State’s Smaller Classes Program

Gov. Pete Wilson, in his infinite wisdom, mandated earlier this year a 20-1 student-to-teacher ratio for all first- and second-grade children in California public schools. This has been the dream of parents, teachers and school administrators for many years. Although the program is wonderful in theory, the practicality of it for many Los Angeles Unified School District schools is nonexistent.

The reality is that teachers are being hired in some instances without having completed student teaching, credential programs, etc. Normal requirements are being waived to provide schools with warm bodies, to make the ratio a reality. If schools wait to hire teachers with proper qualifications, there will be no teachers to hire.

In many schools, extra rooms to accommodate the smaller class size and extra teachers are not available. Some schools have chosen to put 40 students in one room with two teachers. Others are putting 60 children in two shared rooms with three teachers. At my daughter’s school, Woodland Hills Elementary School, the library will be closed so that it can serve as a revolving classroom, with children from the shared classrooms using it for a few hours a few times a week on a revolving basis. The logistics are a nightmare.

In addition to the lack of teachers and rooms, students are being displaced from neighborhood schools as classes are already full. Nerves are frayed, and it seems that children, while winning in the long run, are losing out this year. The loss comes from not providing the schools a year to plan for and implement the program. Wilson’s lack of foresight into the practicality of implementing the program so quickly seems a clear measure of his fitness to govern our state.

LORI BORCOVER

Woodland Hills