What do you make of Greg Stratton outting the SVUSD on state standards? Why is Greg speaking out, particularly in an election year, when the filing date is today?

What do you make of the SVUSD not following state standards (that Grey Davis AND Pete Wilson agree upon?)... Is SVUSD shortchanging kids?

And why is Greg alone in his comments? If you were running for the school board in the fall, how much of this would be an issue for you?

Greg's second editorial is below -

District ignores the state standards
By Greg Stratton
July 17, 2006

Re: letters to the editor in response to my June 22 commentary, "School district fails its students":

I confess. I am a scientist — bachelor's in physics from UCLA. Forty years in the technology business — my navigation units have guided NASA space probes — so I believe that science is important.

But I also understand that other teachers may think their field is important, too, and want to teach it to as many students as possible, just as the three middle-school teachers obviously do. They have every right to argue that their class is more important than science — or math or English or history. But this isn't about their beliefs or even mine. It's about the kids and what's best for them.

The Simi Valley Unified School District apparently bucked the educational tide and decided that only a semester of eighth-grade science was required. I guess it had forgotten the lesson of Sputnik and didn't believe that science was the key to our future. The "win-win" agreement was a loser for the kids.

But others in the state did think science was important. In 1998, the state Board of Education issued a comprehensive set of science standards that require a full year of science class to learn. We have ignored those standards and not changed our requirements, as most other districts have. Now, they are going to test our students to the standards. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to predict how our students will do. If we told parents that their students were going to be tested based on standards for a full year of science, we'd see far more yearlong science students.

Yes, the kids' choices will be impacted. I suspect that they wouldn't all take history, math and English if they were given that choice either. Our educational system is designed to prepare our children for the life ahead of them. So maybe science isn't as much fun as some of the electives, but it is very necessary and now required. This change is not a matter of "if" but a matter of "when." While we lament over these new standards and stall their implementation, more kids are not getting the education that the state says is mandatory.

That's a shame.

When I was first elected, I wondered why the state has such an intense oversight and distrust of school districts. I've learned that it's because districts don't always do what is right for the kids. This is just another example of the state making a district do what is right. We should have been doing the right thing in the first place.

— Greg Stratton is a trustee on the Simi Valley Unified School District.

Copyright 2006, Ventura County Star. All Rights Reserved.