Criticism of Ann Romney; community colleges and their mission; more problems at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum Commission

Calling all moms

Re “Romney is facing larger problem with female voters,” April 13

We need to get real about Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen’s comment that Ann Romney “never worked a day in her life.”

Rosen wasn’t saying anything derogatory about stay-at-home moms; she was speaking the truth that Ann Romney has never had to worry about paying the bills, putting food on the table, buying clothes and the cost and quality of her kids’ day care.

Mitt and Ann Romney are in the lucky percentage of Americans who don’t know how hard many in the working class have it. They are clueless as to how financially-strapped families are dealing with today’s crisis.

Bernadette Armstrong

Sherman Oaks

Re “Worst candidate?,” Opinion, April 12

Doyle McManus writes about Mitt Romney’s need for Rick Santorum’s endorsement: “Romney needs Santorum at the moment much more than Santorum needs Romney.”

The reverse is true. To beat President Obama, Romney needs to distance himself from the extreme elements of Santorum’s social agenda, particularly those that appeal to a very small group and appall everyone else, including Santorum’s attacks

on abortion rights and

contraception.

Obama’s edge among women voters, which helped push him over the top in 2008 and promises to do so again in November, is largely a reaction to views heralded by Santorum that contraception turns sex into “simply pleasure” (the horror!) and that doctors who perform abortions should be criminally charged.

Not only does Romney not need this baggage, but if he wants to win, he needs to forcefully disavow it.

Doug Lasken

Woodland Hills

Community college woes

Re “A failure to educate,” Opinion, April 11

Mark Schneider and Lu Michelle Yin unfairly blame low graduation rates at community colleges on the quality of teaching.

Community colleges are required to accept students regardless of readiness for college-level work.

The problem is with the quality of K-12 education, exacerbated by the anti-tax policies promoted by organizations such as the American Enterprise

Institute, where Schneider is a visiting scholar.

I graduated from a community college, then completed my engineering degree at a university. I found that the quality of teaching at the community college was just as good as at the university.

If we continue starving public education of adequate funding with anti-tax policies, we will continue to suffer low graduation rates at community colleges.

Al Barrett

Santa Monica

Schneider and Lin examine community colleges from afar without a thorough understanding of the system.

First, community colleges were established as open-access institutions. Regardless of academic preparation or academic goals, all students are welcome.

Second, despite

California community colleges receiving the lowest per-student funding in the country, we are the most efficient higher education organization. We instruct 2.6 million students, nearly 25% of the nation’s community college students.

Third, we are regulated by the largest school board in the world: the California Legislature. There are directives that hinder local control and our ability to be responsive to our communities.

Finally, we have been forced to help balance the state budget by raising student fees and cutting classes. This is counterintuitive to our current economic situation.

We need advocacy, not uninformed criticism.

Erlinda J. Martinez

Santa Ana

The writer is president of Santa Ana College.

Schneider and Lin provide a helpful reminder that the true purpose of higher education is to rush students through the college system so they can get degrees, secure high-paying jobs, strengthen the economy and, most important, avoid an “investment loss” for taxpayers. These students don’t have to actually learn anything along the way.

College is not like a business. True learning is not quantifiable in dollars and cents.

The purpose of a community college is to allow inexpensive access for all young adults to a high-quality learning environment. Some students will stick with it; others will choose other paths.

But our investment in them with our tax dollars has nothing to do with satisfying the bottom line.

Michael Duffy

Simi Valley

Coliseum rot

Re “Coliseum had scant controls over spending,” April 13

Once again, it takes The Times to expose more L.A. Memorial Coliseum Commission rottenness to the sunlight.

I find it very disingenuous for Commission President David Israel and Supervisor Don Knabe, a commission member, to throw the blame back on City Controller Wendy Greuel for not conducting an audit earlier. It is the responsibility of the commissioners themselves to request an audit.

I would suggest that yes, there is indeed lots of blame to go around, but not in the way Israel and Knabe suggest.

That all this went on under their supervision suggests that an audit should include an investigation of the commissioners themselves.

Bob McLaughlin

San Simeon, Calif.

Audit results

Re “Missteps on child welfare,” April 9

The Times claimed that results of an audit I requested of child welfare departments in several counties failed to provide any noteworthy details concerning safety.

One finding ignored by the editorial was about children killed by abusers. Their deaths are often overlooked by county agencies because there is no law ordering a review for each case. The audit also found registered sex offenders living at state- licensed facilities such as day-care centers. This was surprising.

I introduced two bills to address these inexcusable findings and to provide a layer of protection for our children. The Times should take a second look at the audit results and see a need for change in a system crying out for a legislative fix.

Henry T. Perea

Fresno

The writer, a Democrat, represents California’s 31st Assembly District.

Helping antelope

Re “Rare captive antelope win protection,” April 11

It seems that Friends of Animals hates hunters more than it loves animals. This group’s successful efforts to restrict the breeding and hunting of three species of African antelope on ranches in the U.S. is misguided and may well lead to the extinction of these species.

I have never been a hunter, but as a biologist, it is clear to me that one little reserve in Senegal with 175 animals (according to the group’s website) is not a species recovery plan.

Friends of Animals should come down from its moral high ground and work with the ranchers to save these beautiful and wonderful animals.

James Martin

Claremont

Tax warfare

Re “The other republican contest,” Opinion, April 12

In the current French presidential campaign, Socialist Francois Hollande has made one of his main issues the imposition of a 75% tax rate on the very wealthy. Maybe that reaches the level of class warfare.

In the U.S., the Republican Party claims it is class warfare to ask the wealthiest to pay the same effective rate as the average worker. Mitt Romney, for example, paid an effective rate of 14% in 2010, much less than working people.

Which class is waging war in the U.S.?

Robert Moore-Stewart

Los Angeles