VIRTUE NOT SCHOOLS' JOB

On June 11, David Cook quoted Patrick Henry and attributed all of our
nation's ills to a 1963 Supreme Court ruling that "tossed out virtue in
the schools with the Christian worldview" ("On path to police state,"
June 11). He goes on to lament we are spending too much on jails and not
enough on education.

As a father of four, I submit that the parents and churches should be
the ones teaching virtue while the schools teach science, math and
history. And if he truly is concerned about a police state and
overcrowded prisons, he should take a good, long look at our virtuous
"war against drugs," which from the mid-'70s on has doubled our prison
population while spending billions to stop (by DEA estimates) 5 percent
of the drug traffic and caused irreparable harm to our civil liberties.

Platitudes about virtue and prayer may sound good to some people, but
the "good old days" weren't so wonderful for many Americans (non-whites,
non-Christians, non-heteros, non-males!), and today's complex problems
need more profound solutions than "acknowledging true virtue in
schools."

R. Kent Clark, Littleton