PUBLIC FORUM.More problems Re ``LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) to form panel to work with city'' (May 4): Take the seven members of the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. board and the City Council and put them together and what will you have? More problems. After teaching for LAUSD for 33 years and participating in Granada Hills Charter High School, I reached a momentous decision. The Board of Education, the City Council and the state government of California
I want all of these people to come to any school, settle into the role of teacher for one week, and see if they can survive. I doubt it. Run a school? I do not think so. - Stephanie Schwartz Canyon Country Where's our money? Re ``Need cited for $3.9 billion bond measure'' (May 4): Hey, Romer! Put your lips together and say ``BB.'' You may hope we voters have forgotten, but we most certainly have not. - Louise Clarke Stone Sunland Public pensions Re ``Serving the public? More like self-serving'' (Your Opinions, May 2): Public employees enjoy job security unlike anyone else and state employment is a coveted cov·et v. cov·et·ed, cov·et·ing, cov·ets v.tr. 1. To feel blameworthy desire for (that which is another's). See Synonyms at envy. 2. To wish for longingly. See Synonyms at desire. venture, while private companies fight to stay competitive with foreign companies. As a member of the private sector, I would love to have a guaranteed pension at the cost of taxpayers. I, like over 80 percent of workers in California, don't have guaranteed pensions; I invest my own money and make decisions on how it's spent. State pensions are out of control. How does the pension burden on taxpayers go from $160 million to $2.6 billion in five years? Although the governor's plan is flawed, the concept of individual accounts rather than a tax-guaranteed pension for new hires is worth considering. - Carlos Valdez Carlos Valdez (born in Cali, May 22, 1985 ) is a Colombian soccer player who plays for America de Cali. He played with the Colombian U-20 national team at the 2005 South American Youth Championship, which Colombia hosted and won. Northridge More classes Re ``Declining standards'' (Editorial, May 3): The only declining standard I see is the quality of this particular editorial. The main reason graduation rates are down is because the classes that are needed for an individual's main focus of study are limited and hard to get into. Compounding the problem, if you are not able to get into that class - that you have to have to graduate - is that it will not be offered again for several semesters. Why are there not more classes in students' main focus of study? Because the money is being diverted into ``liberal arts'' classes. That's the way it was 15 years ago. That's the way it is today. Gee, what kind of job can you get with a liberal arts liberal arts, term originally used to designate the arts or studies suited to freemen. It was applied in the Middle Ages to seven branches of learning, the trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and the quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. degree, anyway - writing bad editorials? - Bruce McDonald Northridge Smart cell Re ``Latest tools leave many dumbstruck'' (May 2): Just the other day, I walked past a woman in a public hallway yelling the numbers off of her credit card into a cell phone. Just as I thought. The phones are getting smarter. - Richard Mena Pacoima Trade-career schools Re ``Education changes have failed maddeningly'' (Their Opinions, May 1): I agree with her contention (Kathie Marshall) that our society does not focus on educating our children in a positive manner. This would help the situation: Insist that kids that do not want to learn be sent to a special school for disruptive kids and create trade/career schools at every high school. When most students graduate from high school, they need to be prepared for work. - Tim Stanley Rosemead Failed education Re ``Education changes have failed maddeningly'' (May 1): Kathie Marshall, with her 30-year educational experience, is certainly worthy of much gratitude. As we're preparing students for life after school, they definitely will not require subjects such as intermediate algebra, trigonometry trigonometry [Gr.,=measurement of triangles], a specialized area of geometry concerned with the properties of and relations among the parts of a triangle. Spherical trigonometry is concerned with the study of triangles on the surface of a sphere rather than in the , geometry and calculus - these subjects are useful for only a very very small percentage of college graduates (and not a valid basis for rating schools). As an aside, Marshall mentioned Bernard Shaw's comment: ``Those who can should, and those who can't should teach.'' Shaw meant that those who can't, have experienced the agony of academic struggles, and have developed the empathy so critical for reaching those on the lower end of the bell curve. - Fred Coble co·ble n. 1. Nautical A small flatbottom fishing boat with a lugsail on a raking mast. 2. Scots A kind of flatbottom rowboat. North Hills 101-405 relief Re ``101-405 relief is coming'' (April 5): Maybe just closing the Greenleaf Street on-ramp is a more effective way to ease congestion The condition of a network when there is not enough bandwidth to support the current traffic load. congestion - When the offered load of a data communication path exceeds the capacity. . The cost is minimal. - Roger Holmes Canoga Park Price of freedom Re ``Freeway shootings'' (Your Opinions, May 4): James F. Glass says the rate of freeway shootings would go down if we could shoot back. Here's an idea: Since shooting from a moving car is difficult, maybe we should all get flamethrowers or grenades. There'd be collateral damage collateral damage Surgery A popular term for any undesired but unavoidable co-morbidity associated with a therapy–eg, chemotherapy-induced CD to the BM and GI tract as a side effect of destroying tumor cells , but, hey, that's the price of freedom. Wrong. The truth, as anyone who has ever been shot at can attest to, is that you do not see the shooter. Imagine a guy on the 405 Freeway who thinks he's been shot at pulling out his Glock, which makes the soccer mom soccer mom n. An American mother living in the suburbs whose time is often spent transporting her children from one athletic activity or event to another. next to him pull out her .38 Special, which makes the trendy kid behind them pull out his ``niner,'' which makes the first guy shoot and hit the child in the soccer mom's car. Not possible? It's happening in every city in America. - Chuck Heinold West Hills Something missing I just received my vote-at-home kit for the upcoming election. The kit was missing one important item - a clothespin for the nose. Surely Los Angeles can do better. - Hubert C. Bachtel North Hills An opportunist op·por·tun·ist n. One who takes advantage of any opportunity to achieve an end, often with no regard for principles or consequences. op Re ``Villaraigosa for mayor'' (Editorial, May 1): Yes, James Hahn has been incompetent. He has broken promises. There is corruption under his watch. He has divided communities, ``putting his own petty political advantages ahead of the public interest.'' Yes, he has been ineffective. And yet I would still vote for him over Antonio Villaraigosa. You say ``L.A. needs a bold leader with the courage to confront the city's big problems.'' Yes, L.A. does desperately need that kind of leader. It isn't Hahn, the devil we know, and it very definitely is not Villaraigosa, the devil we don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. . Heaping him with optimistic accolades will not change the fact that the man is an opportunist and he couldn't care less about the people of L.A. - Millie Derose San Fernando Desperate attack If Gregory Peck was a card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), nonpartisan organization devoted to the preservation and extension of the basic rights set forth in the U.S. Constitution. , what's wrong with Villaraigosa having been one? Hahn hypocritically hyp·o·crit·i·cal adj. 1. Characterized by hypocrisy: hypocritical praise. 2. Being a hypocrite: a hypocritical rogue. engages in name-calling and innuendo innuendo n. from Latin innuere, "to nod toward." In law it means "an indirect hint." "Innuendo" is used in lawsuits for defamation (libel or slander), usually to show that the party suing was the person about whom the nasty statements were made or why the comments , channeling 1988 Republican attacks against Dukakis. The mayor has dubbed Villaraigosa a card-carrying member of the ACLU ACLU: see American Civil Liberties Union. , thereby evoking whatever dubious, false stereotypes Republicans and conservatives, who increasingly have become his support base, attribute to the ACLU. In a desperate attempt to cling to power, James Hahn has abandoned the Democratic and liberal legacy of his father and has now become more the son of Rush Limbaugh than the son of Kenny Hahn. - Nancy Karlin Mar Vista Too liberal It is an extremely sad state of affairs when the Daily News endorses a candidate who is considered too liberal for Los Angeles by another liberal (Jim Hahn). Did the Daily News forget that Antonio Villaraigosa opposed Valley secession as well? It seems like a personal vendetta vendetta (vĕndĕt`ə) [Ital.,=vengeance], feud between members of two kinship groups to avenge a wrong done to a relative. Although the term originated in Corsica, the custom has also been practiced in other parts of Italy, in other against Hahn to me. - Sam Chaidez Mission Hills |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion