Letter to the Editor: ECE parent community not unified in disapproval of Jayanti Tambe

We were dismayed to read your editorial “UCLA child care center must address parents’ calls for change”. Overall the Editorial contains inaccuracies, misrepresents the UCLA Early Care and Education parent community, is unnecessarily unfair to Jayanti Tambe and contains an ominous threat of removal for center directors and several teachers.

Our main rebuttal is the Editorial Board’s portrayal of an ECE parent community unified in their disapproval of Tambe. On this and other issues, the ECE parent community is not unified. Many of us are supportive of Tambe. Many of us do not seek a vendetta against some center directors and several teachers. Many of us do not detect an effort by the administration to push ECE problems “under the rug”. Rather, the delayed release of the task force report likely represents the intense efforts of teams of people working in several departments to investigate, report, consult and consolidate. These processes can be frustratingly slow.

The Editorial Board should consult a broader spectrum of the ECE parent community to obtain a more accurate and fair picture of our situation. Meanwhile, many of us – teachers, administrators and parents – will continue the daily work of sustaining and improving the ECE centers. We invite all interested to join a constructive, respectful and positive reform process. This type of process has a better chance of achieving a lasting outcome and can serve as a model for our children as they try to work through difficult, divisive times.

Signed by the following ECE parents: Jane Schmitz, Adam Richards, Lara Ray, Pedro Noguera, Allyson Pimentel, Nasrine Boroumand, Ali Salehi, Marcy Borlik, Catherine Massey, Matthew Freeby, Connie Lane, Patty Weng, Behnaz Naeim, Nooshin Habibi, Anne Wijeyaratne, Suren Wijeyaratne and Maie St. John.