Some years ago, The Santa Fe New Mexican sponsored an event, Closing the Gap, that included 100 invited participants to gather for a day to try to find answers to the problems of education in the city.

There were 10 of us to a table, and each group was guided by a professional counselor. Our goal was to come up with ways to improve education, and at the end of the day, the results were collated. The so-called winner was parent participation.

The results were to be passed along to our legislators. I never heard another word about what happened to our work.

On Jan. 15, I read "Money isn't everything in education," the column by Rob Nikolewski. He came to the same conclusion, that in order to bring our students up to an acceptable level, it is vital that there be parents reading to their children and otherwise participating in their education.

I do take issue with his first paragraph, which implies that if you are a "liberal," you can't be on the same page with him. Let's, for once, leave labels out of this discussion.

I have been tutoring elementary-age schoolchildren for nearly 15 years at the Boys & Girls Club. When one of the children is reading much better than the others, I ask, "Does someone at home work with you on your reading?" I guarantee you that the answer is "yes."

There is a whole lot more to learning how to read than just knowing the alphabet and its sounds (phonics), or even how words follow one another to make a sentence.

A child raised in the city may know the word cow, but you might be amazed at how many of them don't even know that milk comes from a cow. They need to be learning about more than just how to function day to day. A lot kids who aren't yet reading know how to spell Walmart. I hope you get my point.

I would guess that any educator worth her salt would know how important it is to have parents participate in the education of their children. That's what parent-teacher meetings are for. What they and others of us don't know is how to get parents to care about their children's education.

Less than 1 percent of the parents of the children I tutor three afternoons a week for 45 minutes ever take the time to find out what I am doing. For years, I called for a group meeting of parents, and out of 45 one year, I got six. I've been told that the parents are too busy working and that there are many single-parent families. That is absolutely true, except that when there is a basketball game, the parents turn out in droves. I've seen this at the Boys & Girls Club.

We know what the problems are. What we need are solutions. And we need to take action. Just telling a school that it is failing is not going to solve the problem. And let's try to get a child ready for the grade ahead, be it second or third, and not think that holding a child back is the only solution. Though it might be at times.

And please, get politics out of the school situation.

Lou Finley is the reading program coordinator for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Fe.