School Plan Is an Old Idea

I see in The Times where those birds who run our schools have come up with a new plan to go back to basics in education. Actually, this is not a new plan at all--teaching our broods the subjects of reading, writing and arithmetic is one of the oldest plans that we’ve ever had in this county. It’s what we used to teach our kids before the bureaucrats took over our schools.

Now, I don’t know whether this back-to-basics plan of theirs is any good, but as long as they plan to go back to the basics, I think they ought to make sure their back-to-basics plan is complete. Back in the good old days of the little red schoolhouse and McGuffey’s Reader, we had no use on the school budget for anyone who didn’t teach. Even the school principal used to get into the act and teach a class or two.

At last count, there is a herd of more than 100 critters on our Ventura school payroll who don’t teach, but spend their time at the school district’s downtown bunkhouse thinking up new plans, dispensing red tape and counting pencils. If they really want to get back to basics, they should start by pruning down the size of this herd of non-teachers. If we do that, we’ll be able to cut the costs of education and maybe teach our kids something that they might actually put to use after they escape from school.

Will R. Gorenfeld, Ventura