Critic of the school district has political motive

Regarding the Sept. 14 letter "Conejo schools not that good when compared to communities with similar demographics," unfortunately, Ms. Cobasko did not provide any details that would allow an objective appraisal of her claim regarding API scores.

Mr. Lennox, a school board candidate named by Ms. Cobasko, has made a similar claim regarding API scores. Like Ms. Cobasko, he provided no details to support his opinion.

People who do these kinds of comparisons on a regular basis know "the devil is in the details."

There may be many non-academic reasons why two schools that appear similar have different scores. Could it be Cobasko and Lennox are missing some of these other factors in their rush to criticize the current school board?

Cobasko and Lennox need to provide details such as: how many and which schools were compared, what criteria were used to judge whether schools were similar, was data not used, and if so, why? Most importantly, if two schools had different API scores, how did Cobasko determine if the difference really means the schools have a different quality of education?

Lacking such details, it is impossible to determine if Cobasko and Lennox have a legitimate issue or whether they merely selected data which "fits" their position, a practice known as "cherry picking" the data. And which makes any comparison invalid.

Using Cobasko's speculative approach, one could surmise that the reason this issue is being raised is because four of the current board members (except Mr. Dunn) are doing an outstanding job. Consequently, the candidates Cobasko supports are desperate to create "issues" on which to campaign. It's disappointing to see Lennox, who has pledged a campaign "respecting the dignity of all candidates," appears to be following Dunn down a road that is based on misrepresentation of the facts.

As President Ronald Reagan noted, "Facts are stubborn things."

The facts are, with the exception of Dunn, the incumbent board members are doing an outstanding job. Mr. Stevens and Ms. Phelps deserve to be reelected, while Dunn hopefully will not serve another term. Randy Roth Thousand Oaks