Charting a Course for Education

Your May 23 editorial, “Passing but Not Learning,” claims 60% of high school students opt out of so-called A-G classes [required for entrance into state colleges and universities], but currently there is no opt-out option for students.

The reality is that our schools track most students out of college prep classes, relegating thousands to low-wage jobs upon graduation.

This policy would require the district to enroll all students in A-G classes starting in 2008. Our resolution calls for the creation of learning support programs, professional development of teachers, a realignment of resources and a three-year implementation plan to ensure student and district success. Communities for Educational Equity intends to pressure the Los Angeles Unified School District to adopt policies that have vision, are goal-orientated and improve the quality of education for all children.

Making the A-G classes the graduation requirement for the class of 2012 is far from “showy.” It is a community demand for schools to do more than just warehouse children while wasting taxpayer dollars.

Alberto Retana

Los Angeles

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Your editorial reflected an understandable lack of confidence in the LAUSD and missed a critical point in that the resolution calls for the phase-in implementation of the A-G course sequence in three years, beginning with the ninth-graders in 2008. It is understandable for people to doubt the vision of a thriving LAUSD. We have much evidence of the contrary.

The A-G course effort is about changing the culture of our schools, our district and our cities. This is not a discussion about whether an 11th-grader can pass math but whether the nation’s second-largest school district can transform itself into a viable provider of quality education.

The A-G resolution would truly bring about meaningful reform in our secondary schools. With the planning and preparation in place, the district can execute the plan when the target date arrives. But, if we never set the goal or have the expectation, thousands of children will continue to miss out on preparation for postsecondary education, workforce participation and life. The L.A. Times, through its editorial, is perpetuating low expectations and perpetual mediocrity at LAUSD.

Jose Huizar

Pres., School Board

L.A. Unified School District

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Your editorial on high school curriculum shows how urgent it is to have a national debate. What do students study? Why do we ask them to study what they study? Who decides on the curriculum? Our high schools are not obsolete, as Bill Gates says. Rather, our national curriculum is dead. We need to bring curriculum back to life.

Revive it with primary documents of the United States. To ensure a democratic education of our citizenry, put the Bill of Rights and the Constitution at the heart of the nation’s middle school, high school and college curricula.

Second, at the heart of the curriculum, put song: “A bird of steel, the human soul which sang.” The old curriculum, with its focus on standardized tests, right and wrong answers, lack of depth -- in short, schooling, not education -- has wrung the song and soul out of students and teachers.

We may devise a college curriculum for all students, an ideal goal. But most students don’t go to college. Roughly one in five students graduate from college. Though everybody should have the opportunity and the resources to go to college, we live in a real world. We need to educate those who don’t go to college, those four out of five students who do the basic jobs, lug the load, in our society.

It’s time to right the ship of state and sing it loud. Time to educate for American democracy, not school for an unthinking state.

John Gabriel

Associate Professor

Cal State San Bernardino