Children Deserve a Better Choice

* I am concerned about the direction of our public schools. I see funding reaching the classroom going down, and public schools are nickel-and-diming parents in every way possible. This happens while a bloated bureaucracy receives the lion’s share of the education dollar. I become cynical when the people responsible for shortchanging our children blame society for school problems and ask for more money.

Outside a third-grade class in Newbury Park, I overheard a teacher reprimand a student and say: “Do not share paper with your classmate. If you are nice to one person, others will expect the same, and then you will have no paper.” It is discouraging that a school in a good neighborhood is now teaching ghetto philosophy over a penny’s worth of school supplies. This happens in a district where the previous school superintendent received an annual salary of $115,000 and now collects an $85,100 pension. It is nice to know that the present school superintendent receives only $102,500 in salary, plus generous benefits.

I am disheartened by the recent arson at Maple School, graffiti at Newbury Park High School and the frightening attack on a Moorpark teacher. It seems that we are slowly following the San Fernando Valley, which was once a refuge from the problems in Los Angeles.

It is troubling that we have the same school administration system in the Conejo Valley as the system that presided over the creation of the tragedy called Los Angeles Unified School District. I hope we can have a better choice for our children.

LORNA CAMPBELL

Newbury Park