Private Schools Voucher Plan

It was with a sense of total outrage that I read about Education Secretary William J. Bennett’s proposal to provide educational vouchers to parents of low-income students. Under the plan, vouchers averaging $600 each would be made available to parents of nearly 5 million disadvantaged students for use in private schools.

Most private schools have an average annual tuition fee ranging anywhere from $3,500 to $5,000. How does Bennett propose that a low-income family would be able to afford to pay the balance of such a monumental expense?

At at a time when school districts such as Los Angeles are overcrowded and in dire need of additional funding from the state and federal governments, I find this plan to be a misplaced means of spending the taxpayers’ money.

Bennett should be concentrating on ways of improving our public schools and subsidizing districts where overcrowding is prevalent so that more schools can be built, more teachers can be hired, and more educational aids purchased for our children.

Our federal government, the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, ought to be supporting public education, the education of the people, by the people, and for the people.

LINDA ROSEN

Los Angeles