Lack of Clear Goal Is School Plan’s Problem

To the Editor:

Patrick Reilly lays the blame for the failure of the Annenberg School Plan solely at the feet of the inefficient public-school bureaucracy.

I must take strong issue with that explanation, which seems to come with a strong political agenda. Many of us in the education and philanthropic communities felt that the plan was doomed to failure for another reason that Mr. Reilly alludes to in his commentary.

The plan had no focus, no guidelines, and no clear idea of what goals and objectives were to be accomplished. It did, in fact, amount to throwing money at the problem.

It is a tragedy that such a large sum of money appears to have been wasted. If a clearly focused plan for school improvement had been developed in collaboration with educators and others with a stake in education, enormous benefit would have resulted.

Sanda Jo Spiegel

Board President

Whisman Elementary School District

Mountain View, Cal.