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Show Parent feedback 'very important problems of Salt Lake public education, he believes. "I want more participation there's a credibility gap between the schools and the parents and children they serve." Perhaps biggest of these problems is that of money. With an emigration of students (and taxpayers) from the inner city to the surrounding suburbs, the schools are caught in a financial pinch. "I don't think that there's an easy solution," he confesses. "But before there is a solution, there has to be more input and feedback from the parents." Garcia sees his position primarily as facilitating that local imput. In addition to his half-completed half-completed walking tour, he wants the school board to rotate its meetings around the district, and he promises to meet with parents, teachers, administrators and students in each school two or three times a year to hear complaints and explain policy. The 26-year-old professor summarizes: sum-marizes: "We've got to equalize education no matter where it's at geographically. The west side parents feel unequal and that has to be an issue." "The priorities are to keep the schools as localized as possible and to keep the parents interested in-terested in those schools. Parents and the community at large must be involved in education," says Dr. Gene Garcia, associate professor of child psychology, now running for a seat on the Salt Lake City school board. Dr. Garcia, a Colorado native who obtained his bachelor's degree at the University in 1968, joined the faculty here last January. He has since been appointed to the State Course Committee, the body deciding .,4-l 1 h.ot.,',,,!,, fy t-V,a if- J i ( --'r' Dr. Gene Garcia, running for thi; city school board from a weBtside district, feels that the parents and community at large must be involved in-volved in the education of their children. textbooks and curriculum for the state's public schools, by Gov. Calvin L. Rampton. The district he's running from lies on the west side of Salt Lake City, "mostly lower socioeconomic level and some middle class areas in Rose Park." Garcia is conducting a walking tour of his precinct to boost his campaign and find out what the parents want with their children's education." "Inclusion of lower-income people into all facets of education, especially more involvement in-volvement of minority groups" is the best way to tackle the |