William Marvel: Fantasyland

When a public official disseminates conspicuously false but personally flattering information on the eve of a plebiscite, it often signals the underlying character of the official, or of the political environment in which he operates. I wonder what Joe Lentini’s March 5 letter in the Daily Sun says about him — published too late for in-kind contradiction before the March 7 annual school meeting, and replete with exaggerated claims to excuse our schools’ increasingly miserable academic performance under his “leadership” as our school board chairman.

In response to a column in which I pointed out the plummeting percentages of Conway schoolchildren who attain basic proficiency in reading and math, Lentini brought up the number of Conway students who are eligible for free and reduced lunches. That figure, which purports to measure the wealth or poverty represented by a school population, is frequently cited as an excuse for academic failure, as though intellectual deficiency is to be expected of children in less affluent households. Poverty can certainly affect academic performance, but our household would have been eligible for free and reduced lunches before Our Favorite Millennial was inducted into the National Honor Society. We simply declined to apply, although Conway schools seemed eager to have everyone try.