Schools Hit Hard by Cuts

Your article Aug. 20, “Crowding, Chaos Don’t Materialize as School Resumes,” claimed that overcrowding and chaos expected due to the budget cuts don’t exist.

I am a student at Van Nuys High School, currently enrolled in two overcrowded classes.

In one, the teacher was lucky enough to get chairs (not desks) for the five students without desks. The other class currently contains 48 students. The first day it was more than 1 1/2 times as many. If you don’t consider that overcrowding, what do you consider overcrowding?

Today, 13 students had to sit on the floor because of the shortage of desks and chairs.

The chaos that you claim doesn’t exist, does exist. Students have been programmed into classes that they have already taken, and program changes have been put off because of inadequate staffing to process the paperwork. Other students don’t even have programs, and at the end of the third day still don’t have a single class to go to.

With all this happening, there is no learning going on. Teachers don’t teach because in a few days, maybe half of the teachers will be gone. Students don’t learn because they know that they will be out of that class and into a different one in a few days.

The article was a gross misrepresentation.

SHANAN BROWN

Encino