Letter: Answer to Cathy Sproul's Op. Ed.

Ms. Sproul says to take away “coercion” and “make learning consensual.” I suspect most readers, like me, agree with her comments.

However, her criticism of education officials like Tom Horne is misplaced. “Coercion” means government coercion. Whether Mr. Horne’s policies are deemed helpful or not doesn’t matter. His job simply should not exist. We should have the complete separation of government and education. Only private education should exist in a free country. That way, thousands of fine teachers like Ms. Sproul–along with parents–would be in charge of education instead of government bureaucrats. Teachers, principals, parents would have the freedom to experiment. This is the only way to bring about the positive, fruitful education environment that caring, insightful people like Ms. Sproul desire.

Jim Douthit, retired teacher

West side

Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.