Education Board

Your editorial, “How to Improve Education” (May 25) is seriously flawed in several areas.

Of course it’s time for a change in the top management of the Orange County Department of Education. But who for the past eight years has helped rubber-stamp the bad management, deficit spending and duplication of services The Times alludes to in its editorial? The answer is that all of these practices have been supported by current board President Elizabeth Parker, and the majority of her colleagues supported Supt. Robert Peterson’s wasteful practices, but she is on the record as lying to the press about statements she made at a county board meeting in January of this year. The matter is well-documented.

The Times is well aware of citizen concerns regarding decision-making on the county Board of Education, so I ask just what is the value of retaining board members who have done nothing to effect changes with regard to the decisions made by its top managers?

The grand jury has been warning for years about problems at the Department of Education, but it has been Peterson and his board majority who have resisted change, and Parker is part of that majority. We need to look at an alternative to both Peterson and Parker when we vote Tuesday.

KENT S. MOORE

Corona del Mar