Vote Shortchanges Students : Orange Trustees’ Vote to Reject Grant Driven by Ideology

There they go again, shortchanging their district and embarrassing themselves.

The trustees of the Orange Unified School District have refused to let five district schools apply for federal grants of up to $3,000 each. The money, available to up to 100 schools in Orange County, is intended to link schools and local businesses to introduce students to possible careers.

At a time when businesses complain about the quality and education of new workers, improving relations between town and gown seems a good idea. Showing youngsters what it’s like to be a police officer, doctor or architect also is smart.

But that’s not good enough for the four Orange Unified trustees who make up the majority of the seven-member board.

Trustee Bill Lewis used an especially inappropriate analogy in explaining the refusal to apply for money from a joint program of the Labor and Education Departments. Said Lewis: “When you start playing ball with the federal government, it’s like playing with a drug dealer--the first one is always free.”

But claiming that schools would become as dependent on federal aid as an addict is on drugs discredits teachers, administrators and parents. All of them know that the money can stop some day. In fact, the federal programs to link schools and businesses were planned to last only several years.

Once again, the majority of the board is putting its ideology ahead of benefiting students.

Two months ago, the board said it would no longer take grants for social services, including valuable programs like free breakfasts and medical checkups. Again, it was not a matter of money; the programs cost the district nothing. Ideology was the driving force.

Fortunately, hundreds of parents and supporters of the social services programs protested the proposed action. The trustees backed down, but promised to scrutinize future applications closely. The first casualty was the program to expose students to businesses.

The president of the Orange Chamber of Commerce praised the program vetoed by the school board and expressed a frequently heard concern of business people about today’s schools: “If students and teachers don’t know what business needs in an employable graduate, they can’t deliver what we need at the end of 12 years.”

That’s not to say that a school’s sole purpose is training workers for business, but there is nothing wrong with knowing the requirements of the marketplace.

The four Orange Unified trustees are wrong and managed to insult the federal government and their own residents in the process.