Parents Should Provide After-School Care

Your Nov. 8 editorial “New Paths After School” criticized the poor quality of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers’ current after-school programs. It stated that the teachers are no more than glorified baby-sitters and weren’t even making the children do their homework.

Homework is designed to be done at home, thus the term “homework.” Until people realize that their children should be their first priority, above their own personal happiness and mortgage and SUV payments, then the children’s performances will continue to be dismal. The government is not supposed to raise our country’s children; the people who bring them into the world are. People think that it is fine to raise children in one-parent households or to have both parents work outside the home, and that government (taxpayers) will pick up the slack. When has government ever produced a quality product? Why should the parents who have made the sacrifices necessary to raise their own children be forced to pay for the poor choices of those who haven’t?

Adelle Manos

Long Beach