Britannia Radio

 

Letter To Newsweek From Frosty Wooldridge 

3-11-10

 

Dear Newsweek: letters@newsweek.com Re: "The key to saving America education" by Thomas and Wingert/ March 15, 2010 Firing bad teachers won't change the fact that inner city parents, poorly educated parents and illiterate immigrant parents by the millions cannot speak, write or read English. As a former teacher in Denver, Colorado, we suffer 85 different languages from students and parents that cannot speak English. Result in 2004: 67 percent dropout/flunkout rate. In Detroit, Michigan last year, 76 percent high school flunkout rate per Brian Williams at NBC. No matter how excellent our teachers, we cannot teach in classrooms when a majority of the kids cannot comprehend English or survive in our culture of academic excellence. Final result: American kids suffer at the hands of dumbed down classrooms and devolved academics. Key to saving American education-stop relentless immigration. Frosty Wooldridge Golden, CO Ph. 303 666 6186 P.S.   Forty years later, and 100 million people added to the United States from disparate cultures around the world, educational systems around America grind on in total chaos. With a massive Middle Eastern immigrant load in Detroit, Michigan, as reported by NBC's Brian Williams, "76 percent of high school students in Detroit schools flunked out this Juneother cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and Houston feature similar dropout rates from 50 to 60 percenteach year 1.2 million teens hit the streets illiterate." That leads up to the distressing fact that 1 in 7 Americans remains functionally illiterate:   Illiteracy Statistics   42 million American adults can't read at all; 50 million are unable to read at a higher level that is expected of a fourth grader. The number of adults that are classified as functionally illiterate increases by about 2.25 million each year. 20 percent of high school seniors can be classified as being functionally illiterate at the time they graduate.   Source: National Right to Read Foundation Where Illiteracy Leads   70 percent of prisoners in state and federal systems can be classified as illiterate. 85 percent of all juvenile offenders rate as functionally or marginally illiterate. 43 percent of those whose literacy skills are lowest live in poverty.   Source: National Institute for Literacy   Yet, with those disturbing figures, our U.S. Congress imports an added 2.5 million legal and illegal immigrants into this country every year. That equals over 200,000 every 30 days. Their kids overwhelm our schools. They subvert education for our own children. The immigrants themselves face daunting challenges as to culture, language and jobs.   In Denver, we suffer 85 languages and a 67 percent Denver Public Schools flunkout rate as reported by the Rocky Mountain News in a story "What Happened?" Ironically, the 'Rocky' bankrupted in 2008 because not enough people could read! The same holds true for dozens of cities across our country.