Public Education Is State’s Future

My thanks to Gov. Wilson for making sure that the state’s education budget will not be increasing significantly over the next few years. Proposition 98 was probably not a mandate by Californians that education be given a higher priority. Voters really do not know anything anyway. Just look at our elected officials.

As a third-year science teacher at Mission Viejo High School, I was somewhat glad that we did not receive a raise this last year nor will we get one this year. Actually, we may be faced with a salary cut, increase in class sizes, or both. Yet that does not really bother me because being at the bottom end of the pay scale, the district cannot really cut my salary anyway.

I was sort of looking forward to a raise this year, but hey, it’s no big deal. I can wait another few years. This issue of teachers needing more money is not really realistic. If all teachers would just remain single, live in an apartment where their rent has not gone up for five years, not plan on buying a new car or a house (how ridiculous!), and keep a few thousand dollars of debt on their credit cards or loans, they would all have an ample amount of money saved up each year (I’ve saved about $800 over two years. I just may be able to afford that house yet).

As for getting more money so schools can reduce class size, what a joke. All teachers can hold the attention of adolescent high-schoolers for 50 minutes. We don’t need small classes. I’ll probably have an average of 35 students per class this year (only because my room only holds 36 students). That averages out to about 1.4 minutes of individualized attention per pupil (ignoring time to take roll, get students settled, etc.). And we don’t really need money for computers or other such things that would making teaching and learning easier and more interesting. We do just fine.

DARYL M. FUKUDA

Irvine