
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 19, 1993                   TAG: 9309120282
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

REDIRECTING THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS<5

LAURA Williamson's Aug. 8 article, ``Education group readies for school board campaign,'' quotes Jeanie Anderson as saying, ``We'd be stupid to alienate anyone.'' Yet, that is exactly what Ms. Williamson and the Virginia Education Association did by promoting an us-against-them attitude in regards to the so-called religious right.

What the VEA needs to recognize is that school-board elections will become the people's voice in regards to the condition and direction of our public schools. If a Christian candidate runs, gains support and is victorious, shouldn't that tell the VEA something about the religious right? Namely, at the grass-roots level, most are normal, every-day parents who are concerned about what and how their children are being taught.

The suggestion by VEA President Rob Jones that Christians elected to school boards should leave their religion at home is as absurd as suggesting to an African-American on the boards to leave their ``blackness'' at home. It

please see microfilm for the rest of the letter.

Jennifer Zalecki

Radford

by CNB