Public School Funding Is a Cheap Trick

Re “If We Value Education, We’ll Pay the Price,” Voices, April 9: Thank you for the article by John McDonald, who describes the budget cuts in his upscale Manhattan Beach schools. As he points out, schools throughout our state are going broke. As an actively involved and well-informed PTA parent, it is clear to me that we have a serious problem in the way our public schools are funded.

If a handful of school districts were complaining about financial difficulties, we could write it off as poor planning or fiscal irresponsibility. But the reality is that districts large and small, in low-income, middle-class and affluent neighborhoods from one end of California to the other are cutting essentials such as nurses, librarians, music programs and small class sizes. There is clearly something wrong with the whole system. The funding provided to our schools is not equal to the increasing demands that are being placed on them by the federal and state governments.

California is the most affluent state in the most prosperous and advanced country in the history of the planet. It is shameful that we cannot find a way to provide a first-class education to the children in our state. And yes, I am talking about increasing taxes -- including my own -- if that’s what it takes to show our children that we value them and their education as much as we say we do.

Gisela Meier

Orange