As Schools Cut Back, Look What’s Left

I guess the message is clear to the parents of students in the California school system: Books and reading are not important (get rid of librarians and remedial reading teachers); science is not important (get rid of science in the lower grades, even though we rank close to bottom worldwide in importance of science in the curriculum); counselors are not important (we don’t need help for depressed and suicidal students, students using drugs or abused in the home, or help for college-bound students).

I guess administrators and sports are what is important in our schools. School boards and our politicians (Gov. Pete Wilson in particular) are more concerned about the image they project than what happens to our K-12 educational system.

Why is it that we can spend more than $50 billion on a war with a Third World power? Is it to make ourselves feel strong and important? Why spend billions on sports, parades and wars--not education? Think what we could have done with $50 billion earmarked for elementary and secondary education.

The priorities and facts concerning California’s K-12 public education are shocking. California has the world’s sixth-largest economy, yet California ranks 22nd out of 50 in per capita spending on K-12 public education, 50th in the nation in class size, and falls below the national (average of) state and local tax monies devoted to education.

Will the indifference to the importance of education and the current drastic budget cuts in education wake up our citizenry?

PAMELA D. SMITH & JAMES R. SMITH, Dana Point