Roos’ Choice of Private School

Re “A Tough Private Choice for Public School Advocate,� Oct. 8:

LEARN President Mike Roos makes $200,000 a year and his wife is too busy starting a business to pick up their 5-year-old daughter as she waits up to one hour alone at school for a bus to take her to day care, where she will spend the next five hours? What is wrong with this picture? His solution is to switch the little girl to private school for a year and then back to public school so as to protect his public image.

If Roos wants to improve schools, he needs to realize that one of the largest problems is not with the school system itself but with the breakdown of the family. The fact that his job and his wife’s fledgling business are more important than the welfare of his young children is a sad example of one of the major ills of our society.

Mr. Roos, put your children first. Either you or your wife stay home with your children while they are young. You have the luxury of being able to afford it.

KATHLEEN UYEKAWA

Granada Hills

* Do public schools exist for children or do children exist for public schools? If the former, then neither the president nor any public school administrator is in any way blameworthy in sending a child to private school. Public schools are a resource to be used by parents according to their judgments about quality and/or convenience in educating their children.

There is no commandment stating: “Thou shalt enroll your children in public school,� for public school officials or anyone else. It is only if children exist for public schools, as implied by the above “commandment,� that such choices become a problem, where public schools become “public values� to which the best interests of children should be sacrificed.

JIM AUSTIN

Canoga Park