The City’s Sham Grad Rates

Deputy Schools Chancellor Phil Weinberg and Mayor de Blasio are excited about improved high-school graduation rates (“Defining Diplomas Down,” Editorial, Feb. 9).

But are they really improved, or are we just making it easier to graduate? Remember when too many kids were failing geometry, and our fine city said maybe the test is too hard?

Listen to what the colleges are saying: Way too many kids are not prepared to do college work as freshman. That tells me we still have a serious problem in New York City schools.

The mayor is only interested in making his statistics look good, not in better educating our children.

This is a mayor who fights the more successful charter schools at every turn. This is a mayor who is in bed with the United Federation of Teachers. Our children deserve better. Gene Lindsay Mastic

When standards are lowered, the statistics tell a story that the Department of Education wants the public to hear, but no one with common sense believes it.

About 80 percent of grads entering CUNY community colleges require remedial reading. Kids “graduate” without being able to write or do mathematics at a college-entry level. David Rabinovitz Brooklyn