George Will's Veterans Day column on the Utah educational system was quite perceptive. But, like others, he doesn't understand the nature of Mormonism, which is a religion, not an ethnic group. He contrasts Utah Hispanics with Mormons to make a point. I'd bet that a majority of Hispanics in Utah are LDS.
Indeed, as the fastest growing denomination of any real size in the world, the LDS Church in Mexico is today as large as the entire Mormon Church was 60 years ago. It also has significant numbers in Brazil, Chile, Peru and the Philippines.
The major issue regarding education in Utah, as reflected in an unending number of letters in your pages, is our low expenditure per student and high class size. When will we look at the quality of output instead of the quantity of input in judging school performance?
Don Gale's recent column notwithstanding, Utah produces among the highest Scholastic Aptitude Test scores in the nation, has one of the lowest dropout rates and is among the highest percentages of post-high school education in the country.
Critics refuse to acknowledge these realities. If we were talking business productivity and cost, we'd be declared a Forbes magazine success.
David Timmins
Salt Lake City