Out of room

Re “Some L.A. classrooms bursting at the seams,” Sept. 20

The situation is even worse than the public is led to believe because some districts compute so-called average class size by dividing the number of students on a campus by the number of credentialed instructors on the campus. Many of those credentialed personnel are not actually classroom teachers.

John Rossmann

Tustin

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Despite the state’s budget crisis, the educational bureaucrats still fail to recognize that more on-campus teachers are needed to help reduce class size. Until more out-of-touch administrators are willing to eliminate their high-paying positions that do not improve student learning, students will pay the price.

Ivan J. Simon

San Luis Obispo

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Certainly, the recession has hurt a lot of individuals and businesses, but still, there is so much money in this state -- couldn’t some of California’s wealthy, instead of buying a second or third or fourth home, “adopt” a public school? An investment in education is an investment in our future, and it benefits all of us. Also, as a middle-class person, I would be glad to pay more in taxes to support education and see that basic human needs are met.

Trudy Ring

Burbank

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One must not overlook the unfortunate demise of the Morgan-Hart law, the state statute that about 20 years ago gave school districts the opportunity to limit high school class size to 20 students in a given grade and subject area.

Ask any English teacher the cost of class-size increase and you’ll hear frustrating tales of ever-more essays to evaluate, more discipline to exert and fewer precious opportunities to discuss the individual differences that help determine a novice writer’s style.

The death of Morgan-Hart took place in the twinkling of an eye -- shot dead by budget cuts. No fuss. No major announcements. Sadly, what used to be classes of 20 now verge on 40 or higher.

Daniel D. Victor

Los Angeles

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My son is a junior in a magnet school. Initially, he was denied a spot in his required AP English because of overcrowding. Because so much pressure is placed on students to take the most challenging schedule available in order to be a contender for slots in top colleges, he and others are put at a disadvantage. This is what L.A. Unified has come to: Very good students who want to take challenging classes receive a sincere apology instead of their classes.

Ultimately, he was admitted to the class; a victory for us but a very difficult situation for the teacher who now has 41 kids in one class.

Crystal Griffin

Venice