Jeff Ropes responds to Guffanti's column

In todays North County Times, Jeff Ropes responded to Guffanti's fact challenged column. The words published in the NCTimes and attributed to Jeff Ropes are printed in blue below:

Home schooling another form of deregulation [Vistaschools editor Note: I just spoke with Jeff Ropes by phone--(12:30pm 1/23/09). The title of this article was created by the NCTimes staff not Jeff Ropes. Also note that the NCTimes editor censored several sentences from Jeff's letter. Censorship of comments and letters critical of Guffanti and Gibson is routine at the NCTimes. Many others including myself have repeatedly been censored.]

I was dismayed to notice that the North County Times has hired Stephen Guffanti as a columnist and that he will be writing a series of articles about education. The reader should know that this man is a physician, not an educator, who was a board member at Vista Unified School District.

He was recently defeated in his re-election attempt; apparently the people of Vista have had enough of him.

I think the community could make a big mistake by considering him an expert on education. He is not. He is a slick media manipulator with an anti-public-education agenda.

In his first article, he throws out opinions as if they were fact and completely misapplies data.One of his contentions in his article, that home schooling is better than public schools, is just plain wrong ("Schools' lackluster performance," Jan. 22).Home schooling is just another form of deregulation. Of course, abuses that are spawned by such deregulation are plentiful, and parents who can't teach are out there in great numbers trying.I have rebutted his article online, where more space is permitted.

Jeff RopesFallbrook