PUBLIC FORUM.

Set the bar

Re ``API standards for minorities raised to white students' level'' (May 11):

How ironic that the state of California finally admits it may have made a mistake in setting ``the bar lower for schools with high concentrations of black students, English learners or poor kids.'' Isn't this exactly what people are trying to do in providing exemptions for English learners and poor kids in the exit exams for high school seniors?

Set the bar and let all kids work to achieve that standard. Anything less gives them yet another excuse for underachievement their entire lifetime.

-- Lynda Snider

West Hills

Attendance certificate

Re ``Injunction puts exit exam on hold'' (May 13):

If a 12th-grade high school student can't pass an eighth-grade math test then of what value is the high school graduation diploma? Give these students a certificate of attendance but they certainly don't deserve a diploma.

Perhaps someone needs to evaluate the criteria by which the high schools are awarding our nonperforming students a diploma.

-- Charles O. Hall

Woodland Hills

`Fudged' crime stats

Re ```Fudged' crime stats hide domestic abuse'' (May 9):

The Daily News' article completely missed the boat: that the LAPD had historically and intentionally over-reported crime statistics to the Department of Justice for the sole purpose of obtaining funds for domestic- violence programs.

Chief William Bratton halted this practice in order to accurately report crime statistics and he brought this to the attention of the public, the media and the Police Commission on several occasions. If council members Bernard Parks and Janice Hahn believe that the ends justified the means, then they need to have their personal integrity examined as it appears to be deeply flawed.

-- Maria Acosta

Lake Los Angeles 

Herded cattle

Re ``Crosswalk countdown on way'' (May 12):

California has an excellent law tradition to give pedestrians the right of way. If a pedestrian crosses at an intersection without a traffic light, no matter how long it takes to cross, there is no crime and no ticket. Now the city Department of Transportation has announced that if a pedestrian cannot cross the street at a speed of 4 feet per second, then they cannot legally cross the street. How many people with walkers or canes will be stranded because of this ridiculous edict?

Moreover, the Department of Transportation wants to spend untold millions at 4,300 intersections to install ``countdown'' signs. This won't change anything other than making pedestrians feel like herded cattle.

-- Carl Olson

Woodland Hills

What's the big deal?

Re ``The NSA has your number'' (May 12):

Wait a minute. ATT has my number. So has the IRS and the DMV. AOL has my number. My bank has my number. So has every Web site where I have ever bought anything. The L.A. library has my number. In fact, the Daily News has my number. What's the big deal?

-- Gary Brandner

Northridge

Off the hook

Those of us who are old enough to remember ``crank and hope'' phones and ``party lines'' are not concerned about someone listening to our phone calls as we know that someone always has their phone ``off the hook.''

-- Raiford L. Langford

Sherman Oaks

Spending required?

Re ``Local money wasting away'' (May 14):

Neighborhood councils may not be working as well as some would like, but they do give some of us who would like to give back to our community an opportunity to get involved and in some way contribute. Besides, the direct involvement of the people in the running of their community is in the spirit of a true democracy. So, most efficient or not, ``we the people'' are starting to embrace the neighborhood council concept, and I am sure its effectiveness will improve with time.

However, some political stalwarts believe that unless each neighborhood council is not spending its entire allotted budget of $50,000 each year then it is ineffective. Only a politician could equate program effectiveness with spending of an entire allotted budget.

-- Norbert Soski

Granada Hills

What qualifications?

Re ``Injunction puts exit exam on hold'' (May 13):

I agree with Superior Court Judge Robert Freedman's reason for the injunction. High school exit exams required of all students should be based on equal opportunity to prepare for the exams.

However, there is a paradox in the argument for his decision. If ``a student who is otherwise fully qualified to graduate'' cannot pass an eighth-grade math exam and a ninth-grade English exam, how did the student qualify to graduate from the 12th grade?

-- Jim Papke

Aviation maintenance technology instructor

North Valley Occupational Center-Aviation Center

Battling text messages

Re ``Schools go to war over Peas'' (May 12):

Don't text messages cost money to send? At 10 cents a message, the students at San Fernando High spent $670,000 to see the band. For that much money, they could have probably hired them to come and play at the school. Or, perhaps found something more worthwhile to do with all that money, time and energy?

-- Jan Brown 

Panorama City

A free ride

Re ``Mexico flags Bush border plan as `militarization''' (May 15):

When will we stop catering to Vicente Fox? It seems that we should have a give-and-take relationship with Fox, not a give-give only. What we do to protect our borders is and must remain a prime concern of the United States of America.

Now the talk is that the National Guard will assist on the border and Fox is unhappy. Poor baby. We should do whatever needs to be done to preserve our borders. I feel sorry for our Guards who have been called up for Iraq and Afghanistan, now going to the border that Mexico fails to observe. I guess maybe we ought to just give all the world a free ride through our borders.

-- Ira Kaplan

Woodland Hill

Guard at the border

Re ``Mexico flags Bush border plan as `militarization''' (May 15):

A Bush administration spokesman said putting the National Guard on our Southern border ``is not militarizing the border.'' By that logic, John Dillinger did not rob banks; he illegally borrowed money.

-- Sandy Sand

West Hills

Cost us dearly

Re ``No President Jeb'' (Your Opinion, May 14):

Joel Gossman gets it wrong when he says that Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ``directed Eva Braun (Kathleen Harris) to disregard fairness in the 2000 election when `W' was appointed dictator.'' He didn't have to -- she was George Bush's campaign chairwoman for the state of Florida.

The same happened in Ohio in 2004 when that state's secretary of state ran the Bush campaign there and pulled some strings before and after election day that helped Bush survive another fraudulent election. We need a law that says that state election officials cannot be associated with campaigns and still oversee the election. The conflict of interest in the case of George Bush has cost us dearly.

-- David Holland

Northridge

He gives and he gives

OK, seniors, let's see if I can get this straight. During some of the most fragile years of your life, George Bush has the arrogance to give a deadline on your rightful Medicare benefits. Insulting but, nevertheless, perfectly consistent with his first four years. So I have to ask: Why didn't more of you give Bush a deadline of his own by voting for Kerry in 2004?

-- Joher Coleman

Beverly Hills