Why is PED chief still in Penn.?

LAST NIGHT I couldn’t sleep . ... What kept me up ... was the headline in (June 22)’s Journal, “NM again ranks last in child well-being.” ... What is new is that my granddaughter, a rising sixth-grader in APS, had a pretty mediocre end to her elementary years. She had minimal messages from her fifthgrade teacher in the three months from school closures to the end-of-year promotion. No online lessons, no outreach or check-in, no assessment of progress, no book suggestions. Nothing but a suggestion to do i-Ready and ST Math and watch PBS.

So you bet I was following the special session and the actions of the education secretary to see what was going to be done. And once again, just like my granddaughter’s teacher failed us, (Public Education Secretary) Ryan Stewart did, too. There was a window for him to step up for our kids, a chance to provide more resources, to propose something creative. I heard other fifth-grade classes had online classes; why can’t my granddaughter get in on that? Why don’t we provide counseling, tutoring, books for families? But instead it was business as usual and terrible communication.

So I contacted Secretary Stewart to find out why he’s not fighting harder for my granddaughter. And you know what? He is in Philadelphia. How is it acceptable that the person responsible for education in (one of) the worst-performing state(s) in the country is not even in the state? Why do we continue to tolerate this? We deserve better . ...