PUBLIC FORUM : `MIXING' AT PLAY IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR STUDY.

I read with interest ``LAUSD plays at teaching; bilingual `mixing' criticized,'' Daily News, Dec. 21.

Mixing is a practice used to put bilingual students with English-speaking students on the playground. Teachers and parents complained to interim Superintendent of Instruction Carmen Schroeder that mixing is a waste of time; it's noninstructional play time.

So did Schroeder go out to any campus to see firsthand what they were concerned about? No she didn't. She asked for a report.

Later in the article, she couldn't remember a letter from a teacher complaining about mixing even though she was asked to report on the teacher's concerns by Superintendent Ruben Zacarias.

The vice president of United Teachers Los Angeles said that teachers have been voicing concerns for years about this problem, but nothing has been done.

One teacher faxed a letter to Julie Korenstein, president of the school board, plus a copy to Zacarias, stating her deep concern for the loss of academic time during mixing. Korenstein asked Zacarias for a report on the problem.

Wake up, Korenstein. This is a big problem. Go out to the schools and see for yourself. Don't rely on reports. All board members need to get off their duffs and randomly pick schools to visit with specific things to review. Board members need to see firsthand why we have problems like this.

Ron Unz may not have the exact formula for teaching our young people the English language, but his initiative is light-years ahead of what we use to teach today.

With more and more information coming out in the newspapers about this subject, the chances are very likely his proposal will be voted in by the majority - a victory for the students.

- Michael C. Hines

West Hills

Re `` `Research' just busywork for many colleges'' by Thomas Sowell, Opinions, Dec. 19:

They are doing research on wood rats. Researchers are counting mosquitoes. And on and on.

What we really need is a research program to help some of our young students deep in trouble in our public schools.

In our third-grade bilingual program, 10 percent to 15 percent of the students speak only Spanish. These children should never have left the first grade. Their arithmetic is nonexistent. Their penmanship is pathetic. Their English is fragmentary. But these children, because the state of California demands a good graduation rate, will be promoted to the fourth grade, where they will be facing a program of English only. And from then on, it will be a complete disaster.

To help this percentage of young students, we need a one-to-one teaching system that will allow these kids to overcome the horrible problems facing their young lives. We have to do it today because if we don't, gangs will be there, awaiting new recruits.

- Dante F. Rochetti

West Hills

Valley redevelopment

The Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, with the support of City Councilman Richard Alarcon, is promoting the creation of another new redevelopment project in the city of Los Angeles: the Northeast San Fernando Valley Redevelopment Project.

If the project area is established, all increases in property tax revenues will be diverted to the Community Redevelopment Agency for its expenses and to pay for the hundreds of millions of dollars of redevelopment bonds that the CRA will issue to raise money for promotion, incentives, overhead and construction in the project area.

Although the taxpayers will not have any vote on the bond issues, their property taxes will be used to pay for the redevelopment bonds and the millions of dollars of bond interest that will be paid.

Property taxes will be taken away from operating budgets that pay for fire and police protection, schools, streets and public services that a growing city must provide, both within the redevelopment project as well as the rest of the city and county of Los Angeles.

The proposed project area consists of more than 1,700 acres and borders three sides of the city of San Fernando. Included in the project area is the Panorama Mall, where Wal-Mart is already developing its site, and the former General Motors site, which already has a private plan under way.

It is my opinion that the true underlying reason for the proliferation of redevelopment projects is to control land and future property tax increments, issue bonds without the voter approval required for other government bond issues, and create a source of funds that can be provided to large corporations to make large contributions to political candidates.

I do not believe this to be in the best interest of the city overall. It discriminates against the people and areas not in a project. The business is conducted in a semisecret manner by the CRA and allows for waste of scarce property tax revenues by a nonelected government bureaucracy.

The state Legislature created redevelopment law to eliminate ``blight.'' By no stretch of the imagination or legerdemain can enough money be found within Los Angeles property tax revenues during your or your children's lifetimes to eliminate blight or make a significant impact on the 1,700-plus acres in this proposed redevelopment project.

- Glenn Hoiby

North Hollywood

Leaf-blower ban

How stupid our City Council members are in reinstating enforcement of a ban on gasoline-powered leaf blowers.

What if the government goes out and purchases an electric blower? Will they ban this also?

Every week we have trash pickup. The trucks come, bang the containers on the street and awaken some of us as early as 7 a.m.

Many of us have driven behind a diesel school bus pouring out black smoke. Go to Los Angeles International Airport and see the jet smoke pouring out of the exhausts. Nothing has been done to correct that, but the poor man who cuts grass for a living must be punished because he uses a blower to help him in his trade.

I think all the City Council members who voted for this stupid enforcement should be recalled.

- Eli Moonitz

Encino

Helping the homeless

I would like to commend the Daily News for its coverage of issues affecting homeless people in ``Valley to honor the forgotten,'' Dec. 20.

Among the forgotten homeless are veterans, who are estimated to compose some 30 percent to 40 percent of the homeless population.

Public health nurses like Marlene Naumann, who not only help homeless people but also fight a lonely battle to protect the public health of everyone, are also too often forgotten or unsung heroines in urban health care today.

Thanks for recognizing the work of ordinary people who have not forgotten our veterans, elderly, people with disabilities and others who are homeless, even if our elected leaders have.

- Gene Rothman

Culver City 

Earthquake insurance 

I read R. Hutton's letter (Public Forum, Dec. 22) regarding Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush and earthquake insurance. I agree with Hutton's comment: ``He threw us to the dogs on earthquake insurance.''

I live in Ventura, in the east end of the city. Our insurance rate is the highest possible per $100 worth of house. To be covered, the increase is over 150 percent. Last year, we paid approximately $300. This year the cost is $808.

What I'd like to know is: Why in the bedroom community where we live are we being charged far more than people in areas that are more earthquake-prone?

Therefore, when I see Quackenbush on television, I either turn him off or shut off the sound. As far as I can see, he represents the insurance companies first and then the citizenry.

- Elaine F. Navarro

Ventura