A few weeks back I published this amazing letter written by Josh – a fourth grader – to Governor Cuomo about the injustices he personally sees in his own education.

This letter has over 26,000 views as of today.

The second letter I published was from Maggie – an extremely articulate and feisty fifth grader also from New York, also addressed to Governor Cuomo, complaining about her public school education.

In both of these letters, the children are complaining about how the testing is hurting them and their teachers and how their education is lacking music, the arts, and recess because of the flawed reform agenda.

So the saga of Josh and Maggie continues. Last week, Maggie’s mother posted two more letters – one that Governor Cuomo sent as a reply to Maggie’s letter and a second that Maggie wrote in response to his letter.

Here is Governor Cuomo’s response to Maggie:

And here is our Maggie’s response to his letter:

From the mouths of our children come the real questions here. Why is the Governor not responding to the cries of thousands of children and their parents? Maggie and Josh represent Every Boy and Every Girl in New York State. They want to know why their teachers are spending so much time testing them. They want to know why their teachers are being graded based on these tests. They want to know why they are being reduced to a test score. In addition, they want to know why they are being deprived of an education that educates their minds, souls, bodies, and spirits. They want Governor Cuomo to write back and assure them that they are much much more than a test score. Instead Maggie has gotten a form letter talking about the importance of public service? This is not right or just.

So, I publish this follow-up hoping that the cries of the students and their parents will be heard. I truly believe they deserve an authentic reply to their cries for help.

As of this posting, Josh has not received a letter back from the Governor but I do wonder if it would be the exact same letter that Maggie received.