State keeps starving the schools
Re "Discipline is needed to fix state budget," Forum, May 25: The writer, Roger Niello, is my representative in the Assembly. His opinion is so far from reality that I must respond since I have spent 35 years working in public education.
To give Republican leadership credit for "fully funding" education this year is akin to saying the war in Iraq has been won because George Bush hung a "Mission Accomplished" sign.
The education budget as proposed is nothing near fully funded. It denies our schools a much-needed cost-of-living adjustment required for them to keep pace with the expense of educating our students.
By any measure, schools will be required to do more with less. And this is piled on top of years of education cuts to athletic and arts programs, maintenance and services, meaning there are no edges left to trim – further cutbacks will go right at the heart of our classrooms.
California ranks 46th in the nation in per-pupil spending. It's high time for Niello and his Republican colleagues in the Legislature to wake up and realize we can't build a strong California by putting the interests of yacht owners and Big Oil before the education of our students.
- Marcie Launey, Sacramento
Where to put the money
Dan Walters' May 26 column "Vocational education war erupts" hit a raw point with me.
I agree with his argument, but it brought to mind a recent announcement that Yolo County had been chosen as the site for a "transition" prison ("State picks counties for new jail funding," May 9). The facility will house low-risk inmates during the last year of their sentence. They will receive drug and alcohol rehabilitation as well as vocational/technical education.
While I am pleased about that and support it, I can't help wondering if some of the money being spent on prisons would be much more effective if used for providing the same programs in our public schools.
How many of the inmates might have been spared a life of crime if they had prepared for jobs through this education in high school? What a wonderful thought – our schools actually preparing those who, for whatever reason, will not go on to college with the skills to enter the job market.
- Donna Newberry, Davis
Education not mutually exclusive
Dan Walters perpetuates the shopworn idea that in today's high schools career and technical education (CTE) is mainly for some students, challenging academics primarily for others ("Vocational education war erupts," May 26).
Such thinking demeans both CTE and academic education. It relegates CTE to the margins of the modern high school. It also blithely accepts substandard academic performance among thousands of students, implying they are not capable of higher achievement in English, mathematics, science and social studies.
The newly formed Coalition for Multiple Pathways – a surprising alliance of educators, policy-makers, industry representatives and community stakeholders – is committed to creating a new approach in California's high schools.
The coalition promotes comprehensive programs of study that connect demanding CTE to core academic subjects, so that students cannot only master high levels of industry knowledge and skill but also find an answer to that age-old question: "Why do I need to know this?"
Many of the coalition's members will be surprised to learn that they are now part of the education "establishment," as Walters tries to tag them.
California's young people deserve a better legacy. They deserve high schools where CTE and academic excellence both flourish, complementing and reinforcing each other and together preparing students for the ever more demanding requirements of the 21st century.
- Gary Hoachlander, Berkeley
President, ConnectEd
The California Center for College and Career
New GI Bill: What's not to like?
As the last sentence in the May 26 editorial "A new GI Bill for a new generation of veterans" stated, "The two houses of Congress need to get their act together and get this done, with enough votes to override the threatened Bush veto." I think it is absolutely ridiculous that President Bush threatens to veto this bill, but it completely shocks me to learn that Congress is having trouble agreeing to this measure.
You would think that this new GI Bill would pass unanimously. After all, it makes perfect sense. American men and women go to Afghanistan and Iraq and risk their lives for their country, and the least their country can do for them in return – to show that their courage and patriotism is appreciated – is to aid them to return to a civilian life and pay for their college tuition, which in the end is more like an investment than an expense.
A new GI Bill would be completely fair. But once again, Washington shows that it cares more about discussing politics than caring for its most patriotic and courageous citizens.
- Cesar Cervantes, Sacramento
Mexico needs to zap drug thugs
Re "Border control corruption cases on the rise," May 27: As a Mexican American, I would like to express my increasing concern and outrage regarding what's going on in Mexico.
The cartels are basically striking back and assassinating police, politicians and anyone affiliated with the anti-cartel fight.
This problem has unfortunately been sowed by the Mexican government itself for the decades and decades of not enforcing any type of legitimate laws that would come down harshly on those responsible for the madness that has climaxed now.
Mexico is a mess, I'm sorry to say, and it has come to the point that some Mexican police officers are seeking asylum in the United States out of fear for their lives.
I just wish that Mexico would enact and enforce harsher laws directed at these killers. The death penalty, for one, would deliver good justice for those cartel killers.
Mexico has become a nation of total anarchy and is seemingly controlled by these cartels and terrorist-organized crime syndicates.
- Benito G. Ramirez Jr., Sacramento
