Parcel Tax Is Unfair

We have two children who have attended Las Virgenes schools since kindergarten, including Sumac and Lupin Hill elementary schools, Lindero Canyon and A.E. Wright middle schools and Agoura High.

Our school district will have a parcel tax on the ballot this November. We oppose this tax primarily because it singles out only property owners for funding.

Families who rent in our district will not have to pay a penny, and yet their children will benefit from any improvements. Many children living outside our district attend our schools on passes and they will also benefit free of charge.

In March, 1989, 239 passes were issued at Agoura High School. Even with our crowded classrooms, Las Virgenes School District continues to approve passes for outsiders.

Assembly Bill 1614, currently in the state Legislature, will allow students to transfer into school districts in other communities without permission of the district they want to leave. Add to this the nationwide proposed “voucher” plan which will allow parents to enroll their kids in any school in any district they choose, and we can see people who work in this area bringing their children to our schools both for convenience and--if they are coming from the Los Angeles Unified School District--because our schools are not on year-round calendars and are relatively crime-free.

Add to that all of the “improvements” the parcel tax will be paying for and we will have many students from Oak Park and Thousand Oaks as well. Will Las Virgenes Unified take advantage of growth opportunities by enrolling children who live outside our area, even though our schools have been “improved” through a tax paid only by local property owners?

BOB and DIANE VENABLE

Agoura Hills