Letters.

Cleaning House

In last month's "Tilting At Windmills," Charles Peters bemoans the "deadwood" in the Civil Service, which the Office of Personnel Management figured was 3.7 percent (but with an average tenure of 14 years). Even more, he laments that the "minimum-acceptable performers" are more numerous and more demoralizing.

It's also worth considering what happens to those who want to do a crackerjack job. About 25 years ago, I was working as a resident physician-in-training at a VA hospital. I remember one quiet weekend afternoon when a bag of rubbish in a utility room spilled open. The unit secretary called the janitorial service and asked for someone to come clean it up. Then I joked about it with her that it probably wouldn't be touched until time came to take the trash out next Monday. To our pleasant surprise, a janitor came promptly, and picked up, swept up, and mopped up the mess. The secretary was so impressed, she asked the man if she could put in a good word about him to his supervisor. He answered, "Please don't!"

I've puzzled about why ever since. I'm sure the janitor knew what was good for his career, and keeping his head down and not standing out was part of it. But why would an outstandingly good performance pose a risk of getting him in hot water? Would it make his supervisor look bad because everyone else in the

department wasn't doing so well? Somehow, I have the idea that this is a common, if not typical, attitude in the civil service and perhaps in any "mature" bureaucracy. Excellence makes waves; mediocrity gets you to retirement. Whoever finds a cure for this attitude deserves to be the first Charles Peters Professor of Bureaucratic Studies at a good business school. Maybe Warren Buffet will endow the chair at Mr. Peters' alma mater.

DAVID GRANT San Antonio, Texas

Bad IDEA

I'd like to add a few words to Robert Worth's excellent article, "The Scandal of Special Education" (June 1999). The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is a seriously flawed piece of legislation. Congress must define the word "education" and state what competencies and skills educated adults should be expected to have.

Some handicapped children are in school to prevent regression and other children to learn self-help skills. If I stay at home to toilet train my child, I am a mother. If I send my child to school to be toilet trained, it is labeled and funded as education. Keep the service but don't fund it as education.

If behavior problems...