Letter: Great opportunities for all students

In a Feb. 17 letter ('Every student has right to high-level education”), a reader told of higher test scores at Xavier than at surrounding public schools, unfortunate financial circumstances keeping public school students from being successful and lawmakers who are unwilling to save the state money by providing vouchers for better schools, like Xavier.

In fact, the average ACT score for the Cedar Rapids School District in 2015 was 24.3, the same score as the Xavier Profile website lists for its students. Cedar Rapids Washington High School was ranked Iowa's No. 1 high school according to the Iowa AP Index and the Washington Post. On their respective websites, Washington offers 21 AP classes. Xavier's Program of Studies from 2013-14 offers eight. Washington offers seven world languages on its Program of Studies to Xavier's three.

According to the Iowa Department of Education website, district cost per pupil for Cedar Rapids is $6,453. The Xavier website lists tuition at $9,600. I found nothing on Xavier's website about special education classes, associates to accompany physically and mentally challenged students, and no English as a Second Language classes. According to High Schools.com, Cedar Rapids high schools have approximately 2,000 students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. Xavier either has none, or did not report any, although Xavier information appeared for all other categories. Cedar Rapids public schools and Xavier offer students great educations. What students choose to do with the opportunities they have is what determines success, not standardized test scores.

Deborah Hellwig

Iowa City