
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, September 4, 1993                   TAG: 9310280319
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOLS HAVE LONG WAY TO GO

IN YOUR AUG. 22 editorial, "Passing passport tests," you stated that the upward trend in first-time pass rates (69.3 percent this past spring) on the Literacy Passport Test is "evidence that, on this score anyway, the schools are moving in the right direction." Moving in the right direction, maybe. But considering the following, it seems that they have quite a way to go:

Only 69.3 percent of Virginia's sixth-graders can write, perform mathematics and comprehend reading at the sixth-grade level.

Some, and presumably most, of the 30.7 percent of the students who failed the test will enter the seventh grade this fall unable to perform minimum sixth- grade work.

The "passport" to ninth grade requires only that one be able to write, perform mathematics and comprehend reading at the sixth-grade level.

If testing of this sort is "one means by which Virginia's schools can be held accountable for their performance," I find it impossible to be very enthusiastic about what our schools are accomplishing.

JENNIFER CHRISTIAN

ROANOKE

God is mad at America

HALF the country seems to be aware of the fact that God is angry with America, and the other half, starting in some very high places, seems to be rather oblivious to the fact.

JANE THURBER

ROANOKE

Killing in the name of the state

QUOTING Holy Scripture is not the answer; it's just the beginning. Living it is what is needed. Shakespeare put this in perspective when he wrote some 200 years ago that "The devil can quote Scripture for his purpose."

Living the Scriptures requires they not be accepted as suggestions but as commands. One specific command is "Thou shalt not kill."

This brings into question how the two leading candidates for governor of Virginia, professing to be Christians, support the death penalty (killing by the state) and indirectly brag about it.

What is upsetting is that it is evident that a large number of Virginians acquiesce to this practice, much like the German people accepted the extermination of the Jews in the name of the German state.

More frightful is the message that such actions send to children: It's OK to kill if you have the power. They are taught by watching movies and television that the gun is power, so it only follows that they would seek out a gun. And when they have one in hand, they have the power and the message that it's not bad to kill.

The message we should be sending is that any and all killing is wrong.

FRANKLIN M. RIDENOUR

ROANOKE

Thanks due the vice mayor

I'VE ALWAYS been under the impression that when a public official was elected into office, his job was to represent the public. Yet during the past few weeks, Vice Mayor Bev Fitzpatrick was ridiculed for just that.

In the Roanoke gas war, he stood up and agreed with 95 percent of residents in the valley and said no to the takeover. By doing this, he was quickly insulted, not by the citizens but by the mayor. The vice mayor did what he thought was right, and I would like to thank him for standing behind the public.

RANDY LEFTWICH

ROANOKE

by CNB