To the editor:

Have you ever seen a real estate sign in Suffolk list the school district as a selling point? Is this what incumbents claim as a victory for “staying the course?”

New families move to Suffolk for some of its promising attributes, much like we did a decade ago — families whose ideals include high-quality schools accessible to all residents, regardless of skin color, income or lineage; families who know nothing of the racial strife that swept this city during the desegregation years and led to the founding of private schools.

These bright, young and energetic families find that staying the course is unacceptable. As their children grow to school age, some move outside Suffolk, but within the region, to take advantage of other public school systems. Some parents suffer great burdens to send their children to private academies, and others have no choice but to send their kids to failing schools.

City leaders continue to claim that the schools receive adequate funding, while refusing to send their own children to those schools.

City Council incumbents have recently touted Suffolk as the fastest-growing city in Virginia. Suffolk, however, is also the only school division in Virginia on the Justice Department’s Open Desegregation Case List, a process that began in 1970.

City leaders continue to ignore Suffolk’s flight of mid-career teachers, school transportation failures and continually faltering test scores, while young families here find these issues glaringly apparent and appalling. Public education is not a luxury; it should be one of the city’s top priorities.

Suffolk will grow, not because of our current city leadership, but due to geography and our undeveloped land. But Suffolk will never live to its potential without taking public education as seriously as its current leadership takes low tax rates, finely appointed municipal buildings and AAA credit ratings.

Leadership on education takes real vision, because the fruits do not appear in this year’s building campaign, but in the crime rates of a decade from now, and the educated labor force that will foster a high quality of life for all, years into the future.

We have known Kerry Holmes for a number of years as a neighbor, civic league president, church leader, and friend, and we believe he is deeply invested in the future of Suffolk, and is the right person at the right time for Suffolk Borough City Council seat.

We ask that you consider casting your vote for Kerry Holmes on Nov. 4.

Darrell and Laura Cook

Suffolk