Letter: Salter's data skewed in school choice dialogue

To the editor,

I praise Drew Landry's letter printed Jan. 22. I really enjoyed Landry's last paragraph.

In a letter on Jan. 15, Alexander Salter presented two studies cited on EdChoice.com which seem to support school choice. These studies indicate that students in charter schools perform better scholastically than those in public schools. Clearly EdChoice is hardly an independent organization!

Landry cites independent surveys that refute Salter's claims. I have also presented results of independent studies and have a manila folder with a dozen independent studies. My cousin Ronnie is a supervisor for charter schools in Michigan.

Further, Salter refuses to answer this question: "How many of these schools are run by religious organizations?" I don't know why he dodges this question. Clearly he knows that over half of charter schools are operated and funded by religious groups.

The website EdChoice.com does not name the school districts which were in their surveys or what their affiliation is. But if one visits the websites and reads the fine print, they find there is a lawsuit in process in Ohio claiming the state subsidizes private school tuitions at a higher rate than per-pupil public school funding and gives religious institutions control over public funds. There is a similar lawsuit filed in West Virginia which cites three violations of the state's constitution.

Nathan W. VogtLubbock

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Letter: Salter's data skewed in school choice dialogue