Re: “Guest editorial: California deserves school choice” [Volume 11, Issue 12 or bit.ly/3skAieA]
Yes, California does deserve better, much better. Too bad but for at least 50 years the California school system has been under attack by secular, special interests and Budget Hawks with an agenda.
First off, if you starve school funding, (which by the way started with Ronald Reagan in his time as California’s Governor in the 1960s —his agenda was to cut, cut, cut; Pete Wilson, cut, cut, cut schools; every single Republican governor in my life time has done the same: cut, cut, cut) what could we possibly ever expect? Of course the school system in California is and has suffered, right along with our children.
My mother was a schoolteacher during those years. She brought schoolwork home every night, worked weekends at her school for her children. She never made much money, but gave much more than those who benefitted will ever know.
As we all know, teachers have for years been underappreciated, underpaid and left in many instances to bridge the “budget gap” out of their own pockets and sacrificing their weekends and time off to make the best of the system that seems to never really meet the needs of students.
Public schools must prevail to make an education for all students. Charter and private schools for too long have been able to reach in, skim off public funds for their special interests. Again, fully funding public schools could once again bring back the best schools in the country — California’s claim in the 1960s. No longer, thanks to private, special interests in education. Remember, private schools, must achieve one goal first: profit! Not education, profit.
So, yes California students, our communities, our families, our industry and business all deserve better. If there is one investment that a society can make, it should be the advancement, education and nurturing of our children. Not for-profit private schools, charter schools or some other fashion of education, secular or not. Every child deserves the best chance to succeed. Many families cannot get their child to a special school, a private school, a charter school, what happens to these children?
Build Back Better — build back for our children, our communities and our country, not special interests. Yes, California does deserve better.
— Randy James, La Mesa
