Voucher Plan for Schools

* In response to “Suellen Just Wants to Learn to Read,” Voices, June 21:

If all the disgruntled parents who have given up on public schools for private education and then write acid criticisms had only “put their shoulders to the wheel” and helped do something to improve the public schools, the country would be that much healthier and better educated.

The class Sonja-Lynn Jacobs seems to represent--”professionals and intellectuals”--are those who have the most to offer public schools. What a shame to simply withdraw and then gripe about it later. The one thing America needs more than anything else is the kind of public spirit that impels citizens to go to the rescue of deprived and depleted public institutions and agencies, which are pinched for funds and overburdened with problems caused by a decaying society.

Vouchers that take even more money away from public education are not the answer.

JEAN S. GERARD

Temple City

* After reading Jacob’s essay, I enjoyed a good laugh. Having spent more years in public school classrooms than the author probably has, I think I can spot flaws in her conclusions. I am a teacher, and I know how much teachers care about their students and how much effort goes into helping children learn. I know how many hours are spent talking with parents, writing them notes, listening to their views. I know the happiness that teachers feel when their students do well, and the pride that teachers feel in their profession.

It is unfortunate that the author had, or feels she had, a bad experience with her child’s class. Perhaps nothing I could say would change her mind, but the classrooms with which I am familiar bear no resemblance to the one she portrays.

RUTH CRANDALL

San Dimas

* I must respond to Jacob’s essay in which she justifies the voucher system because her child was an early reader.

My son was an early reader too. He read his first words at 2 and was quite literate by 4. In his public kindergarten he experienced the world beyond his family. He learned about working and playing with others. This is the purpose of kindergarten. Although he was not formally taught to read, he tested as a fourth-grade reader in June. My other son was not ready to read until he was 7. He had a similar kindergarten experience and now, at 9, is a fluent and avid reader. Kindergarten at its best does not force academics on children.

The voucher initiative will not provide enough money to individual families to cover the cost of schooling. Needy families will still not be able to afford private schooling. The voucher system will, however, take enough money from the public system to cripple already strained public schools, leaving those needy families with less than they now have.

MARGARET BAKER DAVIS

La Verne

* We’ve been paying hefty property taxes for years, and in addition to that, tuition to give our children a good (private) education. Yet a letter writer (June 25) has the gall to call school vouchers an “entitlement” program for families with students attending private schools. He also ignores the two-year waiting period that would apply to children currently enrolled in private schools. What a commentary on the sorry state of public education that 10% of state schoolchildren are now in private schools. No wonder the money-hungry educational Establishment is trembling at the thought of giving the other 90% more of a real choice.

BOB ABERNETHY

La Mirada

Pork

* I have a new name for all the entitlement programs that everyone (except Congress and special interest groups) believes should become extinct: Jurassic Pork!

MIKE G. McCALLEY

Orange

California Split

* Why all the talk of splitting California into three states, ostensibly to just get more senators? Why not take a bigger, more productive step and make our state into a new country? And, while we’re at it, let’s invite Baja California and Nevada to join us.

Baja has long been a rebellious state to the government in Mexico City with remarkable machismo. That’s an attitude that would enhance this new republic.

Nevada has long been regarded in the East as a bastard child state of gambling, prostitutes and organized crime. Little do they know of the great mountains and secret charms of the desert.

As for California, we are much more diverse than the proposal of tri-division would represent! Californians are prone to be rebellious in regard to maintaining their individual freedoms and their entrepreneurial spirit. We also possess natural beauties and richness in our land which are the envy of the world.

We might also find that our new representatives would see that our hands were a bit closer to their throats.

BILL HORAN

Huntington Beach

Cuba and Castro

* Your article (“Cuba’s Epidemic: Doctors Know What It’s Not,” June 28) states, “Despite an American trade embargo imposed in 1960, Communist-led Cuba was once hailed as one of the healthiest, best-fed countries in Latin America, with the lowest mortality rate in the region. Under President Fidel Castro, the country developed an impressive, free health care system and medical research industry.”

Although it is true that the Cuban government has achieved a level of national health care that is commendable in comparison to other countries in the hemisphere, it is not free. The Cuban people have more than paid for this “free” system with 33 years of dictatorship, in which basic human rights have been denied to them.

The statement that Cubans were at one time one of the best-fed people in Latin America is ludicrous. Severe food shortages began soon after the government began to nationalize all private commercial enterprise in the country, back in 1960.

As for the American trade embargo, the only country not trading with Cuba for all these years has been the United States. Some trade embargo!

OCTAVIO GIRBAU

Manhattan Beach

U.S. Space Station Vote

* The House vote on the space station (“House OKs Space Station by 1 Vote,” June 24) is another indication that the yahoos in Washington are not listening to the little people mired in unemployment and broken dreams down at the bottom of the proverbial barrel.

Both Democrats and Republicans alike will have to take credit for the loss of even more jobs in California as well as the death of the promise of the Kennedy era to make the United States a leader in space exploration and technology if the space station program is scratched.

The fact that a program with such far-reaching benefits can barely slip by a House vote is shameful; the fact that the opposition is screaming “budget cuts” as the reason for its impending demise is even more shameful when considering some of the outrageous salaries, expenses, programs and studies that have weighed down the national budget for decades.

Just as President Kennedy’s vision for America’s future in outer space teeters on the brink of destruction, so too do the lives of many workers, and their families, who will lose their jobs and their futures if the space station does not go forward. The cost of cutting this valuable program will be sadly felt for generations in numerous arenas within American society and culture.

It seems we have lost our dreams as well as any chance to explore the final frontier. What a sad day for America.

JANA PENDRAGON

Long Beach

* Bosnia, Somalia, destruction of the Earth’s rain forests, racial hatreds, urban squalor, gangs, wars, famine . . . the list goes on forever.

We aren’t anywhere near getting it right down here, but we need a $25-billion outpost in space. Why do I keep getting the impression those guys in Washington really don’t get it?

It’s not even really an issue of money. If we, as a human race, were as evolved spiritually as we are technologically, it would be understandable to want to venture into the unknown with all of our positive influences.

As I see it, we’re doing just the opposite. What do we on Earth have to offer? Perhaps a McDonald’s big meal on Mars, or maybe the Energizer Rabbit in a spacesuit?

Why don’t we spend the $25 billion trying to get our act together down here before we take our questionable show on the road up there.

LACEY SHEA

West Hollywood

Government

* What troubles me is that I’m beginning to agree more and more with James Pinkerton (always Column Right, June 24). Of course we don’t need more government, only better government, and I am beginning to think better might be less government.

Let’s start by reducing the number of congressmen; one senator from each state instead of two and half the number of representatives from each state.

We could apportion representatives according to the number of persons who voted during the prior November election. Thus only voters are entitled to representation. That should make politicians stand up and take notice. That will also reduce the populations in Washington and the state capitals.

That is also why this letter is so short.

HARRY WALD

Sherman Oaks

* I differ with Pinkerton when he states that “more government isn’t the answer.” The proof is Social Security, a government-sponsored program. Social Security saved our government from bankruptcy. The Republicans wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.

Why can’t we do the same for our health program? Other governments of the world do it. Why can’t we?

SIGMUND MAITLES

Santa Monica