Delaine Eastin

I’ve been stewing over The Times’ endorsement of Delaine Eastin for state superintendent of public instruction (editorial, Oct. 22). Of course, The Times can endorse whom it will, and Eastin must be due some credit for her early calls for class-size reduction and improved school funding. But to credit her with having “pushed to return phonics to reading instruction,” against the “hobbling” by the State Board of Education, is so contrary to fact--backward, in fact--that it must be challenged.

As for standards, California now has some of the best in the world, also more due to the efforts of the state board than Eastin. In the case of the math standards (independently rated better even than Japan’s) Eastin’s “contribution” was to call them “dumbed-down” and urge school districts to ignore them. It took a letter praising the standards, signed by over 100 California mathematicians, to quiet the furor. Later, Eastin cynically took credit for those same standards in her campaign literature.

MARTHA SCHWARTZ

Co-Founder, Mathematically

Correct, San Pedro