Schools’ Air Quality and Learning

The left continually conjures up mystic voodoo to explain the patently obvious (“Who’s Minding the Air at Your Child’s School,” Opinion, June 3). Now we’re to believe that environmental pollution gives inner-city students learning and behavioral problems. It apparently never occurs to these academics that kids being raised in single-parent homes, where parents are more likely to be addicted to drugs, less likely themselves to be able to read, write and compute and place less importance on education, might have a tad more to do with these problems.

As their “evidence,” Rachel Morello-Frosch, Manuel Pastor and Carlos Porras cite a 200% increase in the number of students enrolled in special-education programs, suggesting that this means a 200% increase in the problem.

Isn’t it odd that 20 years ago the so-called problems were 200% less? Weren’t things more polluted 20 years ago? All this really means is that government has increased funding 200% for these programs. By their convoluted reasoning, we can blame the increase in funding for the increase in the problem. Therefore, it makes as much sense to stop spending to make the problem go away as to increase spending. This goofy approach can be applied to nearly any political-social cause.

Mark Landsbaum

Diamond Bar

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What is Gov. Gray Davis doing to protect our children’s school environment? Right now, his administration is sitting on studies regarding risk assessment, public policy and electromagnetic fields from power lines.

Many schools have power lines overhead or adjacent to them because such sites were cheaper to acquire. However, because children’s brains and central nervous systems are still developing, they may be more vulnerable to the adverse health effects of electromagnetic fields.

These health department studies took 10 years to complete and cost California ratepayers $10 million. They were scheduled for discussion by a panel of distinguished scientists at a public meeting May 7. Instead, the meeting was canceled May 4 and the studies withheld.

These are not the only studies affecting the health of schoolchildren still sitting on the governor’s desk. One was an interagency assessment of indoor air pollution at California’s schools. It has been sitting there since January 2000.

Legislation is needed that requires the timely release of all studies paid for by California’s ratepayers and taxpayers.

Ellen Stern Harris

Executive Director

Fund for the Environment

Beverly Hills