It is sad — not only because our schools have failed, but more because of a lack of concern, and a resigned acceptance of failure.

The May 3 Sun Journal editorial speaks to the unfairness of the new A-F grading system for public schools. But, that system is needed because, plainly stated, we can’t depend upon educators to be truthful when they spin or minimize the facts.

The newspaper attributes the F grade at Longley to the area’s poverty and its non-English language students. It is true that Lewiston has more than its share of poverty. If poverty were a good thing, Portland or Bangor would find a political way to take it away from us. They won’t, and we have to live with it.

Other communities have poverty and because their white, English-speaking students do better academically than students in the same demographic at Longley, the teaching and learning problem at Longley goes beyond poverty and language.

East Auburn Elementary School’s fourth grade class has the second highest percentage (76 percent) of economically disadvantaged students of the six Auburn elementary schools, yet it has the highest NECAP scores. (Poverty hasn’t prevented them from doing something better.)

Montgomery, Vt., with a per capita income less than Lewiston or Auburn and with 56 percent of its grade 3-8 students economically disadvantaged, has impressive NECAP test scores. This is the identical test used in Lewiston and Auburn. Montgomery’s scores reveal that 94 percent of its students are proficient in reading, 99 percent are proficient in math and 100 percent of its fifth-grade students are proficient or better in writing.

Locally, we should do better.

Since our immigrant children enter school understanding little or no English, as a bare minimum, every one of these children should be enrolled in pre-k. Further, we should consider public day care for immigrant infants. The intent would be for them to learn English. For residents concerned with cost, consider the present costs — and the results. Only 9 percent of Longley’s fourth-graders are proficient readers.

For our other students, whose poor reading results are correlated with their poverty, and until we can learn from Montgomery’s success, we should lengthen the school day by one hour for a mandatory reading period and inexpensively monitor this with teacher’s aides. This should, at the least, ameliorate the problem; it couldn’t possibly make it worse. If there is a cost concern, eliminating a single administrator might fund several aides. (We should ask ourselves which accomplishes more.)

The editorial writer and local educators believe the A-F school grading system isn’t fair. For the educators, that is not surprising —  they assign failing students unearned, feel-good grades; why shouldn’t they expect the same?

Richard Sabine, Lewiston