Intel contest points up LI's inequities

I found your article, "It's down to a science" [News, Jan. 13], very informative. Kudos to all the 57 semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Search. But I nearly spilled my coffee when I read a letter to the editor, "High taxes for schools are paying off" [Jan. 19]. It's beyond me how an educated person can come to such a conclusion with the evidence at hand. She must think that most of us are not too bright.

Your story is only the tip of an iceberg of the education of our children here on Long Island. Taxes rise higher and higher primarily because of school budgets, resulting in an exodus of businesses and young adults to other areas. What kind of a payoff is that?

Further, the letter writer states that semifinalists "represent the ethnic diversity that make our neighborhoods great." Not so. One black and, at most, three Hispanics out of 57 is far from diverse.

The neighborhoods where these students live are upscale for the most part. The writer justifies her fondness for high taxes implying that people who are well-off are getting a quality education for their children that the rest of us don't.

Is the writer saying that the teachers in other districts, such as Roosevelt, Hempstead, Long Beach, Wyandanch and Riverhead - to name some that did not produce semifinalists - aren't up to the task? Are hardworking taxpayers there and in Mastic Beach and Shirley getting shortchanged? The writer proves what we've all known for a long time: that the education system on Long Island is far from equal and stinks to high heaven.

Tom Stenger

Aquebogue

The letter writer assumes more money means a better education. Depending on the year, New York spends more than 48 or 49 other states, and yet national tests place us in 34th position, according to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

Teachers unions require us to pay the worst teachers as much as the best. Does this make sense? The median teacher salary in my community exceeds $100,000. The writer says we must pay this because of their "professional standing." In every other field, the market governs.

The fact we've had over 150 applicants for every open teacher position for years suggests these high salaries are not required. Let's give taxpayers a break. Public education is our nation's last unnatural monopoly, and that's why our educational quality is falling relative to other nations, while costs are out of control.

Frank J. Russo Jr.

Port Washington

Editor's note: The writer serves on the executive committee of Long Islanders for Educational Reform and is president of the Port Washington Educational Assembly.

Ann Golob, director of the Long Island Index, is right ["More students could be science stars," Opinion, Jan. 18]. The Long Island and New York City area has world-class scientific institutions and an abundance of science-oriented museums and other resources. She, however, places too much emphasis on the economics of family income and school district funding.

If we aren't producing as many science stars as we could, it's because the students aren't growing up in a cultural environment that emphasizes science, mathematics and academic excellence. It's hardly a coincidence that a significant number of Long Island's recent crop of Intel Science Talent Search semifinalists appear to be from Asian backgrounds - like many of the student volunteers with whom I work at a local science museum. These cultures, even in poor countries, place great emphasis on the love of knowledge and inculcate it from a very young age.

In America, too many young people are growing up in families, neighborhoods and schools in which life is centered around playing with electronic gadgets, worshiping pop culture celebrities and professional athletes and shopping at the mall for the latest social status symbol. That's a poverty of cultural and intellectual values, and it's far more difficult to overcome than growing up in a low-income family, in a poor neighborhood or in a failing school district.

People who are financially poor aspire to wealth. People who are culturally and intellectually poor don't aspire to anything.

Paul Manton

Levittown