‘Excitement All Too Irresistible’

R. Emmett Tyrell Jr. is wrong to say that those conservatives who want to squelch the nomination of Harriet Miers will create havoc instead because they will have negated the standards they have insisted all along should be paramount for Democrats and Republicans alike that first the nominee should have facility with the law and second have personal integrity [“Excitement All Too Irresistible” Opinion, October 13, 2005].

Those who are opposed say President Bush reinforced the Democratic tendency to politicize judicial selection and ipso facto judicial decision making by making so personal a choice. They say the real issue is not how Ms. Miers is going to vote on Roe v. Wade but whether the constitution is a living or an enduring document and thus whether Roe v. Wade was rightly or wrongly decided. Thus having a law degree and having passed the bar to practice law is, even if you do it well, just not enough.

JULIUS GORDON
Douglaston, N.Y.

‘UFT Moves Closer to Contract’

The spin is on the pending labor contract between the United Federation of Teachers and New York City. Schools chancellor Joel Klein’s rosy verdict – “it’s a win win for everybody” – seems to be the prevailing sound bite [“Teachers Union Moves Step Closer to Approving Contract Deal With City,” Deborah Kolben, New York, October 12, 2005, and “The UFT Agreement: Diane Ravitch sees a win-win situation,” Opinion, October 4, 2005].

Talk about spinning gold (teachers get a 15% pay raise and nearly $1 billion in new retirement money) out of dross (a contract void of urgently needed radical reforms, as discussed by Andrew Wolf and Sol Stern in these pages [respectively, “The UFT Agreement,” Opinion, October 4, 2005, and “Missed Opportunity,” Opinion, October 13, 2005])!

Insidiously, the crowing about the union’s agreement to extend the school day by a paltry 10 minutes and the contract’s “empowerment” of teachers to decide matters of such magnitude as “the format of bulletin boards” (among the contract’s many other weaknesses) deflects attention from viable alternatives to failed union dominated schools.

Among other such options – yet to be born because of union obstructionism and political cowardice – charter schools are successful precisely because they bypass self-serving union work rules as well as the achievement-averse “progressive” pedagogies to which Mr. Klein and Mayor Bloomberg remain perversely committed.

For example, the Bronx Preparatory Charter School (“Bronx Prep”) offers an extended school day (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and school year (210 days); it also employs both the proven-effective back-to-basics approach to learning and the Core Knowledge curriculum. And the school is succeeding in educating students at the difficult middle-school level from one of the poorest communities in New York State.

On the 2005 8th Grade State Tests, Bronx Prep has more than doubled the passing rate of the local community school district (number 9): In math, the rate for Bronx Prep was 53%, while Community School District 9 scored only 21%; in English Language Arts, Bronx Prep attained a 58% rate, with Community School District 9 achieving only a 20% rate.

The hypocritical “win-win” hype conditions the public to continue passively to accept the corrosive combination of union control of schools and political expediency. Mayor Bloomberg’s spinmeisters should instead be calling this deal, from the standpoint of disadvantaged students, what it is: a “lose-lose” contract.

More constructively, the mayor and Mr. Klein should vigorously press the case they have admirably begun making to state legislators to lift the cap on charters – now set at a meager 100 – and to give the mayor the independent authority to create unlimited new charter schools in the city [“The Next School Reform,” Editorial, November 14, 2005].

Should Mr. Bloomberg succeed in acquiring such authority, he should appoint supervisors of city charter schools truly committed to pedagogies that get results and knowledge-rich curricula.

Because all city children deserve a chance to be educated in sound schools such as Bronx Prep.

CANDACE DE RUSSY
Bronxville, N.Y.
Ms. de Russy is a trustee of the State University of New York and an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute.

‘The Murrow Myth’

Andrew Ferguson’s review of the Edward R. Murrow biopic made an important point as to how and why the broadcast news community feels compelled to romanticize Murrow and his crowd. But so far neither Mr. Ferguson nor any of the other reviewers points up a critically important aspect of the McCarthy/Murrow confrontation – broadcast news is not “journalism,” it is theater [“The Murrow Myth,” Opinion, October 12, 2005].

Senator McCarthy understood that early on, which is why he had his hearings broadcast on television. Since Murrow also understood, he was able to use the senator’s own weapon against him. The important question today is “Does the American public recognize that all television – news, shopping channels and interview shows – is actually entertainment?” For facts or behind the scenes information only words written by ethical journalists will do.

ELAINE JANCOURTZ
Plainsboro, N.J.

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