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Writing about an upcoming Board of Education vote on the school district's capital budget ("School board to vote on capital budget," Nov. 18), The Gazette managed to get from board member Laura Berthiaume a pretty interesting quote. "You've got to ask yourself, how did we get to this state of affairs?" said Berthiaume (District 2) of Rockville. "I think we have a significant part of the population in Third World conditions. Patchwork Band-Aids have been applied to old schools in lieu of new schools being built."

Unfortunately, my life and career have taken me to the Third World multiple times and I can assure you that nothing Montgomery County builds or fails to build compares to anything in the Third World. Nothing. And, I something laugh out loud to myself when U.S. teachers, Montgomery County ones included, bellyache about class size. My first Peace Corps teaching assignment in Liberia was a third grade classroom with 84 kids in it. Also, my most recent professional work at both the American Institutes for Research and Westat — two nationally known research organizations — has taken me into some pretty good awful inner-city school districts. Again, nothing in Montgomery compares to life in these urban environments. Nothing.

During his tenure, Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Jerry Weast has done his best to convince us that our red zone schools and their neighborhoods are some god-awful world full of poverty and all the various social and economic problems associated with poverty. There have been times when these descriptions did sound a bit "Third Worldish." So, perhaps Berthiaume is beginning to believe — a little too much. That certainly is unfortunate because at the end of each day, Montgomery County with all its wealth and resources is light years ahead of any situation in any developing nation or any urban school district I have ever visited. I'm sure our school children need, want and deserve better school buildings. I'll support this as a taxpayer. Just spare me the hyperbole.

Joseph Hawkins, Bethesda