College is just one option.

God bless Lawrence Schlack for his guest column, "Going to College Is Not Always the Best Choice," in the March issue of The School Administrator.

What we are currently doing in our public schools fails to prepare many of our students for a productive life after high school. We no longer are providing opportunities for all students--college-bound and non-college-bound--to acquire the life skills and career planning skills they need to become productive citizens.

Students are told by educators (all of whom have college degrees) that to be successful students must go to college. The message to them is clear: If you are not going to college, you are second class. Each year, more and more educational resources are being allocated to prepare students for college and less and less for career and technology education and for career guidance.

School districts claiming that 90 percent of their students went on to college should be asked how many of those students actually completed a college degree or how many of those students went to a technical school or a community college for a career and technology education degree or certificate.

After many years of working with secondary students, I have observed that nearly all younger students report they are going to college, simply because they do not know other options exist. Furthermore, as those students mature and realize a college degree is not for them, they give up on school because it no longer meets their needs.

KATHRYN HOLLENBACK

Superintendent,

Central Arizona Valley Institute of Technology,

Casa Grande, Ariz.

I loved Lawrence Schlack's points about graduation rates and measures of success for high school principals. Could we go further and ask "how many students made it past the first year of college?"

I am a vocational educator at a segregated BOCES program, and we have a hard time getting our students to realize that the supply of plumbers in the world will need replenishing just as will the chemists. I also am a special educator by trade and have to help students understand they are successful even in a world that seems to view college as the only measure of success upon leaving high school.

Thanks to Schlack for being out front on this issue.

LYNN QUINN

Career Network Services,

Monroe County BOCES I,

Rochester, N.Y.

As a special education teacher in Rochester, N.Y., for more than 15 years, I have worked with students with varied learning disabilities who will never be successful in college. Their parents are pinning all their hopes and dreams on these poor kids.

Consequently any student, disability or not, lies when asked "What are you doing after graduation?" We have a large community college in our area that the kids can say they plan to attend. It's a good "out" for them.

My husband, the CEO of a local credit union, says he's had the most overqualified tellers in years. They all have several unnecessary years of college under their belts.

But try to find a good plumber, carpenter, electrician or mason these days! These trades are so undervalued. When will we realize we need a balance for society to function?

MARGARET VADALA

Special education teacher,

East High School,

Rochester, N.Y.