Education First

San Diego is not yet an urban center in crisis. Yet, as The Times notes in its editorial, “Time Is Now to Deal With Difficult Issues” (July 5), “through community complacency, (San Diego) could lose its charm and its specialness and become just one more American city wallowing in urban malaise.”

While The Times correctly points out that “the longer it takes us to make decisions, the higher the cost--financial and otherwise”--it fails to mention the key issue on which the city’s future will depend: the education of our children.

We recently published a report on the future of public education in the city as members of San Diego City Schools’ “Schools of the Future” Commission. Our report informs the public that if 37% of our students who enter ninth grade continue to drop out of school before graduation, this “could mean a loss to San Diego’s economy of $725 million in unrealized earnings and a loss in city tax revenues of $29 million over the lifetime of each graduating class.”

Many of the current generation of young people are resorting to drugs, alcohol, suicide and teen-age pregnancy because they see little hope or purpose for the future. We emphatically state that “San Diego’s public cannot afford to drop out of its public schools. Just as high school dropouts are destined to a future of low-wage jobs, social dependency and personal despair, a city which abandons its schools can only look forward to a future of decline, high welfare costs and social unrest.”

Our community is at a crossroads. We can decide to prepare now for a far larger and more complex city than today’s San Diego, or we can do nothing and push the responsibility for change onto our children and grandchildren, who will pay a much higher human and financial price for our inaction. The commission firmly believes that it is time for San Diego’s public and private sector leaders to join together in a new coalition that elevates our young people’s needs to the top of the city’s agenda.”

Instead of operating in isolation, these groups must cooperate to increase the education and employability levels of far greater numbers of young people. Already, top leadership in the city, the business community, the Navy, local universities, the schools and other community institutions are exploring the establishment of a youth support coalition.

We agree with The Times that it is “an appropriate time for collective soul-searching.” The time has come for all San Diegans to join together under the highest city leadership to deal responsibly with preparing San Diego’s youth--and community--for the future.

BOB FILNER

Chairman

and 16 members of the

Schools of the Future Commission