Dear Editor,

I read with great interest a letter last month by my good friend, John Elliott. The letter reminded me of basketball games I officiated all over northern Indiana, in many cases working games with John.

More than once, I was fortunate enough to officiate the Indiana State Tournament, back when all schools played for a single championship. Each time, I called them as I saw them, and see no reason to use a different approach now.

In my view, Rep. Rebecca Kubacki has the wrong approach on education. I am troubled by her support for nationalized education standards. Education is something to be handled locally.

Kubacki is making an even bigger mistake by seeking to exclude parents from the education and policymaking process. In addition to my time as an official, I spent 53 years as a teacher, administrator and school board member, mostly for the Wawasee School District. Let me tell you, we always worked to have parents at the very center of the picture in educating a child. The idea of excluding parental views does not make any sense to me.

For instance, when a student had caused trouble at school, I would speak with parents by telephone after gathering some facts. Then, after the student and I had discussed behavior and penalties, I would have the student telephone a parent right there in my office. (I had arranged this ahead of time with the parent.) The student would describe the incident and any penalty, and we would all be on the same page.

I am retired now, but continue to follow events in our community closely, especially when they involve education. As a resident of House District 22, I am supporting Curt Nisly in the Republican primary on May 6, and urge readers to do likewise.

Marion Acton
Milford