Student Performance
In your June 23 story, “Support for Uniforms on Campus Felt,” Ventura Unified School Supt. Joseph Spirito claims uniforms will improve student performance. Does that mean that performance of private schools would decline if those students discontinued the use of uniforms?
The recent U.S. Department of Education assessment placed California at the bottom of the academic performance scale, neck and neck with Mississippi and one hair above Guam. The dropout rate in this school district and in California is so abysmal that administrators decided to juggle the figures by averaging in ninth-graders.
If administrators really believe that the wearing of uniforms will improve performance, then they should put uniforms on themselves. The public sees through the “all show and no go” performance of the public schools; they are voting with their feet by removing their children from the schools through home schooling and by placing their children into private schools.
More telling is the growing support for vouchers. The present educational establishment is presiding over the destruction of public education.
SUSANNA GORENFELD
Ventura
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