LETTER: Racial disparities and faulty logic

Linda Wallers, Las Vegas — September 26, 2026, 9:00 p.m. A letter responding to Victor Joecks’ commentary on racial disparities in school discipline cites a caller missive titled “Root Causes” (Sept. 21) in which Lilia Martonak references an America First Policy Institute study. The study asserts that children who live without their biological father are two to three times more likely to be suspended or expelled. Both authors suggest that “perhaps the existent basal origin of radical disparities is fatherlessness.” The letter argues that this conclusion rests on faulty causal logic. It notes that the statistic merely shows an association between household structure and school discipline; it does not demonstrate that paternal absence causes suspensions, nor does it prove that racial bias or school policies are irrelevant. Family structure is also linked to poverty, neighborhood conditions, disability identification, trauma, school resources, and access to support services. Without controlling for these variables and comparing otherwise similar students, the data cannot isolate a causal effect. The authors further contend that presenting home circumstances and institutional bias as mutually exclusive options is misleading. Evidence that one factor influences discipline does not negate the potential impact of the other. If fatherlessness correlates with wider social and economic inequities, it cannot fully account for the observed disparity. To understand racial differences in school discipline, the letter concludes, policymakers and educators need empirical data on student behavior and the ways schools make disciplinary decisions, rather than relying on an assumption based solely on correlation.