The Trouble With Schools

Re “Far Along Yet Far From Equal,” Opinion, Jan. 11: I agree with Gary Blasi that we need to improve our inner-city schools. Having spent 19 years as a teacher, administrator and high school principal in Los Angeles, I have observed firsthand the problems he describes. However, I disagree when he proposes that improved schools will close the educational opportunity gap.

After leaving Los Angeles, I spent seven years as principal and superintendent in a suburban district. It was in this district that I saw and understood the educational opportunity gap. The gap does not begin at school. The educational opportunity gap begins with poor prenatal care, is widened by poor pediatric nutrition and lack of appropriate stimulation, and grows even wider as students worry about getting to and from school alive. It is further reinforced by parents and other adult role models who do not value education. The list goes on.

Those of us who have worked in the inner cities know this is true. We have seen thousands of young people from supportive homes make it, either with the help of or in spite of their schools. Closing the educational opportunity gap is not as easy as “fixing our schools.” We must face the real and often intractable problem of homes and communities that fail to nurture and develop children who are ready to be students. Because it is politically incorrect to hold families and communities accountable, we continue to saddle educational institutions with responsibilities neglected by homes and our society at large.

Jim Davis

South Pasadena

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Blasi bemoans the low test scores of L.A. schools. He says that a primary problem is the “issue of teacher quality.” Professor Blasi, if you are truly concerned about the test scores, leave the comfort and luxury of UCLA and raise the level of teacher quality in L.A.’s schools by becoming a teacher in L.A.’s public schools. We both know this will never happen. It is much easier to write in a self-righteous way than it is to do the righteous thing.

Bill Morgan

Huntington Beach

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I doubt that Blasi’s implicit premise that poorer neighborhoods have poorer school facilities would surprise anyone. Considering his credentials, though, it is somewhat surprising to me that he leaps to the conclusion that poor facilities and poor performance are cause and effect, without credible evidence in support.

Before drawing such a fundamental conclusion with such extreme policy implications, he could have examined individual schools that have a significant socioeconomic mix in their student bodies and compared results. Long Beach Polytechnic High School would be a good place to start, since I can personally attest to the diversity on that campus.

The disparities in the data he cites are no less disturbing; but concluding, as he apparently does, that the fault lies with the schools would seem to have little to do with addressing the real issues. Perhaps dwelling on faulty premises helps explain the lack of more progress for these 50 years.

Bill Arledge

Manhattan Beach

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As a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, I took a special interest in Blasi’s piece, which outlines the persistent inequalities in the quality of education between the more affluent schools attended by white children and the critically overcrowded schools attended by majorities of African American and Latino students.

The only problem I have with this expose is the conclusion. When it comes to cautious optimism, I am afraid that the suggestion of receiving sincere and serious help from the Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger-Richard Riordan duo is farfetched; worse, it’s misleading.

During his tenure as mayor of Los Angeles, Riordan must have met (I would hope) hundreds of teachers and teachers union representatives. I personally met Riordan during a field trip with a large group of students in East Los Angeles. It was mostly a photo-op kind of event to which my students and I were subjected, rather than being active stakeholders. In any case, the statement by Riordan that “Arnold believes more than any human being I have ever met that every child deserves the tools ... of a quality education” reminds me of our chicken-hawk commander in chief landing on an aircraft carrier and portraying himself as a great warrior.

Our governor may or may not be sincere about his commitment to educating the poor. Talk is cheap. In the last decade, how many hours have these two well-intentioned do-gooders spent rolling up their sleeves in our broken-down and overcrowded classrooms?

Marco Elliott

San Pedro