Editor:

This letter is in response to the Cal Thomas column of Oct. 27, "Long-range strategy for schools."

Mr. Thomas, so "conservatives and Republicans (not always the same) had better think of a long-range strategy if they want to save the country from the long-term consequences of what many call 'socialism.'" I re-read that sentence over and over again, as my first impression of your assessment of what our country needed to be "saved" from seemed quite inconceivable given what our country has been through since the year 2000.

What the Barack Obama administration has been striving to "save the country from" are the disastrous consequences of the monstrous abuses by the previous administration of those same "universal principles of liberty" that Mr. Spalding speaks of in his new book. You state that these "principles" used to be part of our school curriculum and that younger Americans "may be less familiar with them, as the public schools no longer seem to emphasize what once held us together, preferring to teach 'diversity' instead." May I add a caveat to that thought? These "principles" cannot be taught authentically in schools when the behavior of our leaders casts its own shadowy reflection. Our students are hypocrisy's watchmen.

So, you propose that conservatives and Republicans "support an exodus from public schools as a strategic goal," to "strike at the heart of liberalism, while simultaneously liberating minorities trapped in failed government schools." This is your proposal to lift our educational system up and bring it into 21st century? My mind drifts off in wonder at what our founding fathers would muse in reading your words.

CAROL BURNETT, Casper