Fund a Program for Education Defense

I see in “Senate GOP Wins Funding Battle for Missile Defense” (June 27) that the Senate is voting to spend over $7.6 billion on President Bush’s so-called missile defense plan, while in the same edition a federally sponsored commission reports that millions of Americans will be unable to attend college because they can’t afford it (“Rising Costs Pricing Millions Out of College, Committee Says”).

In our attempts to build one of the most sophisticated military systems ever constructed we will have to import scientists from other countries because not enough of our own citizens will have been trained sufficiently to be involved in the project. This, of course, will have a far more serious effect on our national security than the vaporous nuclear threats that even the most advanced missile defense system would be unlikely to be effective against.

Mark J. Kaswan

Sherman Oaks