State Funds for Schools

As a teacher in LAUSD I am happy that Gov. Pete Wilson will be concentrating some of the larger-than-expected state budget dollars to education (May 21). However, what has me scratching my head and then stomping my feet in frustration is his intention to continue pushing for a tax cut that will cut $6 billion out of education spending over four years.

What good is it to reduce class size in grades one and two for a year? When that tax cut hits us, class sizes will immediately rise. We do not need a tax cut that will take more money away from education.

NANCY E. ENWALL

Long Beach

*With California’s economy heating up, there is a potential for more funds for education. The law requires Wilson to spend more on schools: Proposition 98 mandates that 40% of state revenues are to be earmarked for education. But pointing the money in the general direction of schools hardly guarantees the funds will get there intact.

When Wilson talks about money for textbooks, school repairs and school libraries, he’s really saying money for school district bureaucrats to administer. Who knows how much, or how little, of the millions for education will ever reach the schools and benefit our children?

Los Angeles teachers are working on a reform plan to ensure that, in the future, 95% of education funds do reach the kids. United Teachers of Los Angeles supports the California Educational Efficiency Initiative, 95/5, that would cap non-school-site administration spending at just 5% of funds allocated for education.

HELEN BERNSTEIN

President, UTLA

* Wilson’s proposal to spend $83 million for school library books and textbooks certainly made exciting reading. Our schools have been struggling to put textbooks in the hands of every student and to fill barren library shelves for years. We have such high expectations for students to read yet we fail them by cutting our book budgets year after year. Compounding the problem, public libraries have also been cut.

One of our most important goals in school is to encourage our children to be lifelong learners. Well-stocked libraries are vital to this effort. I see the governor’s proposal as a good first step.

BEN RICH, Member

Chino Unified School Board

* Re “Wilson Ties School Funds to Phonics,” May 17:

Reduce class size, more funding, better libraries--these can all contribute to reading skills. However, parents are the first influence in one’s reading success. When children are read to, taken to the library, receive books as gifts and see their parents reading, reading becomes a value they seek. Before “Big Brother,” in whatever form, is blamed for lack of students’ reading and other academic skills, best look right at home for the beginning of the answer.

Turn off the TV! Read to your children! You will more than make up for any inadequacies a school system might experience.

MARCIA T. BRUCE

Irvine

* Thank you for your eloquent editorial on the critical need to give our young students the computers they need to bridge the technology gap between the have and have-not schools (May 20).

You accurately depict how a low-tech education “threatens to keep a new generation of poorer Ameri- cans mired in low-paying, menial jobs, and thus hurt the U.S. economy.” But it’s not just our poorest children who suffer. Children from middle-income families often have limited access to computers in their classrooms. All our children need better tools to compete in an increasingly competitive global economy.

I have authored a proposal to get our children the technology they need. By providing targeted tax incentives, we can encourage private companies and computer manufacturers to donate (less than) 3-year-old computers to public schools. The incentives in my bill are already in place for donations to universities for research, but not for general education purposes in public schools.

SEN. BARBARA BOXER

D-Calif.

* Students do not need more or even any computers, they need to learn to read. All the ability in the world with a computer screen will earn a student nothing if he or she is unable to read a paragraph at his or her own grade level. Let’s stop praying at the altar of the computer and teach our students the basic ability to read.

FRANK WAGNER

Playa del Rey