooks has a readership that wants to hear and read that there certainly must be some excuses for the continued failures. I taught high school for five years after a career as a military and commercial pilot, and clearly saw vast substandard efforts in our public schools.

His article does what? It gives excuses to those who need to drastically improve what they do for a living — teach. He does serious harm with such deliberate pandering, and his column was, indeed, a dumb bomb.

Ronald Deady

Coeur d’Alene