Battle Over School Funds

There are many voters opposed to Las Virgenes Unified School District’s parcel tax (Proposition K), but they will not be public about it. They feel a real threat to themselves or their children from school tax proponents--the Committee for “YES” on Quality Education, which includes most of the teachers, administrators, and parents working closely with the schools.

Whether the tax passes or fails, parents who go public with their opposition, whether through letters to the editor or asking questions at the proponents’ meetings, will be remembered as “against quality education” for a long time. Their children could become targets of wrath by administrators, teachers, or even classmates.

Is it any wonder that they remain silent?

The district, through the Parent Faculty Committees (PFC) at each school, has given full cooperation to the tax proponents, allowing them to speak and pass out literature to captive parents on school grounds, in school newspapers, and at all of the school functions. They have also given them access to the names and addresses of recent high school graduates as well as past alumni for targeted mailings.

Opponents of this tax--the Committee for Excellent Education, or CEE--have all felt this intimidation. CEE protects the right of members who wish to remain anonymous yet support our views.

DIANE VENABLE

Agoura Hills

Venable wrote as a member of CEE.