Prepaid Tuition

I should like to appeal the low grade given to California in your editorial (“Low Grade,” Oct. 8) criticizing Gov. George Deukmejian’s veto of the prepaid tuition bill.

The Chronicle of Higher Education (Oct 7) reports that “Prepaid tuition plans, which earlier this year appeared to be taking the country by storm, are running into increasing skepticism from state officials.” Marc Eisenson, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle (Oct. 5), offers a good reason for this growing skepticism: “ . . . Some of the highly touted prepaid plans are almost certain to pay less--while charging higher management costs--than virtually every other investment possibility open to middle-income parents.”

An individual investing his or her own money is free to be, in your terms, “a pioneer, venturing and gaining.” But the governor of California, I strongly submit, deserves an A for refusing to gamble with either the state’s money or that of California parents.

PETER G. MEHAS

Assistant to the Governor

for Education

Sacramento