Failing grades.

Having worked as a counselor in both public and Catholic schools for 40 years, I believe I have insights that Sister Barbara McCarry, O.S.B. missed in the September Sounding Board ("Let's go public in support of education"). In my experience I found a decided difference between public and Catholic high schools. The systems are very different, and both have serious problems.

The majority of high school students who are Catholic in our state attend public school but the education they get is very abridged. In 2,000 years Catholic influence has impacted every field of learning from art to zoology, but you cannot mention it. My last school district even forbade us to write "Merry Christmas" on the board or make any reference to Christmas. It's a national holiday.

In the public school you cannot teach what is right or wrong, only what is legal or illegal. Of course, there are things that are legal and not right. The education these students get would be like teaching U.S. history but never being able to mention Texas, as if Texas doesn't exist.

Catholic high schools face problems, too. The students must pass an entrance exam. The public school must take everyone. This is one reason it is unfair to compare the two systems. The Catholic school only offers a college- prep curriculum, which some students may find too difficult. So regardless of how much they may want to continue with a Catholic education there are no options. Tuition is $800 to $1,000 per month. This prices out most students.

Because of Catholic schools' high college placement, parents who have no interest in Catholicism snap up any available seats for their children. As the non-Catholic numbers increase, religion teachers, in an attempt to be sensitive to students of other faiths, unconsciously water down their course. After four years in a Catholic school it is not uncommon to find Catholic students who think one religion is as good as another. I found most seniors have a real difficulty explaining, "Why be Catholic?"

Larry LaPorte

Edmonds, Wash.

I read with interest McCarry's Sounding Board. My children are now in public schools after nine years of Catholic education. Though they were more than qualified for the Catholic high schools in our area, they were not accepted. The high schools in our area feel that for the sake of diversity they should accept non-Catholic students. Each school accepts anywhere from 20 to 50 percent non-Catholic students. There are waiting lists to get into these schools, and they have plenty of qualified Catholic applicants. Instead they turn away these qualified students in favor of non-Catholic students.

Catholic parents usually send their children to Catholic schools to further their Catholic education. Non-Catholic parents usually send their children to Catholic schools to escape bad public schools. Fortunately for us, our public schools are considered very good. But if I had known that the Catholic high schools had so little regard for trying to educate all qualified Catholic youth, I might not even have put my children in Catholic schools at all.

Bill McIntosh

San Jose, Calif.