Extracurricular Activities

The U.S. Naval Academy's new superintendent on Friday announced stricter rules for midshipmen, declaring that students at the military academy need to spend more time preparing for war and less time on distracting extracurricular activities. Students, who are returning to campus for Monday's start of the school year, will have reduced off-campus liberty hours, more mandatory study hours and more limited extracurricular activities, Vice Adm. Jeffrey L. Fowler told reporters.

In 2002, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger created a ballot initiative for after-school programs that he used as a springboard to the governor's office the next year. Now, that measure is about to become a drain on the state treasury -- and on schools. There's mounting pressure on the governor to delay his after-school program expansion -- or dump it entirely. Ultimately, if Schwarzenegger allowed it, that question would be put to California voters, who approved Proposition 49 by a 57% majority.

The new Antonio Banderas movie "Take the Lead," which opens Friday, is inspired by the story of Pierre Dulaine, an award-winning ballroom dancer who is the director of the Dancing Classrooms program in the New York City public schools. The program, which was profiled in the 2005 documentary "Mad Hot Ballroom," teaches dancing to underprivileged fifth-graders. But there are no adorable 10- and 11-year-olds learning the tango and Viennese waltz in "Take the Lead."

Re "Prop. 13 steals from our children," Current, Aug. 27 Karin Klein's tour through her checkbook for her back-to-school money woes was interesting, but laying the blame on Proposition 13 made me laugh. I attended middle and high school before Proposition 13, and we had to pay for most of the things she lists, including bus fare, a student body card (actually a sticker that went on your ID card) and extracurricular activities. I remember buying dictionaries, Spanish verb books, log tables and the like.

Re "Private schools are feeling the pinch," Nov. 10 Your article on how private schools in Los Angeles are responding to the financial downturn cites fundraising initiatives but does not mention any specific efforts to cut operating costs. Many private schools could tighten their budgets without compromising quality. Plans for expansion, remodeling and new technology could be postponed or scaled back. While some facilities and technology may no longer be state of the art, they are often still quite serviceable.

A recent study has found that half of the 26 agencies providing gang prevention services to middle-school students through the city's L.A. Bridges program are failing to meet performance standards, leading city officials to terminate the contract with one program and put six other ventures on probation. The L.A.

A legal group that two years ago forced a south Orange County school district to reverse its ban on Christian clubs now is challenging a similar policy at a Placentia high school. Students have been barred from starting a Bible club at El Dorado High. Placentia-Yorba Linda School District officials say that because they allow only curriculum-related groups, they need not add others.

State budget woes rippling through Orange County are causing cutbacks in after-school programs, a situation made worse by infighting at the YWCA. Thirty-two elementary and middle schools in 12 districts serving 3,000 children will not receive nearly $4.2 million that was to be the final annual installment from the state CalWorks program, which is money saved on welfare reforms.

Re "She's Almost Too Good to Be True, and to Prove It She's Going to Sue," by Hans Allhoff, Commentary, May 7: Unfortunately for Blair Hornstine, everything she has done is now colored by her unwillingness to share. To be the class valedictorian is an honor; however, it is no less an honor when shared with others. Maybe she should realize that this is the first step toward what she'll be facing at Harvard, where there will be hundreds of other students with her capabilities and accomplishments, even some with greater.

The Bush administration has joined with a national religious group in an attempt to force the Montgomery County, Md., school district to put recruitment fliers for an after-school Bible club in children's backpacks, school officials said. The U.S.