Letter To The Editor Extolling The Virtues Of Public Education By Prominent Central Ohio Real Estate Developer, Robert Weiler
The attached LTE was published in March 25 Columbus Dispatch. Mr. Weiler’s letter warrants wide circulation.
Millions of Ohioans share Mr. Weiler’s enthusiastic view of public education and should be encouraged to go public with their sentiments.
Public schools ‘incubator’ for belief in public good
Let’s put the public back into public education.
It used to be that we had faith in public education. In the 1980s, we believed that public schools could bring children and families together from all backgrounds and beliefs to build understanding and acceptance.
Today, problems are even greater, e.g., alienation of people along political lines, environmental shortcomings, and distrust of government. One major difference today is that our most valuable tool to address these problems has been undermined and defunded – public education.
What happened to the belief that public education is our foundation for the public good, a necessary tool for an educated democracy and for addressing social problems? What happened to the belief that we all are in this together and our public schools are a forum where we can come together and address issues that are larger than any one of us?
Public schools are the incubator for those beliefs. There is great value in having all our children in school together, learning from each other’s differences. Now is the time to bring back our belief in building the common good for our children, not just for our own children, but for all children.
It is time to keep our constitutional commitment to one system of public education – uniting our children together to build bridges of learning and understanding that will last a lifetime.
Bob Weiler, Columbus
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