I read with interest an article earlier this month encouraging parents of public school children to come out for “A Day in the District.” I found it quite interesting and in some ways very revealing.

I noticed that in this short article, there were four references to getting free meals. I decided to analyze the piece. Rather than do a word count, I decided the easiest way for me was to carefully measure the length of the article. The total length was 6.75 inches.  The total length of the free lunch information was 3.25 inches. Doing simple math, I determined that the free lunch material took 48.1 percent of the entire piece.

I think this article is analogous to our public school system in many ways — 48 percent about free meals and 52 percent about everything else. Who can say what is in the “everything else?” According to the test scores, it must not be about learning.

I think if our school system would charge for things that should be charged, that our school board would not need another million dollars to get the parents involved with their children’s education. They could probably haul the delinquent parents to a day at school in a stretch-limo.

Ed Field

Natchez resident