Middle Schools

As a school board member, I read with great interest “The ‘Middle School Muddle’ ” (May 11). I was disappointed that former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa will be sending his son to a private middle school next year. Maybe if more of our lawmakers had children in our public schools, we would see education become a higher priority, with substantive rather than sound-bite solutions to the problems facing our schools. This gives the appearance of armchair quarterbacks attempting to solve the problems best understood by the local governing authority, administrators and parents.

In spite of popular opinion, public education is one of the greatest success stories of our day. No other institution works to educate all who enter regardless of circumstance.

MICHAEL D. BRINEY

El Segundo