By Mark Harding Santa Monica
Editor: Bill Bauer may need a reminder that it is indeed the Santa Monica-Malibu UNI- FIED School District. (See article Nov. 22, Daily Press) Superintendent John Deasy and school board president Julia Brownley deserve applause for their efforts in keeping our public schools public. We have significant gaps in educational achievement in our district, which closely parallel the income levels in the families of our students. We need to focus our efforts on the education of ALL of our students.
I would encourage the PTSAs to work collaboratively to raise funds for the district in order to restore programs at all of our schools. We should aspire to teach our children more than just reading, writing and arithmetic. Parents should try to set an example by addressing more than their own individual narrow concerns at their own school by looking at how we can improve a difficult situation for all of our students throughout the district. When we don’t provide equal opportunity for students of varying economic and racial backgrounds, our entire community suffers as a result.
Separate and unequal should not be encouraged in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 25, 2002. Read the original PDF.