The JSTL tags are probably working just fine. What's not working for you is the EL (which is independent of the JSTL in
JSP 2.0).
I'm betting that your web.xml still declares yor web app as a
Servlet 2.3 web app -- in which case Tomcat will run the app in "compatibility mode".
Declare your web app as a Servlet 2.4 web app in the web.xml usng the XML Schema declaration (as opposed to the old DTD style of declaration).