Dear Editor,  Regarding the Nov. 8 school board election ; why has there been so little discussion of why Beverly Hills parents have to spend so much money hiring tutors to teach their children? During a recent KBEV broadcast of a Q & A session with the school board candidates, one parent exclaimed she was “paying tutors up the wazoo!” From my own observations, a shockingly high number of BHUSD students have tutors, even in kindergarten. Why? From what I hear on the “parents grapevine,” it’s because our children are not being taught the necessary academic material or not taught it well enough, so concerned parents hire tutors. Besides being expensive for parents, this need for tutors indicates something is wrong with the district’s administration, teaching and curriculum. One way to uncover what is wrong is for a simple (and anonymous) survey to be sent to every BHUSD parent asking them about their use of tutors for their children. The survey will help inform school administrators about teaching quality and curriculum weaknesses. And it will clarify who is teaching our children and what. I further believe such a survey will reveal that the curriculum in B.H. schools is weak and often confusing. (Has the school board tried to understand the current third grade math curriculum?)  Too many Beverly Hills parents are falsely comforted by the district’s high end API scores. BHUSD’s 2010 average API score was 891 out of a possible 1,000. API scores, however, are not always an accurate gauge of a school’s quality. API scores don’t, for example, account for factors such as wealth. In wealthy areas like Beverly Hills, all parents speak English and so can communicate easily with teachers and can read their children’s school work.  Our parents are focused on education and have the time to help their children, such as supervising their homework. Most importantly, Beverly Hills parents can afford to hire tutors. Compare these circumstances to a less-wealthy immigrant area, where the parents don’t speak English, don’t understand the school system, are working two or three jobs so cannot help with their child’s homework and cannot afford to hire tutors.  If Beverly Hills parents were to stop hiring tutors or spending so many hours “supervising” their children’s homework, Beverly Hills schools’ API scores would collapse.  Now is the time for parents to learn why the use of tutors is so rife in the district. Until that happens, local parents will be paying dearly for tutors and our children won’t be receiving the education they deserve to get—at their school. Scott McConnell BHUSD Parent  Be sure to follow Beverly Hills Patch on  Twitter  and “Like” us on  Facebook . See the original post: Letter to the Editor: Demand for Tutors Reflects Poorly on City Schools