Parents’ involvement in education is crucial

I am afraid that I must respectfully disagree with Larry Baumbach’s assertion that parents ought to refrain from interfering with what is taught in our schools (Letters, June 2).

Not only do parents and other taxpayers have the right to provide guidance and oversight to teachers, they have the duty and obligation to do so. They perform this vital function through their elected governing representatives — the district’s Board of Trustees.

Unfortunately, in past years, parents and citizens haven’t paid as much attention as they should to school board elections. For the most part, it’s been the labor organizations that bargain on behalf of teachers and staff that have focused on the outcomes of these contests. More recently, this situation appears to be changing, and we can hope that this new trend continues. These important elections are the place where differences in opinion over what our children should be taught can be illuminated and resolved.

Baumbach’s dentist analogy ignores the fact that if a customer doesn’t like the way a particular dentist operates, he is free to use the competing dentist a few blocks away. Parents of schoolchildren (unless very rich) have no such choice, as K-12 education is pretty much a government monopoly. And, if university schools of education were intellectually diverse rather than ideologically driven and monotonic in philosophy, maybe the community could continue to lay back. However, as things stand currently, vigorous involvement and oversight by parents — and citizens in general — will be essential.

— Carl R. Ochsner, Chico