It shouldn’t be easy to fire a teacher
USA TODAY’s editorial “Give teachers their due, but hold them accountable” is wrong. Teachers work very hard, helping kids every day. Few teachers are failures, and those who are tend to leave the profession. Termination of any teacher isn’t easy — and it shouldn’t be. That’s why legislatures, even before teachers were unionized, passed laws setting procedures for removals. Terminations are a regular occurrence and, when challenged, typically are upheld in arbitration or the courts. There’s little support for teachers who are less competent or effective in their work than other teachers. Nor have public schools failed. That’s part of a continuous attack by those who seek to weaken unions or make money off privatization.
Most teachers’ strikes aren’t mainly about salaries. The list of real grievances is long. Classes are too large, counseling services have been cut, too much time is spent on pointless testing, and public funds are diverted to forprofit schools.
Jack Burgess, retired teacher Chillicothe, Ohio
Among advanced countries, we rank fifth in per student spending for secondary education. It’s not our spending that is the problem. It’s how that funding is managed. Time to privatize education in this country so that the funds are properly used. Tom Ponmalayil
Teachers get pensions. Teachers get more time off than most people with a full-time job. They should be paid more, yes, but they need to recognize that their counterparts in the private industry don’t get the perks they do, and those perks have an actual cost. Donald Mey
Comparing teachers’ salaries with that of the private sector is like comparing apples and oranges. Who, in the private sector, gets a pension? Who, in the private sector, gets a two-month summer break and government holidays? Teachers in this country are spoiled.
Trent Whiteley
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