Voters Defeat School Vouchers

* I feel that I must comment on the Prop. 174 vote. What we saw here is a classic example of how a few liberals, equipped with a vast base of funding and supported blindly by the media, were able to purchase the continuation of a self-serving, totally unresponsive and nearly useless bureaucracy.

The average California school child lost big on this election. He lost the opportunity to once again attend a school where he would be taught to appreciate the meaning of terms like ethics , responsibility and discipline . He was also denied the chance to realize that the term family values is not two dirty words. What a pity that our children had to be sacrificed so that a failed liberal bureaucracy could be propped up for a few more years.

WALT SHULTZ

Tujunga

* The resounding defeat of Prop. 174 was not, in my opinion, the result of too few dollars spent on promotion, but too little real thought given to drafting the bill.

When will the politicos or bureaucrats learn that you cannot hand out money at one end without some safeguards at the other end? Witness the S&L; disaster--guaranteed deposits with no safeguards on lending.

Here we had $2,600 per student up front and no restrictions on teacher qualifications, subject matter or admission discrimination. Voters may be dumb but they are not stupid.

GEORGE J. YOUNG

Huntington Beach

* Joseph Alibrandi, chairman of Yes on 174, made the following comments (Nov. 3): “We’re going to come back 10 times as well-financed and meaner than ever, and that’s a warning to the other side.” I am repulsed by this comment.

Alibrandi’s attitude certainly doesn’t seem to reflect the best interest of the students of California. My four children are excelling academically in the public schools, and the staff members of those schools model the values of fairness and respect. I am satisfied with our schools and I don’t need people with attitudes like Alibrandi’s “working on behalf” of my children.

JUDY GRIFFITH WILLIAMS

Mission Viejo

* During the campaign for and against school vouchers, a central aspect of the danger of undermining our public school system has been overlooked. The source of the divisions on educational policy in our country is rooted in the religious differences that exist in our population. The danger of a voucher system is that it provides government support for the weakening of our society by deepening its fragmentation into various religious groupings. The undesirable consequences of such fragmentation have been seen in Lebanon and in what was once Yugoslavia.

How long will a religiously fragmented United States will hold together after we run out of the abundance of resources that have historically fueled our prosperity? And we are indeed running out of this abundance. If we are to maintain national unity sufficient to empower our nation to hold its own among the rivalries in the international community, our government should support an educational system that fosters national unity, not a system that deepens the fragmentation of our population along religious lines. Vouchers may thus be viewed as paving the way to national dissolution.

LARRY SELK

Los Angeles