Schools Need Help, Not Interference

* Now a senior in high school, I have experienced firsthand the public school system in action. Loyal to the Capistrano School District, I have witnessed great change in a school’s effectiveness. During my elementary years, parents would be a mainstay in our classrooms, adding a great feeling of warmth. At the high school level, I don’t see this participation anymore and feel it is a detriment to the learning process.

I firmly believe in Jacqueline Price’s views (Orange County Voices, Nov. 12) and strongly urge adults to volunteer time at their local public school.

WILL SMITH

Laguna Niguel

* As a teacher in the public school system, I appreciated the commentary by Jacqueline Price titled “Preserving the Public in the Schools.” I hope some of our county’s legislators read it.

[Reps.] Ed Royce, Ron Packard, Christopher Cox, Robert K. Dornan, and Jay Kim, I am disappointed in your vote on the reconciliation bill.

I agree that the nation’s fiscal house needs to be put in order. I heartily disagree with your selfishness toward programs that benefit our greatest asset, children. You all voted for a cut that helps families cope with the high cost of college education and at the same time approved deep cuts in the share of taxes paid by affluent families.

Gee, is it a coincidence that most of you could be considered affluent? When does your conscience kick in and you vote for the good of the people you represent instead of your own wallets? How hard is it to figure out that when this country made its biggest technological and industrial advances was that period after World War II when education was a priority?

As someone you supposedly represent, I admonish you to protect what is important to this county’s future and stop looking out for yourselves. I vote, and I won’t forget which way you voted.

LLOYD PORTER

Yorba Linda

* As a teacher for 22 years and a longtime resident of Los Alamitos, I was not surprised in the least when I read about the Los Alamitos High School student who is suing the district in order to be able to retain his student body president status (“Pupil Denied Elected Post Sues District,” Oct. 13). That’s just business as usual in our school system today.

One certainty I have learned from parents over the years is that they advocate, desire and even demand high standards in our schools. One of their top priorities is always that their child’s school does its very best to achieve the highest goals. And the system is progressive and working until the day their child is suddenly under the scrutiny of the system’s standards. When it hits home, drastic changes suddenly occur these days. The standards become unfair or outdated. They humiliate or embarrass. They no longer are acceptable because they apply to someone’s child.

The result? Battles, both in and out of the courtroom, that waste precious learning time and spend educational monies foolishly. The Los Alamitos Unified School District is well-known for its excellence and very high standards. How else can it be explained why so many people from outside the district are constantly seeking inter-district transfers?

The district has achieved its high ratings because of its excellent faculties, strong administrations, and yes, very high standards. The question is now: Are they going to let a few whiners and malcontents start chipping away at a longtime firm foundation? If they compromise on this young man today, what will they have to compromise tomorrow and the next day?

If there is mediocrity within our system today, it is surely because society willingly allows the standards to decline. My one hope is that the medical profession never gets wind of what’s going. Would anyone out there really want a neurosurgeon or a cardiologist who obtained his medical status through a compromise?

KAREN L. COON

Los Alamitos