Preventive education is important

Education, and the lack of funds for it, has been the topic of two community forums this week.

Truly, we need to send a message to the folks in Sacramento.

At Glendale Community College, we heard that the state’s educational priorities are providing for technical careers and getting students to four-year colleges (“College to place priority on basic skills, transfers,” March 2). For 60 years, lifelong learning and parent education have been key components of the college’s curriculum.

It’s so much easier to think up and pass another bill to regulate how close to schools food trucks can park. This is supposed to limit childhood obesity. Forget that parents educate their kids about healthy choices and that it is more cost-effective to provide this type of preventive education in a localized forum geared to the local audience.

At the PTA Council forum, we heard of the lack of success of the No Child Left Behind act. There’s a plan to bring additional dollars back to schools to replace lost programs, and it involves local parent involvement. Visit www.ourchildrenourfuture2012.com for details.

Let’s send a message to those in Sacramento: You can’t legislate what children learn, and you can’t legislate how to raise children. That comes with arming parents with preventive education.

True, it’s more glamorous to fund a crisis intervention rather than prevention. It’s also more costly — to all of us, including those sitting in the Legislature. Please remember that in November.

As voters, let’s start doing our homework now.

Camille Levee
Glendale