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Suzanne Best, in her Oct. 29 letter to the editor ("A parent's job includes teaching your child math"), suggests that as a parent, it is my job to teach my children math.

Her letter, like many I have seen that are covert apologists for the manifold failings of public education, completely misses the point.

If teaching is my job, what then, is the job of Frederick County Public Schools?

If, as Ms. Best suggests, that seeing to my child's fulfillment is solely my responsibility, perhaps the county would be kind enough to return to me the 65 percent of my tax money that goes to FCPS.

Since FCPS isn't responsible for teaching my children, they are all free to go home and look for alternate employment, at someone else's expense.

My family has done whatever is necessary to ensure that our children are educated, including removing them from the system and doing it ourselves. While it may be fulfilling — it is most assuredly not a blessing — the failings of the system have cost us time, money and career advancement.

Chirpy messages about how fulfilling it may be to do right by one's children do nothing other than distract from the critical awareness that public education in Frederick County is focused on its own needs and not those of our children.

Greg Shamieh, Jefferson