I agreed with Tae Chong’s Sept. 24 commentary that we should focus more directly on the achievement gap for students who are Black, brown or in poverty, rather than political correctness and feel-good spending.

I recently moved here from San Francisco to Falmouth, and my three Latino and African American kids like that the schools are much more directly focused on performance, support, effort and learning.

San Francisco made half the kids wait a year to study algebra, was the only city of the biggest 25 not to reopen schools by March, tried to rename 44 schools and ignored test scores after 40 years of focus on buildings, renovation and across-the-board spending instead of much-needed tutoring, parent education and Saturday and summer school for all kids who didn’t achieve academic proficiency, leading to California’s worst gap.

Non-white immigrants from over 70 nations, including over 25 in Africa, out-earn whites within a generation, according to Amy Chua’s and Jed Rubenfeld’s “Triple Package.” The key is studying over 12 hours a week; limiting TV, video games and social media; summer learning and reading, and early childhood education.

Throughout U.S. history, we’ve raised the minimum acceptable education from elementary, to middle, to high school. Now, I think we should provide three to four hours of free tutoring to all kids (as we can’t expect kids without ideal home lives to compete with those with involved parents and professional tutors), convince all kids of the importance of 15-plus hours studying, offer one-on-one help wherever needed and focus laser-like on the hugely important goal of closing the achievement gap.

Justin Van Zandt
Falmouth

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