Dear Editor,
Haddonfield residents—parents and non-parents alike—need to pay close attention to changes being imposed on children attending our schools.
Our BOE refers to these curricular changes as “controversial topics,” while others see them as shifts away from established traditions of academic education in favor of questionable ideological theories.
These changes are leading to a decline in academic excellence.
Schools are failing nationwide. ”The average score of the ACT, a college admissions test, fell to its lowest level in more than three decades,” the organization behind the exam said recently.
This decline is due in part to the influx of the mentioned “controversial topics.” We can all worry about how curricular shifts will shortchange our born and unborn grandchildren; and for that matter, all God’s children in the future. So, we need to take it all very seriously.
Worse than the inclusion of “new” subject matter is the commensurate exclusion of topics that were once the wholly acceptable and widely respected backbone of public education.
These ill-conceived changes go underreported and wrongly hidden from the public eye, with no way of knowing what’s been phased in and phased out. Meanwhile, our own district tacitly refuses to release information.
But there’s Hope. The Nov. 8 BOE election will be the golden opportunity for ALL voting residents—not just parents—to elect a candidate whose platform promises to end the descending trajectory.
Nov. 8 is about the numbers. Well-informed voters can turn out to vote for Mark Cartella, the only candidate on the ballot who intends to put an end to the academic slide; who will restore the traditional staples of public education—the 3Rs and STEM—to our schools. Please be one of them.
After familiarizing yourself with the respective campaign literature (plentiful available), please bullet vote for Mark Cartella.
Walter Weidenbacher
Haddonfield
