UCLA liberal? No kidding
This is a response to the Shapiro column
“”˜Defiant’ liberals actually conformist”
(Viewpoint, March 4).
I am sorry if you misread information about UCLA, but guess
what? A university, in a liberal city, in a liberal state is,
surprise surprise, liberal! If it so much offends you that
people don’t look like you and think like you, there are
plenty of other respectable universities in America that have much
more conservative agendas than UCLA.
Instead of being hostile towards anything that does not fit into
your nice little mold, realize you are enjoying the acceptance of
diversity that UCLA provides.
If after pondering all this you still are offended by the people
that walk by you every day and believe that “America is full
of tolerant, open-minded people,” by all means move somewhere
else.
However, you may find that even after a year and a half at UCLA,
you don’t know it all.
Hassan Dornayi Fourth-year Political
science
Schools help out special need kids
I could add my views about school vouchers ““ I am against
them ““ but I would rather address the comments that Joel
Schwartz made about the parents of “special needs”
children (“Vouchers don’t discriminate,”
Viewpoint, March 4).
As the parent of two “special needs” children, I
have found the schools my children have attended, in both the
Los Angeles Unified School District and the Palmdale
School District, have gone to great lengths to help my
children in any way possible.
They helped one of my children so much so that she no longer
needs any speech classes and my son has made tremendous progress.
Neither of my children were “dumped” into a class
for “problem” children. Every step was taken to make
sure that my children were “mainstreamed” into classes
with children without “special needs”.
If it had not been for the public school system, I could never
have afforded these services on my own.
I think that Schwartz should speak to parents before making
broad generalized statements about what we would or would not
do.
Nora Maureen Durham Third-Year History
Parents, students part of problem
First off, the writer that claimed the LAUSD has been
“broken from day one” is way off base. The LAUSD did a
fine job, and California was considered the top state in the nation
for public education until about the mid-’70s.
Private schools succeed because they can pick their students and
don’t have to accept children that are not fluent in English,
aren’t able to work at grade level, misbehave or are
disabled.
Public schools are mandated to provide education to anyone
regardless of their abilities.
With voucher programs we can absolve parents and students of any
responsibility for their failures. We can make parents think they
have choices that won’t really happen or make a
difference.
Teachers and administrators don’t force children to
misbehave in class or vandalize schools; they don’t force
parents to refuse to learn English and help their children learn
the language; they don’t force parents to ignore teacher
calls, conferences or letters, they don’t force parents to
berate them or threaten suit when their children are caught
breaking rules.
The only thing that will improve education is to honestly look
at who is failing and why. Are the public schools old,
deteriorating and ill supplied? Of course, but how are vouchers
going to fix that? How are vouchers going to provide quality
education?
Zelda McKay Manhattan Beach