Does child care belong in schools?

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I usually agree with Sylvia Weinstein's positions but I find I must take exception to her whole-hearted endorsement of the AFT's "solution" for better child-care services (April 1986 Socialist Action).

I, for one, abhor the authoritarian social structure of our schools while recognizing that it reflects society's demands for status-quố compli -ance the emphasis on docility and obedience, the respect for authority, the lack of freedoms for even the older students, the prohibitions against discussions or analysis of a controversial nature within the classrooms.

The few innovative teachers the schools of education inadvertently let slip through the net soon discover, once they begin teaching, that their The principal, of course, walks in fear of the over-paid superintendent who, in turn fears the axe of the school board. The board members are made up, for the most part, of the community's ruling elite-the doctors, lawyers, businessmen, and their wives. More and more, the right-wing yahoos are vying for their slice of the public school pie.

Changes in this cumbersome, antiquated educational giant will not come from the school hierarchy. The changes the right so shrilly advocate are even more antediluvian in nature and make the system more I agree there is a desperate need for child-care services that are safe and stimulating, but I question the assumption that working parents are best served by entrusting their babes to the public school system in its present arbitrary, stultifying and anti-democratic form.

Dorothy Hardin's criticisms of public education are correct. But what are the solutions? It is important not to let the government, which is responsible for the poor quality of education, off the hook.

It is common for teachers, parents, and administrators to blame one another for the ills of the school system. Few, however, go to the source The educational system is designed to prevent teachers from teaching and students from learning. The budget for education for working-class children, for example, has been cut to the bone, as have other human needs such as health and welfare. Most classroom sizes have been increased and teachers' aides have been cut. Teachers are now facing The government wants to blame the teachers or the parents for the rotten education the children are receiving. But to blame the teachers under these conditions is tantamount to giving a brain surgeon a pick ax for an operation and then blaming the surgeon for doing a messy job.

Actually what must be done is to increase funds for education by massive amounts. Early childhood education must be universal and free to all who want it, regardless of income. We should be lowering the class size to not more than 12 students per teacher with remedial classes The right-wing "yahoos" have a solution. They want to do away with public schools altogether and use a voucher system to fund private schools. "Let the free enterprise system handle it," they say. Their prescription would give us nothing but Kentucky Fried schools.

It is not a question of demolishing public education—or setting up private family day-care centers. Rather what is needed is a massive movement of parents, teachers—the entire working class and its allies—to fight to improve and transform our schools. It will require a movement like the one that won the eight-hour day or the right to form When we see the figures on the homeless, or people lined up for blocks for free meals, we don't advocate ending social services, old-age pensions, and unemployment benefits-even though these services are obviously not working. No, we must place our demands on the government and their bosses, the capitalist class. Take the billions that are spent on the military and fund public education! Human needs before Virtually every Central Amer -Dear editor, ican group, as well as the principal South African groups, together with dozens and dozens of other political groups, en -dorsed this demonstration.

Finally, let me take this occasion to wish every success to the upcoming demonstration in San Francisco on April 19.

James Lafferty, Executive Committee, own principal is rigidly obstructionist. Emergency National Council Against U.S. Intervention in Central America/The Caribbean Robin Hood?

Dear editor, The Geo. A. Hormel & Co. is authoritarian and less tolerant of diversity. no Robin Hood. They have become Robin Hood in reverse.

They take from the poor and give to themselves, the rich.

As Richard Knowlton, Hor -Dorothy Hardin, mel's chairman, told Business McMinnville, Ore. Week magazine, "If I get the concessions from the Hormel workers, it will give us $25 mil -lion more to play with."

For having such thoughts, Mr.

Knowlton pays himself a 62percent raise to $570,000, and this is guaranteed to him, no of the disease. matter what happens, till 1993.

They call this a "golden par -achute." Two percent of Knowl -ton's and other Hormel exec -utives' wages and retirement benefits would be enough to pay classroom sizes of 25 to 35 students. back what they've taken away from the workers.

Hormel Senior Vice President Charles Nyberg calls P-9 mem -bers bandits. We ask: "Who is I just cannot understand how the unions and their members can just sit back and not take any major action against the union-busting policies that the major corporations and our government have enforced. In my opinion, the major unions have grown lazy and fat off our dues.

I am a member of the National Association of Letter Carriers. Recently we allowed a new Post -master General to be appointed by our Board of Governors. Already policies such as paycuts have been referred to without so much as a rebuttle by our own It would seem to me that if our own major union does not do anything about this, it is time to start looking for stronger unity through other union affiliations and organizations that would help in the fight against these in -justices.

Bob Mitts, Cincinnati, Ohio Libya attack Dear editor, On April 14, the Libyan capital was hit by U.S. air strikes. One of the sites struck was Muammar Qaddafi's house, wounding his two sons-a brilliant and courageous military tactic!

Reagan disrupted prime-time television to explain that his decision to commit an overt act of war against a developing na -tion was based on the fact that a bomb had killed U.S. Sgt. Kenneth Ford at a nightclub in West Berlin. Reagan labeled this a "monstrous act of brutality."

Wait? Is this action being 'Color Purple' Dear editor, Once again on "The Color Purple." The title given by the editors to my review in the March issue, "Moving, but con -siderably flawed," did not accu -rately reflect the major thrust of the review.

Even though the film was not a totally accurate depiction of Alice Walker's book, it was highly interesting and had many progressive features. The article entitled "Controversy shades The Color Purple'' by Millie Gon -zalez (April Socialist Action) incorrectly interpreted what was clearly stated in my article.

I do not join the harsh critics of the African-American or fem -inist community. I am a supportive critic.

As an African-American wom -an, I fully appreciate Alice Walker's sensitivity and her por -trayal of the internal life of oppression faced by the Black community-especially Black women.

Walker deserves praise for her knowledge of the era and her mas -terful portrayal of the lives and experiences of her characters. All of them are caught in the trap of white domination-American and European style. The onus for their actions is not on them, but on the society that oppresses them.

The controversy surrounding this film and book is healthy. A dialogue of this kind in the African-American community is long overdue.

Zakiya Somburu, Oakland, Calif.