Your comments:

"Having employed Connecticut people for the past 30 years, I find it appalling that the vast majority of people I have interviewed can't fill out a job application properly. Applicants misspell words, don't follow instructions (reading comprehension), can't do simple math without a calculator. When hired, if something goes just a bit wrong with the cash register, they can't make change or count back money to the customer. With so many people in trouble financially, you have to wonder why the kids are allowed to graduate without some financial budgeting skills. Until the educators are held responsible and not allowed to pass failure on to the next teacher and so on and so forth, (tenure, etc.) the country will continue to spiral downward in it's ability to produce capable, responsible, young adults." D.L.H., Torrington

"After spending 18 years and sending our older children to school in Massachusetts ... and then moving to Connecticut four years ago and sending the younger two kids to school in Connecticut, I am nothing short of terrified. Report cards have misspellings on them ... the family unit is NOT supported. My son lost credit in a Spanish class because we took a weeklong vacation with my 85-year-old father -- on school time in June. I guess the private route is the only alternative." D.A.K., Wolcott

"I rated Connecticut education as "good" because that's an average of excellent-to-unsatisfactory. We have no excuse to be other than excellent in this small, rich state ... and our superb private schools prove it. "Excellence" is not to be measured by "high" grades or test scores, but by doing the best we can for each kid, and seeing to it that each kid does his or her best in return. Education is cheaper than prison ... also." J.P.S., Lyme

"Public school teachers are overpaid, lazy bums." Alex, Bristol

"Generalizing the condition of education in the state of Connecticut would be a disservice to all the excellent teaching professionals. However, the ratio of teachers and guidance counselors is such that students tend to fall through the cracks. In the high school where my son is supposed to attend, the guidance counselor/student ratio is approximately 300 to 1. This number is based on a comment made by my son's counselor when we were trying to receive assistance for him. This young man is extremely bright according to standardized testing and is not a discipline problem. However, he lacks the maturity to get the task done without a great deal of structure. Because he did not cause any problems, and did not fit into the parameters of special ed. he was looked over. It took a great deal of pressure on my part to get them to react, only to be met with anger--because the perception is (that) of a perfect school. We were fortunate to have sent our son to a private school last year -- with the intent of transferring him back to public school this year. The apathy that has been shown thus far has been disturbing, to say the least. We are reconsidering our position for the good of our son." Lisa Trenske, Naugatuck

"As a student at NMHS New Milford High School) I have to say that teachers do a good job educating people, but the problem is with the other students. I think of it as a waste of time going over the same thing many times, when once or twice would be enough." "The Professor," New Milford

"You cannot truly understand how well a school rates unless you experience another. I know from experience that my high school (Simsbury) is doing an excellent job in preparing me for college. It is a difficult school with difficult teachers, but for the most part they do their jobs well! It is extremely difficult to maintain a high average, but it definitely prepares us for what we have ahead. They are doing a great job." S.K., Weatogue

"First of all I think, for the most part, if children wish to learn they will. Not all at the same speed, but they will learn. It is important that parents help them along the way as much as possible. Secondly, having taught CCD for two years, I have run across more young people that cannot read or write and that is in the 7th & 8th grades! I think the basics should be taught and mastered first and foremost. Obviously that is not being done in every case. There is so much concern with foreign languages (that the child may never need) and computers (which are great, but are they really necessary in the younger grades?) that the children of today, some anyway, do not know the basics that will help them through all phases of their life ... I believe all towns should have grammar schools to keep the youngest children close to home. The basics should be stressed. Once the child is in 7th grade and up they should be sent to various magnet schools, which would be developed just like community colleges. Perhaps some type of apprenticeship programs could be established for the last couple of years to really give the students a change to "try a particular career choice" before it is too late. The education of the child would then truly be rounded. They would get a taste of actual career paths and be able to decide what road they wish to travel when they left high school. Lastly, getting many towns together would enable a better mix of students from many different backgrounds without busing them too far." R.S., Windsor Locks

"Southington is above average; however, most are not. There are low-cost common sense things that can be implemented using things used successfully in other states like Maine and Oklahoma that would improve results. Since we pay teacher the best ... we should get the best. Anyone pulling down $60,000 for eight months work should be accountable! No doubt there are heroes in the classroom. But the power structure and administration are often problems. Lets see some out-of-the-box thinking and flexibility and accountability." Ed Cormier, Southington

"As a school student myself, I think that compared to any other school system the Fairfield Public Schools are doing an excellent job." M.A., Fairfield

"For the amount of taxes I pay to this town, I would expect more for my children. Some of these teachers we have should not be allowed to teach dog obedience classes much less elementary children. We pay these teachers too much and are getting too little in return." S.K., Plymouth

"If a student applies himself he can rise to the full level of his ability. The quality of the schools in the state for this student is sufficient to service this student. The resources are abundant. The facilities are adequate. The schools must compete with an ever-expanding list of distractions for the student's attention. It is this lack of attention from the students and their families that create the apparent lack of education, not the schools." Douglas Boucher, Waterbury

"My family moved here in April of 1996 from Virginia. Both of my kids were high school juniors. When they started school here in ct they found out that the school they were going to was two months behind compared to Virginia. That tells me that the schools here are below normal. They also attended in Tennessee and the schools there are even better than here. When I hear on TV or the radio that Connecticut schools are real good, I come back with "hogwash." You need to do another study just to see how bad the Connecticut schools are as far as to teaching our students." K.H., Wallingford

"Last year I home-schooled my fourth grader and sent my 5th grade student to school. Using home school curriculum 4th grade level, my home schooler was much more advanced than my public school 5th grader. It was terrible to think our children and the expectations the teachers have for them are minimal at most. They spend at least 2-3 hours out of their six hours a day for "specials"(usually not related to curriculum), lunch, recess and an entire 30-45 minutes in the AM making up homework that was due when they walked into school! Teachers are too lazy to discipline the students. It takes away from their free time!! That’s why they build in extra time for students to get away without doing what they were originally told (such as homework supposed to be done the night before.) My 5th grade public school child made the honor roll with little effort. He was in 5th grade and missed his homework assignments at least 3 times weekly!! Yet could make their honor roll! This summer I attempted to get this kid to do a 4th grade level English workbook. He is having a very difficult time!! He didn't know what a noun was!?? He made the honor roll!?? And we wonder why they can't read when they get to high school?! These schools cater to the under average. Children that make it to college are children whose parents have high expectations and enforce them whether their children are home schooled or not. Connecticut has the highest paid teachers in the nation. Yet we also lead in the amount of children home schooled in the nation!! What does that say to you? Facts usually speak for themselves. Our schools need to change!" Judi, No Town

"For years now, I have been dismayed by the very poor grammar spoken by what seems to be a majority of school-age children of all ages. My belief is that teachers are not being trained and required to speak proper English themselves, and certainly are not correcting and teaching correct usage to students. This should be a major responsibility of all teachers, not just English teachers. I personally know a person recently hired, as a 5th grade teacher who uses the terms ‘ain’t’, ‘he don’t’, ‘youse people'. and all the other common abuses of our language. My viewpoint is that good language is the essential building block of all learning." J.D., Brooklyn

"I'm sixteen years old and attend a public school. I feel that as much as you can analyze and re-analyze statistics, what really matters is whether or not the children are learning, and since the year I entered fifth grade I have had strong feelings that our public schools are not doing a satisfactory job of providing this at all. In that year, 1993, the gifted program in our town was cut to lower taxes. Because the large population of elderly citizens in Vernon was upset with the large sums they were paying to the town, our local government decided they could cut our gifted program and escape cleanly. What they didn't realize is that by doing this they were encouraging more of the "lowest common denominator" heterogeneous teaching that is unfortunately infiltrating schools all over the state and nation. These smarter-than-average children would now be grouped in with the average honors student, often also the average students and even in some classes with special education children. They are depriving kids of advanced opportunities and creating a drone society. Another issue that I have had with our public schools is the lack of funding for the arts. My marching band must rely almost solely on fund-raising in order to exist and compete. Though the students in my town are willing to go that extra mile and participate to the extent of these fund-raisers, I know that in many neighboring towns (i.e. Manchester, Ellington) do not have this high level of participation and are not able to participate in competitions in this area. Even worse and more pronounced is the lack of funding for drama programs. Again, my drama program is seriously lacking in funding and is also being slowly sandwiched by other subjects. It is only because of the dedication of students and our drama teacher Maggie Kline that we have been going to the Connecticut Drama Association Festival for several years and have reached the New England festival several times. In neighboring towns, students don't even know what the "Connecticut Drama Association" is! More and more private schools come to this event every year and fewer public schools choose to because of the lack of respect thy get. My friend, who participates in drama and in fact went for two years to perform in the Connecticut Drama Festival, was not able to take Modern Theatre, one of two drama courses offered at my school, all because of scheduling conflicts due to our school's latest venture "block scheduling". This is another peeve of mine, this experimentation with new scheduling concepts like "block scheduling" that fall like dominoes across the state. Can we be herded and played with like animals? Are we guinea pigs, or lab rats running the government's mazes? I think the sate and local governments should consider these things in the future, many children’s' careers and lives are hanging in the balance." Mike Sadler, Vernon

"It is not completely the fault of the educators of how our system is living up to the higher standards we have set. We accept mediocrity so that everyone FEELS good about what they do. The system as it is now requires the child to sit and listen in a classroom for hours on end. He has to respect the authority in school and have a regimented instruction. The family life when he goes home is not that way. He is the authority in the house nowadays. The parents are rarely home. They do not enforce education as a number one priority. He has to have an all around childhood. He has to do extracurricular activities. Practice is every night or whatever. Where is homework time or down time? Which, by the way the children are not children anymore with many learning about drugs, pregnancy and dysfunctional families and abuse, sex -- thanks to the Clinton media, and pornography. They have been robbed of their innocence and natural curiosity. They are entertained all the time. They do not find their own satisfaction doing something they have invented or imagined. That is boring. Our teachers complain they need more money to teach. Where is it that there is a job out there that you can start with a minimum of 30,000 a year -- have two months off and numerous holidays throughout the year off. Who do you think the first to complain will be when we want to go to a full-time school year as in many foreign countries? The teachers union protects the rights of teachers but it also should set stricter and higher standards for education. The teachers should have a test on teaching skills every three years. They should be evaluated by an independent group of teachers to see how they teach. The testing on Mastery Tests is always skewed because you know as well as I do the children are prompted on the questions and answers. The federal aid and many programs depend on their scores. The disruptive kids should be disciplined and the parents should take back some of that responsibility. The only way you have education as a priority is to have cooperation with the parents. The parents must see what is going on in the classrooms. Have the teacher have an open door policy. If the parents feel it is necessary to take Suzie out of class then it is their right to change teachers or get help at school at home. If the child is doing well (A's) in a class why is he failed after 20 absences? He understands where is the responsibility he took to do the homework etc. ... out the window. Something has to be done because the foreign countries will come and take over with their knowledge sooner than we think. The official second language of this country will not be Spanish it will be Japanese or Chinese." M.D., Torrington

"I said good, but it was hard. Compared to other parts of the country, I know we are better than good. Yet when I live in a state that has such inequities in availability of outstanding public education, depending on whether one is wealthy or poor -- inner-city Hartford or West Hartford, for instance, I cannot say we are good enough. We remain a relatively wealthy state, but many suburban towns continue to put education low on the list of priorities, and none of Hartford's "bedroom" communities care about the state of Hartford's schools." J.J., South Windsor

"An Open Letter to those who think that CT schools are below average or worse: You have no idea how good you have it." Bill S., Rockville

"The quality of education in Connecticut depends on the area in which you live. In Washington it's generally well developed with a negative emphasis (in my opinion) of attempting to be a private school instead of a public school. If you have $$, parents who stay interested, and peer pressure, you'll do well. However, college costs are rapidly becoming such that the average student will not be able to go. That scenario is not being addressed. What does the student do who cannot go on to more schooling?" P.K.W., Washington Depot

"I do not feel that it is the school systems that need the work, but the older teachers in the system. They are too set in the ways of the past. Schools that take in younger teachers have a better variety in teaching styles and I feel that this is what is needed to keep the education system positive for the children." H.O., Bristol

"I am a technical writer for a major Corporation which produces technical manuals for the military. We are told to write them for an 8th grade level education. Is that all the students can retain or is that all the teachers can teach?" F.C.L., Uncasville

"Your question on education in our public schools in Connecticut does not equate to any valid basis since, except where the local schools are being run by the state, the true answer is anywhere between excellent to failure." J.P.M., Madison

"As a university professor, having taught some 30 plus years I have a good vantage point from which to judge the quality of public education in this state. The quality of the students I teach, after they've had 12 years of being educated, is mediocre at best. Out of 40 students I'd say only about three are blue chip. Of the rest, 20 shouldn't be in university. The rest are educable but need massive remedial work. They are not used to doing homework, and most refuse to do very much of it for us. However, the kids are nice and come up to standard if pushed hard enough. But that makes it that the first two years of their studies are largely remedial. If they arrived ready, they could do their work in three years and go on for a master's degree, which is today what the bachelor's used to be: namely, the requisite for a good job and the ability to hold it. ... Hope this isn't too pessimistic. I'm hopeful for our kids. But we need massive work, especially for the kids in the inner cities." W.L.N., Bloomfield

"A lot of people constantly complain about the quality of the school systems, and it's usually because their kid is struggling, and subsequently blaming it on teachers. I will say that, as a former student of Terryville High, which has a reputation of being a below-average high school, that my school system, to which I was subjugated to for 10 years, (is terrible.) ... But parents and kids should not point fingers to the system or the school board because their kids aren't doing well. Those fingers should go directly to the child. Success in school depends on what you take out of it, and should have nothing to do with how good certain teachers are. Prime examples -- myself and my fellow THS grad Matt Rigazio. I went through a terrible school system, and yet I was still able to get into Emerson, one of the most prestigious film schools in the country. Matt, who has been here since preschool, is now preparing to attend Harvard with a major in Astrophysics, sporting a 1580 SAT score. It’s not the school system that shapes how you do, it's what you take out of the system that how you do. Plain and simple." Dave Zeidler, Plymouth