To the Editor:

What if you knew that your state senator or state representative knew there were proven ways to improve a broken public education system that is graduating less than two-thirds of our high school students and yet did nothing?

What if these elected officials knew that over a third of our children were dropping out and being relegated to menial jobs, direct infusion into the poverty cycle and even a possible term in prison?

What if they knew that several of the options delivered far better results at 50 to 60 percent of the cost?

What if it were apparent to all that 40 years of throwing money at the current system had produced no measurable improvements in the results obtained and has taken us from a ranking of No. 1 in the world in 1970 to 31st in the world in 2010?

What if all this were known and nobody did anything to fix it except demand more money to fund more bureaucrats and administrators?

What if those same state senators and state representatives not only failed to implement the solutions but also fought the passing of legislation to fix the problem with falsehoods, misrepresentations, ignorance of the issue, failure to read the legislation proposed or on direct orders from their political party?

What if we asked those elected officials one question: why?

Let’s see now, how many answers can there be?

I can think of none that do not reflect pure self-interest. Campaign contributions from the teachers’ unions keep these people in office. The enormous bureaucracy that has been developed by the government-education complex is totally self-serving and only makes it more and more difficult for our good teachers to teach.

No one represents the children. After all, they can’t vote anyway.

Bruce Gardner

Waynesville