Letter: Federal Department of Education needs strengthening, not dissolution

Dear Editor,

New York State’s governor, Thomas Dewey, started the State University of New York’s higher educational system in 1948. It was Governor Nelson Rockefeller, who served from 1959 until 1973 who gave it its great building impetus, which now has 64 units, including University Centers, Med Schools, and 30 Community Colleges.

It was Thomas Carlyle’s motto, “Let each become all he or she is capable of being,” that I recall as a student at SUNY Albany.

It would seem to me that if we, as a leading democracy, want to retain a major role on the global stage, our nation must put education FIRST. As a nation, we must do more to support early childhood, grade school, high school, and advanced education or skill training.

Our educational apparatus must be supported at local, state, and federal levels. We must demand that the Federal Department of Education be strengthened, not dissolved.

Sincerely,

Marty Borko

Waverly, N.Y.