Right-Wingers Hurt Schools

* Kenneth Khachigian’s June 6 column exposes the hypocrisy of the right wing.

For years we’ve had Republicans in charge of the governor’s office. During that time, our schools went from among the best in the nation to among the worst.

California’s ranking in state money per student per year went from the top 10 among all states to the bottom three. Under Republican governors, class sizes grew every year.

Now comes Khachigian to complain about the state of the schools. The truth is that the right wing almost killed public education, and now they’re complaining about how weak it is.

Now that they’ve cut our schools to the point that they are at or near the bottom academically, they want us to divide the money that is left between public schools and “vouchers” for their rich or religious friends who don’t oppose using tax money to fund private schools, just public ones.

Khachigian seems to blame the power of the teachers unions for many of the problems with our schools. Again, his hypocrisy boggles the mind.

If teachers are so powerful, why is teaching among the least attractive, poorest-paid professions?

JIM CORBETT

San Clemente