To the editor:

The Oct. 12 column “Technology not transforming education” by Gene Budig and Alan Heaps stated, “…the United States ranked 13th on ‘how well students are able to read, navigate and understand online texts’ despite having a higher student-to-computer ratio than almost all of the countries surveyed…”

I think they got it backwards. A high student-to-computer ratio would mean many students trying to use the same computer. A few seconds’ online research confirmed that we have a high computer-to-student ratio. No doubt that’s what they meant. So if they are looking for an effective explanation of what is causing U.S. student’s problems, effective math illiteracy on the part of a former university administrator and College Board vice president, and the journalists who edited their contribution might go a long way toward providing an example. No doubt similar examples exist in other areas of study.