School Officials Upset by Takasugi’s Letter

It wasn’t a huge flap on the political Richter scale.

But it was enough to bring half a dozen of Ventura County’s school superintendents out to the Marie Callender’s restaurant in Camarillo on Friday for a breakfast face-off with Assemblyman Nao Takasugi (R-Oxnard).

At issue was a letter printed on Takasugi’s 37th District letterhead that was sent last month to about 200 county households.

The “Dear Taxpayer” missive claims that California children are suffering from an inferior education due to “overcrowded classrooms, bloated administration budgets . . . [and] experimental teaching practices.”

Calling public schools a “failed educational system,” it urges readers to call Takasugi’s office and indicate whether they support a series of education reform measures that are before the Legislature.

“There’s no question this is garbage in and garbage out,” said Donald Hodes, superintendent of the Ocean View School District and one of several top educators who requested a meeting with Takasugi after reading the letter. “It is a misconception of what education has tried to do over the years.”

Takasugi aide Mark Dodd said the assemblyman, who represents residents from Oxnard to Thousand Oaks, did not mean to imply that schools in Ventura County are troubled. The letter was intended to point out problems that are occurring generally throughout the state, Dodd said.

“There are some [education] trends in the state that a lot of Californians are not happy with, such as the way money is being spent,” Dodd said. “But we think the districts in our area have been doing a good job with that.”

Takasugi is considering sending out another letter to reassure Ventura County educators that he supports them, Dodd said.

County Superintendent of Schools Charles Weis said he organized the meeting after several superintendents approached him with their concerns about the letter.

Besides Weis and Hodes, other district superintendents in attendance included Thomas Duffy of Moorpark Unified, Jerry Gross of Conejo Valley Unified and Oxnard Elementary’s Bernard Korenstein.

“Takasugi said it didn’t accurately reflect his feelings and it does not have his signature on it,” Weis said. “And he said that he would generate a new letter that would accurately reflect his feelings about schools in the district. I consider the issue closed.”