Schooling Diversity
I read your articles about the district’s high schools (LEO Weekly Education Issue, Aug. 10), and one thing never came up. We all espouse diversity as long as it does not affect our flagship programs. What our “failing” schools lack is academic diversity. The “haves” take the top of the pie from every failing school (look at the resides report). There is no reason our magnets need to be so big. They needn’t recruit for both academics and sports. If our magnets were truly special, they would be small, like the Brown School. If Manual and Male and Butler were 1,000-1,200-student schools, they could focus on their mission better. If Eastern, Ballard and PRP were capped at 1,700, then there would be plenty of students to bring up the scores at Western, Butler, Doss and so on.
The problem is that there is no will on the part of the central office to do this, because that is where their kids go. Until we break up the small power clique that continues to try to reinvent every school in the image of Iroquois, we will continue to have schools that look like Iroquois. It will take a fresh view at the top of our middle management for things to really change. Take a look at the lineage of that group. These “buddies” all came up via Iroquois and PRP. The new superintendent needs to look no further than her outer offices if she wants to focus on real change.
Scott Horan, IT teacher, Jeffersonville High School
Evil Companies
I would like to point out a large gap in the latest letter regarding large corporations (LEO Weekly, Aug. 10). While I agree that the amount of employees is irrelevant to a company being labeled “good” or “evil,” I believe the root of the “evil” is completely missed here. Our capitalist society is built on the structure of a free and open market, so the argument that a company should or should not grow based on maintaining its status as a “non-evil business” is off point and negligible. One issue not mentioned is the loopholes in monopolization, i.e. Clear Channel Radio, which is not liable for its stranglehold on the majority of radio stations in the United States because they “syndicate” their hit singles to stations they don’t physically own, though they do entirely control said station’s content and product, and get paid handsomely for it. Another loophole (and local at that) is the amount of coal/energy corporation money that pays for our legislators to run for office. Who will stop mountaintop coal mining when the company responsible for the desecration of our beautiful country and runoff and well water pollution is the one controlling who is in office, thus pushing their own agenda for lower EPA standards? I won’t even start with big oil or the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries, or I will never stop.
David Chale, St. Joseph neighborhood
Lay Off the Laid-Off
I found the LEO Readers’ Choice category “Best Laid-Off Gannett Employee” to be in terribly bad taste. Those at The Courier-Journal who were laid off over the past couple years were most likely honest, hard-working employees who lost their jobs by no fault of their own. And they are LEO readers. Would LEO make light of Ford, Humana or Metro government employees losing their jobs? At a time when the unemployment rate is nearly 10 percent, I would urge the editorial staff of LEO to please be more sensitive about this subject. I’m sure you would appreciate the same sensitivity one day if the same were to happen at your own media company.
Clinton Kelley, St. Joseph neighborhood
Crazy Toons
I have NO idea if Zach Allen’s cartoon in the Aug. 3 LEO is historically accurate. I’m not even sure after my first quick read if it has any current political commentary. But it made me laugh, and it’s ballsy as all get out. Well done, and I hope to see more of Zach’s work.
Eli Keel, Germantown
