We understand the arguments of those on all sides of the hullabaloo over the fate of Jamestown High School’s “Red Raider” moniker.

We also realize there will never be an end to the Red Raider debate that satisfies everyone in the community. Some will always hate it. Some will always love it. The debate will never end.

Frankly, it’s a silly controversy.

A more important question lurks beneath the surface of this debate. How can Dr. Betty Rosa, state education commissioner, say, on Feb. 8, that the state has no power to override local control over reading curriculum that has been proven to be ineffective and then, on Feb. 28, disregard local control over school mascots? Shouldn’t the state’s ability to withhold state aid over the use of mascots with any ties to Native American imagery extend to requiring schools across the state to use a suitable reading curriculum that focuses on phonics rather than a discredited technique?

That’s exactly what has happened in the past month. Some may have missed our coverage of a recent legislative budget hearing during which New York City Assemblyman Robert Carroll argued passionately on behalf of students he says are being shortchanged because the curriculum used by many of the schools in his area uses a method of instruction known as “three-cueing,” has been proven not to work. Three-cueing is a teaching method that gives students multiple ways to learn a word including meaning, structure and visual cues. Children who struggle with individual words during guided reading are encouraged to guess at words as they learn to read by using context or other knowledge and experience to figure out the words with which they are unfamiliar. The Jamestown Public Schools had used three-cueing, but have begun to move away from it in favor of phonics-driven instruction.

“This science is 40 years old,” Carroll said. “This was not found out yesterday. We are doing a great disservice to our state. I commend us for spending the most in the nation per pupil, but I cannot stand by while we are 45th in reading attainment in the nation. Mississippi does better than us. That is unconscionable.”

As The Post-Journal reported recently, Rosa dismissed Carroll’s plea by saying the state Education Department can’t override local school districts.

“The Regents have not turned their back on this. You also have to remember local control, you have superintendents in districts that make decisions. We do not develop curriculum,” Rosa said.

But the reality of the situation is that as long as the state funds such a high percentage of education in the state, there really is no local control. Rather than use state aid as a carrot to incentivize better results in our schools, the state uses aid withholding as a stick to get districts to do what it wants. We’re not arguing with the use of the stick. We are arguing with when the state is choosing to use that stick.

What’s more important — using the best curriculum to teach children to read or school mascots?