In a letter to the editor a few weeks ago, I asked the question, “How can the VWSD be in successful status when the individual schools were failing?” I found the answer in the Sept. 1 editorial under the header “Education.”

In this editorial published first in the Sun Herald of Biloxi and reprinted in The Vicksburg Post, legislators asked the same question and were told by Paula Vanderford of the State Department of Education that it is possible for a district to meet test score growth objectives, moving them up one tier, even when individual schools do not.

Their editorial labeled that statement as “warped reasoning” and urged Vanderford and her colleagues to make sure that it never happened again.

I would like to know why parents, taxpayers, local officials and legislators in this area are not furious about the status of our children. We are being lied to about their test scores. I suspect that more than 50 percent of the students in the VWSD are reading below grade level. With no real plans for intervention, our students’ grades will continue to deteriorate. The 90-minute reading block is ineffective if the teacher is not competent in teaching reading skills.

When I read a statement in The Vicksburg Post that said, “high school students are not the future of this district” I cringed. Why send your children to school if the expectation for their graduation is so low that the school district itself doesn’t believe in them?

We must intervene. It is incumbent upon the residents of this city to give a free and appropriate public education to every student. It is the responsibility of our local school board to stay abreast of the changes that are taking place in education and hire the most qualified people for the job. Obviously, if someone is “thrilled” over a skewed statistic, he or she is not the right person for the job.

Tillman Whitley

Retired teacher, VWSD