Opinion: Mailbag: Charting the charters

Since Mr. Taylor is an English teacher I will cut him some slack. He’s probably never read an introductory economics book and so doesn’t realize how bad monopolies are. How they lead to higher prices, and poorer service. In fact our school systems are a perfect example of this. California’s higher education systems are some of the best in the world. Competition between universities makes everyone perform better and helps to keep costs down. Our public education systems though, are some of the worst performing. Lack of competition has resulted in a in bloated bureaucracy and teachers union. Are there good people in our public schools still? Of course, but the system is working against them. The teachers union, and school bureaucrats fight any attempts at reform or change that would weaken their power. That’s why they hate charters, because they can’t control them. Luckily the people of California are waking up and demanding change. It’s not ok for hundreds of thousands of kids not to graduate, or learn. It’s not ok for schools to be unsafe. And it’s not ok for teachers unions, or school bureaucracy’s to stand in the way of students educations. Mathew AndresenLompoc CA

Mr. Taylor, I can appreciate your frustrations and I believe that most understand the difficulties of teaching but your assertion that California does not spend enough on students is an outright misrepresentation. In fact, if you include funding from the state of California for universities we in this state spend more per student than any other state in the union. I will never forget how a peer from Florida could not believe how cheap our junior college system was. Junior college in Florida is more costly than the UC system in California. If you want increased funding for k-12 then go to Sacramento and fight for it but please acknowledge what the taxpayers of this state do pay for all eduation. Higher education is a privilege and most states make the student/family pay for it. Ken Bartels