Editor:

Here we go again. Provincial testing (FSA) results are in and the news is not good. This district has been left behind--again. Students continue to struggle with the basics where barely half of those who wrote the tests, made it.

The seventh graders in particular did very poorly. In fact, most failed math.

Even the district superintendent herself had to admit that "the district has a problem at the Grade 7 level," and that "we still have lots of work to do in reading and numeracy in Grade 7." That's quite a confession!

There is more. Last year, most of the sixth graders had failed in fully meeting expectations on an in-house reading assessment. Surely that could not have been very good news.

Now, according to a Johns Hopkins University study, by sixth grade the signs are often there for who is likely to drop out. In other words, dropouts can be spotted as early as the sixth grade.

Could that possibly explain this district's less than stellar graduation rate, where the district has lagged behind the province by a substantial margin (69 versus 79).

Surely, all this can't be explained away as lack of funding. The fact remains that the system has more money than God.

Unfortunately, the total cost of public education is often underestimated. Worse still, pinpointing exactly where all that money goes is quite a challenge. Still the public has a right to know.

So, let "value-for-money" be the new mantra. Ask: The kid can't read. What did you do with that child? What did you do with that money?

Remember, the first rule of bureaucracy (including most school boards) is to preserve itself at all costs. So, show some outrage.

Dr. Lal Sharma

Chilliwack