December 27, 1999

Dear Editor:

I was deeply jealous when I discovered City notices regarding the potential expansion of Santa Monica’s permit parking program along the beach. Didn’t the City of Santa Monica violate state law by creating a permit district along Second Street in Ocean Park. These permits, in accordance to the values of the California Coastal Commission restrict coastal access. That is illegal.

So how were these areas created? It seems the council never discussed the matter with the California Coastal Commission at all. I am jealous. Draw a straight line from my front door, travel North less than one mile and there is permit parking! Santa Monica council saw fit to provide first for the residents of the coastal area, putting the community ahead of all others! And now, they want to take further steps to act as partners with the community to provide them with expanded opportunities to have access to their homes and neighborhood. I am so jealous!

Pity me, I live in councilperson Galanter’s district in Venice. We are denied parking privileges again and again. We circulate petitions, drive 20 miles downtown to attend meetings and of course as with all big city government and a councilwoman who is underwhelmed and indifferent, we are not notified of our date with the Coastal Commission. Our councilperson does not hold workshops to help us prepare us for such meetings. She wouldn’t dare see to it that we were granted access to our
neighborhood and our homes.

If Santa Monica illegally expands its program of limiting coastal access, my neighborhood will only become more congested with Santa Monica beach overflow. If the Coastal Commission grants Santa Monica permission for such programmes and I hope they do, they best prepare themselves to allow Venice the same rights. When Disneyland or even Yosemite reaches capacity they begin to limit the number of people allowed in. On the weekends my neighborhood turns into a very real public safety hazard. We are filled far beyond capacity, far beyond what is safe.

Perhaps the time has finally come for the development of a plan that is inclusive of the coastal area from Santa Monica to the end of the Marina Peninsula. One that makes this area safe and accessible to it’s residents and visitors.

Lisa Dannenbaum
Venice

January 3, 2000

Dear Editor,

This ( Top Local Stories) is a fine article. But calling Santa Monica Soviet Monica takes away from the quality of your writing. This is not an opinion piece, it's a distillation of events. When you insert an opinion word like "Soviet" in a piece like this, its as if you had spilled a bit of ketchup on the tablecloth. I wish you wouldn't do that. The article is quite powerful enough without it..

Ellen Brennan
Santa Monica

January 2, 2000

Dear Editor,

This is going around the internet.Take this with a teensy grain of salt, ye hard-core Democrats. It does sound like today's politics.

A new twist on the old tale:

The Ant And The Grasshopper

REPUBLICAN VERSION
-------------------------------
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building
his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper
thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food
or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

-----------------------------------------------
DEMOCRAT VERSION
-----------------------------------------------
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building
his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper
thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and
demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed
while others are cold and starving. CBS, NBC and ABC show up to
provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to video of the ant
in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can it be that, in a
country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Then a representative of the NAGB (The National Association of Green
Bugs) shows up on Nightline and charges the ant with green bias, and
makes the case that the grasshopper is the victim of 30 million years
of greenism. Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper,
and everybody cries when he sings "It's Not Easy Being Green."

Bill and Hillary Clinton make a special guest appearance on the CBS
Evening News to tell a concerned Dan Rather that they will do
everything they can for the grasshopper who has been denied the
prosperity he deserves by those who benefited unfairly during the
Reagan summers. Richard Gephardt exclaims in an interview with Peter
Jennings that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper,
and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his
"fair share."

Finally, the EEOC drafts the "Economic Equity and Anti-Greenism Act"
retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for
failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs. Having nothing
left to pay his retroactive taxes, the ant's home is confiscated by
the government.

Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a
defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a
panel of federal hearing officers that Bill appointed from a list
of single-parent welfare moms who can only hear cases on
Thursday's between 1:30 and 3PM. The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last
bits of the ant's food while the government house he's in, which
just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him
since he doesn't know how to maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow. And on the TV, which the
grasshopper bought by selling most of the ant's food, they are
showing Bill Clinton standing before a wildly applauding group
of Democrats announcing that a new era of "fairness" has dawned.

S.Forest King
Santa Monica

January 5, 2000

To the Editor,

As a mother of four young children, with two currently in Santa Monica schools, I feel very strongly that students and teachers should not bear the responsibility for the unfortunate management decisions made by the Santa Monica School Board.

The Santa Monicans for Renters Rights (SMRR) dominated school board made some terrible miscalculations and decisions, which now threaten to destroy school programs and the quality of education for our children.

It's about time for the SMRR dominated city council to step forward and commit funding to help our schools. After all, the city is flush with cash and this city council has been able to allocate millions of dollars to "beautify" Pico Blvd., and to buy property for affordable housing and homeless shelters. Now it's time for the city council to commit to our children's future.

Patricia Dawson
Santa Monica,

December 15, 1999

To board members and officials:

I have recently learned that the music program in the SMUSD is in the
process of being eliminated. As a professional musician and teacher I
can tell you all with certainty that music is a vital part of every
child's education. It is when they are young that children develop a
lifelong appreciation of music and become participants and audience
members as adults.

Please keep the fine music education program going strong as it has for
so many years. Thirty years ago, I had the honor and good fortune to
have had Vivian Spurgin as my music teacher when I was a student at
Lincoln JHS. She definitely had a large influence on my career choice.
Please allow teacher like her to enrich the lives of our children.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Susan Rosenstein

December 20, 1999

Dear Editor,

My wife and I, as well as all of our neighborhood friends who have
school-age or pre-school children are dismayed at the Board's haste to
target a program that is one of Santa Monica's greatest attractions. We
all moved to this city for what it has to offer, including a very good
music program. We believe our children should have every opportunity to
develop their talents, whatever they may be. Why is it that arts
programs are considered expendable at a time in history when so much
scientific data has proven the correlation between studying the arts,
particularly music, and being proficient and creative in all endeavors?
We can't afford to compromise on the future creativity of our citizens.
It will take innovation, not rote memorization to sustain oneself in our
perpetually changing world.

If the Board continues to take the easy way out, we will end up with a
school district that draws less families to the community. It will be
very sad to see Santa Monica charge ahead with real estate and business
development to build a tax base strictly on commerce. Clearly there are
more creative ways of balancing a budget, including fund-raising. Reach
out to the community. You may be surprised by the creative ideas that
come from the citizens who actually have a vested interest in the
success of our education programs.

Sincerely,
Colin Maduzia
Citizen, taxpayer, father

December 31, 1999

To whomever it is of interest to:

As a father of two kids that attend Santa Monica schools, I believe the music program in Santa Monica is one of the most important programs we have. This is how Santa Monica recognizes the essential need for art education in the formation of the people that will lead our future. Above all the sciences it is the need for Culture what is common to all progressive civilizations.

The product and benefits we draw from this type of education surpasses 1000 times the meager monetary investment. My wife and I spent all our resources as new comer immigrants in giving our children music lessons that ultimately proved to be an amazing investment. Please consider iincreasing the spending in art programs of all kinds.

Joel Blank, AIA
Santa Monica

December 15, 1999

Dear Editor,

First, I shall deliver a small lecture. There is a solid body of research proving conclusively that music training significantly improves academic performance. This is not the usual fluffy stuff that passes as educational research. It is conclusive findings by respected neurologists and physicists. Anyone who does not believe the results is sticking their head, containing what little brains they have, into the sand. Furthermore, the research proves that music training provides the greatest benefit to at-risk and disadvantaged children. These are code words for children who are not from middle- or upper-income families. So what the school board is doing is cutting basic educational training that enhances academic development and harming children, especially the children from poorer families. This seems like a very odd thing for intelligent people to do.

I have in my hands the testimony of Norman M. Weinberger, Ph.D., the Executive Director of the International Foundation For Music Research, and June. M. Hinckley, President of the National Association For Music Education. This testimony was given last July before the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth, and Families of the House Education and the Workforce Committee. You can read the testimony by going to: http://www.house.gov/ed_workforce/hearings/106th/ecyf/esea71599/hinckley.htm
and
http://www.house.gov/ed_workforce/hearings/106th/ecyf/esea71599/weinberger.htm
One is 4 pages long and the other 5 pages long and they both are fine reading for anyone who cares about improving academic achievement. Here are some quotes:

"Two major advances in brain science have major implications for the importance of music in education: brain organization and the effects of experience on the brain."

Following a listing of 8 major components of the human brain/mind, "Which of these brain systems and processes are heavily used in music, whether in singing or in playing a musical instrument? The answer is that music engages all of these components. Thus, from reading a musical score to playing the notes and improving future performance
base on feedback, music involves all system, continually."

"Thus, it would seem that music performance provides a complete mind/brain
"workout". This workout should facilitate inter-communications between cells by strengthening synapses, thus improving brain function. This could explain increased creativity in general. I could also explain transfer effects from music to other academic subjects, because if brain circuits concerned with mathematical computation, for instance, are strengthened by music education, then they would be more effective during other tasks or situations requiring such mental activities."

"Children are born with all the nerve cells, or neurons, they will ever have. However, connections between neurons, called synapses, are sparse and unstable. Synaptic connections largely determine adult intelligence. During the first six years of life, the number of synapses increases dramatically, and synapses already in place are stabilized. This process occurs as a result of experience or learning. Those synapses that are not used are eliminated -- a 'use it or lose it' situation. Music training appears to develop the synaptic connections that are relevant to abstract thought."

"One group of children received piano keyboard lessons. Another group received computer training, and a third group received no special instruction. The children who received piano keyboard lesson scored significantly higher on spatial reasoning test than the other children who were matched in IQ and socio-economic status -- 34%
higher to be exact. Spatial-temporal reasoning involves higher brain functions that are needed to solve complex math and science problems. Thus, the finding pointed to a
direct link between music instruction and math and science aptitude."

In the public school setting, "She replicated her earlier study but used kindergarten students rather than preschooler and group piano instruction rather than private lessons. She found that students receiving keyboard instruction out scored those who received no formal music training by an astonishing 48% on spatial reasoning tests.
According to Dr. Rauscher, 'enhancements are still present following one year
after the lessons have terminated, although children who receive the lessons for two years score even higher."

"In Florida, we have found that students identified as potentially at-risk but who are active in music programs, are more on task in school, identify strongly with their schools, and indicate that participation in music programs was an important factor in their decision to stay in school. Administrators confirm this data."

"According to The College Board (Profiles of SAT and Achievement Test Takers), there is a direct correlation between improved SAT scores and the length of time spent studying the arts. [music]. Those children who studied the arts [music] for four or more years scored 60 points higher on verbal and 41 points higher on math portions of the SAT (for a combined total of 101 points) than students with no coursework or
experience in the arts [music].

"For many disadvantaged students, participation in music and arts programs helps break the cycle of failure they have so often encountered in life. While study after study demonstrates that participation by disadvantaged children in a well-developed, sequential music program can be extremely beneficial academically, socially, and emotionally, these are the very students who are most often denied this instruction.
Middle- and upper-income parents who have the resources are able to provide private
instruction for their children. But not all children have that luxury, and many are denied access to the benefits of education in music and the other arts if their schools do not provide it."

"One contributing factor in the decision to cut music and arts classes from the school curriculum is the ever-present quest to improve standardized test scores, particularly in reading and math. This has led many principals to choose more time for instruction in reading and math at the expense of the arts. This choice is an error rooted in lack of
awareness of the latest research and failure to appreciate the power of the arts to positively impact student self-esteem, self-worth, as well as student performance in other academic subjects."

"The research clearly shows that music instruction, taught by qualified teachers, produces measurable enhancements in the development of children's brains, resulting in significant education benefits."

"Research has shown that (1) children inherently have considerable musical competence, (2) children spontaneously engage in musical play and clearly
attend to and enjoy music, (3) children exhibit cognitive and academic benefits from music education, and (4) music performance is very likely to be a premier activity for facilitating brain function."

"Given the fact that the development of children's minds is perhaps the greatest resource of the United States, we ought to employ all appropriate and effective means to achieve this goal."

It's curmudgeon Neil again. I feel a strong urge to deliver a vitriolic sermon but I will refrain because this is bound to get into the hands of someone who will be insulted. I shall however point out that we are not talking about a lot of money here. It is a lot of money to us music parents who have been raising money and struggling for the past 20 years to keep quality music going in Santa Monica in spite of all the roadblocks tossed in front of us by past school boards and administrations, but it is really peanuts when you consider the millions of dollars that are spent each year by the district. It seems likely that not all of it is being spent wisely, but I could be wrong as I have no personal insight into the budget.

However, I offer a modest proposal. Get rid of a couple of administrators. The salary, fringe benefits, retirement funding, equipment and facilities used, for a single administrator probably exceeds $125,000 if all costs are honestly counted. As work expands to fill up the time available, I feel certain that the remaining staff should be able to handle a few more duties. If not, they should be candidates for even further reductions.

There is quite a clear choice here. Eliminate a couple, or more, staff positions and continue and even improve a music program that provides proven academic and social benefits, or keep staffing levels and steal the money from hundreds and thousands of present and future students and cause them permanent lifetime harm.

Neil Hofland
Santa Monica