Kudos to Brian Poelker for his Feb. 21 rebuttal ("Mark Glennon cherry picks data to make public schools look bad") of Mark Glennon’s guest column on Feb. 17, 2024. ("Not 1 child tested proficient for math in 67 Illinois schools") Mr. Glennon’s column criticizing our state’s public education system seemed to be an mixture of misleading statistics (with no context) and finger-pointing for the state’s education "failures."

No positive proposals were offered, nor any acknowledgement of the contributions of teachers, administrators, parents, and others to improve the quality of students’ education on a daily basis.

I also didn’t like the column’s headline – "Not 1 child tested proficient for math in 67 schools," quoting perhaps the most ambiguous statement of all.

Daniel Warfield

Effingham

Editor’s note: Mr. Warfield originally submitted this letter shortly after the column and letter were published back in February, but it was inadvertently overlooked. Not all letters are published, depending on whether they adhere to our guidelines and standards. Readers are invited to contact the editor about the status of letters by emailing jeff.long@effinghamdailynews.com or by calling 217-347-7156.