Prop. 38 on School Vouchers

* I agree with your Oct. 15 editorial, “Vouchers Don’t Add Up.” Some folks, Republican or independent, sincerely see vouchers as a way to improve public schools or to give financially strapped parents a way out of the public schools they feel are not helping their children. As a Republican and an ex-public school teacher, I think they are wrong. Your editorial explained most of the negatives very well, but my strongest negative is the very divisive nature of private schools versus public schools. Since the beginning of our country, the best institutions for fostering togetherness of our varied races and ethnicities have been our public schools. A voucher system could undo the many years of good the public schools have done for the country.

Our public schools have not failed. Too many families since the cultural revolution of the ‘60s have failed. Vouchers would certainly not help them. These families and their children are the ones to whom we should aim our efforts. All I hear or read from the candidates during this campaign is about how they will improve the schools. I know it’s politics, but it’s also a waste of their words and promises a terrible waste of resources. Save the family. Help it do its educational job better. That is where we need to put our money and efforts.

JAMES GOBBLE

Simi Valley

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Your editorial about Prop. 38, the school choice initiative, criticized it for being a difficult-to-change constitutional amendment. In fact, California is one of about 30 states that have so-called Blaine amendments to their constitutions, inspired by the anti-Catholic, failed presidential candidate by the same name. These clauses in state constitutions prohibit any state aid to private schools. California’s has been in the Constitution from the outset, placed there as a condition of acceptance into the Union. Thus, proponents of school choice initiatives in California have no choice but to frame them as constitutional amendments, like it or not.

ALAN BONSTEEL, President

California Parents for

Educational Choice, San Francisco