Ideology Shouldn’t Run Schools

Summer vacation seems not to have helped the Orange Unified Board of Education. Its majority still vows confrontation and a wrongheaded emphasis on ideology. That means parents will have to be alert again this year to board efforts to dismantle good programs on the specious grounds one trustee gave in the past: The programs look “liberal” or “socialistic.”

Last school year, the four-member majority tried to ban grants for all social services at the district’s 37 campuses. It later backed down, but promised to review grants individually. In an ideal world, the grants would be unneeded. Students would be fed well at home, taken to doctors whenever necessary. But Orange Unified includes schools like Lampson Elementary, where three-quarters of the students live in poverty. If parents are unable to help their children, the children should not have to suffer as a result. That is especially true when others are willing to help.

The Weingart Foundation, a philanthropic organization, gave Lampson a $25,000 grant to help pay for a counselor and a family resource center on campus. There should have been no quarrel over that grant, but acceptance came only on a 4-3 vote and sparked the proposal to ban future grants.

This year the board majority plans to open cafeteria services to private suppliers. One member calls it part of the “Republican agenda.” But school boards are supposed to be nonpartisan, and the district-run cafeteria program has received high marks.

Supporters of the board majority say they want to imitate its workings in other school districts in Orange County. A number of those supporters are members of politically active religious conservative groups. That worries teachers and parents who want the focus to be on education, not ideology.

Even some parents who proclaim themselves conservatives and support parts of the majority’s agenda criticize the four for not listening to dissenting views. This demonstrates that the board majority needs to do a better job of talking with teachers, administrators and parents and respecting their opinions.