Letters: School of the Future is just fine

I'M AN EDUCATOR at the School of the Future, and I was offended by your recent article about complaints by students and parents.

Our school has its ups and downs and faces challenges - just like any public school in America - and does not deserve to be represented in this way by the media.

It was misleading of Dr. Ackerman to state that she wants to re-evaluate our curriculum, because, just like every public school in the city, we use the district's core curriculum. It was also misleading to emphasize the fact that the graduation status of some seniors is unclear, because that is the case all over the district due to the fact that final grades for seniors will not be calculated for another week or so.

My learners aren't seniors, but I can tell you that for many, a great deal is riding on their fourth-quarter report card. This isn't unusual, yet it was presented as such.

Other facts were omitted. An Inquirer article a few days earlier about Mastery Charter-Thomas mentioned that 93 percent of their seniors are going on to college. Our numbers are very similar - perhaps even higher - but that fact was left out.

The Daily News did not look at our test scores, attendance data or anything else that might paint a data-driven objective picture of our school as compared with others. There was also no mention of the enormous changes at our school since it opened: in leadership, courses, curriculum, even grading practices.

As an adult, I have a thick skin and can put this article in its proper place, but I wonder about the hurt it will cause for the children who take pride in our school and look forward to learning every day. The proudest moments of my professional career have happened inside my classroom at SOTF, and no amount of skewed reporting is going to change the pride I feel about our school.

Elisabeth Raab, Philadelphia

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Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett's "case" against boxing promoter Damon Feldman is an absolute joke. The AG's office alleges that Mr. Feldman was "fixing" boxing matches. If that's the case, why doesn't he prosecute the World Wrestling Federation?

With the ever-increasing number of unsolved homicides, armed robberies, assaults and other violent crimes in Philadelphia and across the commonwealth, any sound-thinking individual should wonder why the state's top prosecutor would waste time and resources to prosecute (or harass) a guy like Damon Feldman. Unreal!

Rob Boyden, Drexel Hill

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City residents are tired of hearing about increasing taxes on property, trash and soda (hard to swallow).

Now we're talking about cutting essentials such as police and fire! Why hasn't the Deferred Retirement Option Plan, with its excessive costs, been outlawed? Here's another, Mr. Mayor: Cut the size of the city government, starting with Council seats and go from there.

Putting more taxes on an ever-shrinking base is going to chase more people out of the city and burden low-income residents even more since.

Trying to squeeze water out of a rock isn't the answer.

Thomas G. Lutek, Philadelphia