Breaking Up District May Be the Answer
John Perez, opposing the breakup of the Los Angeles Unified School District (Valley Commentary, March 26), writes of California teachers: “Whether they like or dislike what they hear about reform in Los Angeles, they know that people are trying new and different things in an effort to reform our school system.”
Maybe the people who want to dismantle the large, socially experimenting LAUSD would like to create smaller districts not trying new and different things--old-fashioned systems where students would be able to function in a real world.
As an employer in a retail business, we give a simple arithmetic test to all job applicants. They are all college students, and the job requires handling money, making change and so forth. More than half of the applicants can’t add a simple column of numbers, and most ask for a calculator to figure a discount of 10%.
The LAUSD claims that it does not have enough money, but all the studies show that there is no relationship between how much money is spent per pupil and the amount of knowledge that pupil acquires. Clearly, the LAUSD is broken and something needs to be done. Breaking it up into smaller, more closely, locally controlled pieces might be the answer.
BOB BERGSTROM
Woodland Hills
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