Year-Round Schools in L.A.

Your editorial says it like it is. There is no other solution to the overcrowding in the Los Angeles City Schools. Year-round schools are working successfully in the Hispanic areas now.

Parents need to remember that our school calendar is from September to June because originally we were a rural society, and the children were needed to do chores and pick crops on the farms. But today’s city children who are on this out-dated timetable get bored with three months of summer vacation. Inner-city children and the off-spring from less affluent families desperately need a continuing education year-round.

All children on the present school schedule need almost two months of review in September to help them remember what they learned the year before. What a waste of precious time! Youngsters in year-round schools are not out of school long enough to forget.

Affluent parents feel that year-round schools disrupt family vacation plans and summer camp schedules, but they need to realize that travel agents and summer-camp owners will adjust their plans to meet the need created by year-round schools for shorter and more frequent vacations and weekly and often recurring camp periods.

As the school population continues to grow faster than new bungalows or new schools can be made available, we do not have any other choice than year-round schools, which can substantially increase the number of students served and maximize the use of teachers, another educational resource in short supply.

DOROTHY S. SCHONEBERG

Los Angeles