Neither Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer nor I supports social promotion “Spellings’ Standards,” Editorial, March 23).

We voted to oppose a poorly conceived, primarily test-based retention policy that fails to identify struggling students earlier, does not provide programs to remedy retained students, ignores overcrowding in our middle schools and mimics earlier grade programs lacking any demonstrated record of success. Perhaps The Post should explain to its readers why, if the mayor has stopped social promotion in third, fifth and seventh grades, the DOE reports that it now has thousands of children in eighth grade who don’t meet promotion standards?

Patrick J. Sullivan,

Manhattan Member,

Panel for Educational Policy Manhattan