Readers’ letters

D-plus grade to California teacher training unfair

In the Dec. 27 article by Sharon Noguchi, “Teachers earn low- grade for training,” the National Council on Teacher Quality reported California received a D-plus grade. The NCTQ derives its data from paper or online documents. None involved interviews or discussions with people at the teacher prep institutions. NCTQ will even grade a program that doesn’t exist.

The NCTQ Advisory Board and Board of Directors are comprised of people who have been anti-public school and anti-professional teachers for years. NCTQ is not nonpartisan.

In 2001, Education Secretary Rod Paige, under President George W. Bush, gave NCTQ a $5 million grant to start a national teacher certification program. Paige created the American Board Certification of Teacher Excellence, which aligned itself with NCTQ. ABCTE is an online teacher preparation program where someone can become a teacher for $1,995.

The California Department of Education needs to provide accurate and meaningful data that can improve our schools. — CarolMyers, San Jose

Increased use of marijuana will bring more tragedies

Particularly given the horrific accident on I- 880 on Christmas Eve, I was shocked that The Mercury News would prove so irresponsible as to encourage people to use mar- ijuana with the front page headline “Line up for it — now legal” on Jan. 2. We lost a California Highway Patrol officer, a father of three whose partner also suffered injuries, because of an individual driving at least 80 mph on a freeway on-ramp while under the influence of both alcohol and marijuana. (His speed had topped 100.) Assuming increased use due to legalization, we will have no trouble anticipating what tragedies the misguided legalization of pot portends for our state, and The Mercury News has earned a share of the blame. — Jerry Jeska, San Jose

State taxes as donations are a give-away to the rich

As the Republican tax reform bill moved through Washington, our Democrat leaders — Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Kamala Harris, etc. — labeled the bill as a tax give-away to the rich that must be opposed. One of the provisions of that law limits deductions of state and local taxes to $10,000. That limit impacts high earners in hightax states — California, New York, New Jersey, etc.— increasing the tax liability of the wealthy.

To address this effective tax increase on the wealthy, Sacramento Democrats are considering legislating that Californians could send their “taxes” to the state as donations and avoid the $10,000 cap on deductions. The wealthy would get the full tax deduction on that donation.

So let me get this straight. We should oppose the Republican tax reform because it is a give-away to the wealthy, and we should support the Democrat tax donation plan because it is a give-away to the wealthy. OK, now I get it. — Mike Swiontek, San Jose

California exploits poverty of nations for cheap labor

Finally I understand the slavish devotion that Gov. Jerry Brown has toward illegal immigration, if Senate Pro Tem Kevin de Leon’s oped (Opinion, Jan. 3) is representative of those views: It’s merely to get cheap labor, exploiting the poverty of a neighboring peoples, so we can live our “lavish lifestyles.” But gosh, doesn’t that just help “the rich”?

If Nike exploits the poverty of a country to get cheap labor for its running shoes, apparently that’s wrong. If we do it here, it’s OK. That clears things up. In other words, it’s just more hypocrisy on parade. — Mike Smithwick, San Jose