Out-of-area students needed

In complaining about "freeloaders" (Aug. 28), Glen Wilcox fails to understand what is needed to offer a comprehensive educational program in Oak Park schools.

A number of academic classes could not be offered at Oak Park High School, for example, unless there was sufficient enrollment to justify those classes. Physics could not be taught for only five students. Some foreign languages require at least 20 students in the classroom. Honors and advanced placement classes have minimum enrollments, below which the cost per student makes them prohibitive.

Similarly, programs at Medea Creek Middle School depend on having sufficient enrollment. At the elementary school level, reduced enrollment could easily result in split classes such as having kindergarten, first grade and second grade all together in the same classroom, to which many parents object.

With low enrollment in the early 1980s, Oak Park High School students had very limited choices for academic electives. For that reason, a number of Oak Park students sought to attend Agoura or Westlake High Schools, which would have further reduced enrollment and made it even more difficult to provide comprehensive programs. Eliminating outofdistrict students today would return our schools to that same situation. Instead, students living in Oak Park benefit from outofdistrict students.

Yes, we have a parcel tax that falls only on Oak Park properties. And yes, the tax for school bonds will fall only on Oak Park properties. However, the added enrollment from out-of-district students increases the allocation of state funds to Oak Park, easing the burden on fixed costs of operating our schools.

In addition, parents of outofdistrict students often respond generously when requested to make donations to the schools in lieu of paying the parcel tax. Many of their children are not freeloading at all. David E. Ross Oak Park