Letter: Democratic Writer Out of Touch With Reality

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To the Editor:

Let me start by saying that I have zero expectations that this will be published on iBerkshires because any messages against the favored leftist narrative are not allowed on your platform.

After reading his letter to the editor entitled "Contrast Between Parties," I'm struggling to determine if Michael Wise is merely out of touch with reality or if he's intentionally attempting to gaslight people. My guess is that it's the latter.

He claims that "Only one of our national political parties cares anymore about good government," and asserts that is the Democrats. Is our wide-open southern border an example of that "good government?" What about the skyrocketing inflation that continues to grip our economy due to the Biden admin's reckless spending? Or is the rampant crime and homelessness in blue cities now made worse by surging illegal alien populations? Or the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan? Or the spectacle of our clearly diminished president stumbling and bumbling through his presidency? Or is our affirmative action VP spewing another meaningless word salad while waiting in the wings for an obviously frail octogenarian to break a hip? Or the weaponization of our intelligence agencies and DOJ against political rivals? That's good government?

Then there's the biggest whopper of them all: President Joe Biden, like President Obama, is running a no-scandal administration.

A no-scandal administration? Joe Biden is facing an impeachment inquiry for the blatant corruption he engaged in with his son Hunter and his brother James. Polls show that 60-70 percent of Americans think that Joe is dirty. His family clearly took money from China, Ukraine, Romania, and others. That's the biggest of many scandals. What about his mishandling of classified documents which the special counsel labeled as "willful," only escaping prosecution because Hur thought Biden demonstrated diminished mental capacity? That's not a scandal? How about Biden's DOJ labeling concerned parents at school board meetings as domestic terrorists? Are these not scandals?

I won't even get into the myriad of scandals from the Obama admin. Lois Lerner anyone? Fast and furious? Benghazi? Hillary's email server? Iran nuclear deal? Solyndra? The list goes on and on, no matter what Mr. Wise would like you to believe.

Mr. Wise assumes of course that the good Democrats of Berkshire County only consume news from the mainstream media aka the narrative-spewing lap dogs of the Democrat party like ABC, NBC, CBS, NY Times, WaPo, MSNBC, CNN, etc. That's why they won't be able to determine that his letter is packed full of lies on their own. It's not a surprising tactic from a leftist like Mr. Wise. He knows he truly can't tout the Biden admin's accomplishments, because there are none, so he resorts to attacking the opposition while relying on the easily duped Democratic base to be uncurious about the facts.

Allen Jezouit
Chicopee, Mass, formerly of Williamstown

 

 

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Letter: Incomplete Picture from Greylock School Committee

Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

At the October Mount Greylock School Committee meeting, there was much celebration over the student growth percentiles (SGP) from last year's MCAS test data (Spring 2026). Growth is worth celebrating. But I worry the meeting, and the coverage of it, left families and our community with an incomplete picture of how our students are doing in math.

"Growth" sounds like it means scores went up, but that isn’t quite what SGP measures. SGP compares each student to students in the state who scored about the same the year before, then ranks how they did this year against that group. If a whole group of similar students decreases, the student who decreases the least can still earn a high growth percentile. A strong SGP tells us our students did better than their peers who scored similarly the year before. It doesn't tell us whether they are at grade level.

For example, the current 6th grade class at Williamstown Elementary School (WES) has decreased in their grade-level math proficiency every year since their 3rd grade MCAS. In 2024, 64 percent of the class was meeting expectations; in 2025 48 percent were at grade level, and in 2026 only 33 percent of their class met grade-level expectations. Our current WES 5th grade class follows a similar trend, with 48 percent meeting grade-level math expectations last year vs 56 percent meeting expectations in 2025 when they were in 3rd grade.

Not every class follows this pattern; our current 7th graders gained to 62 percent last year. But seeing entire classes decrease is something that deserves our attention.

Growth comparisons across the state provide useful information, but they do not tell the complete story. We also need to look at where our students are in terms of grade-level proficiency and how those numbers are changing from year to year within the Mt. Greylock school district. This will be our first year with the math interventionist role filled at WES and our second year with the new i-Ready curriculum.

As we watch whether these changes are working, I hope the School Committee will discuss proficiency alongside growth in its public meetings, so our community can see the full picture. Growth matters, but it isn’t enough if fewer of our kids are reaching grade level each year.

Sincerely,

Jenna Hasenkampf
Williamstown, Mass.

Hasenkampf is a parent of WES students in Grades 2 and 4.

 

 

 

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