In “Today’s students, tomorrow’s teachers” (Dec. 2), The Gazette casts doubt upon the “much maligned” statistic that U.S. public schools are recruiting teachers from the bottom two-thirds of college classes. But it is worth remembering that The Gazette’s own editorial plea for reducing the power of public unions (“The Union Role,” Nov. 18) cites a far less plausible statistic — the claim that Iowa public school teachers are mostly “in the bottom 25 percent of their classes.”

If the latter claim is false, and I believe the “Today’s students” piece has established that it is, The Gazette should apologize to its readers and to Iowa public school teachers for using it.

Chris McCord

Cedar Rapids