School Equality

Re “Focus on Classrooms, Not Court,” editorial, Jan. 17: The statement was made that well-off children have better schools with more and superior facilities than poor children. Any teacher who has taught at both inner-city schools with poor students and a nice suburban school will tell you that the facilities usually differ not because of the economic area in which students live but because of the value the students place on their school and education. Students in the more affluent areas generally treat the facilities better.

At the particular inner-city high school where I taught, two new and very expensive restroom buildings were in rather poor shape after just one year. In addition, textbooks, which should last a number of years, were many times unusable in one or two, with the students seldom held responsible.

RICHARD A. REYNOLDS

Lomita