Dear Editor:
Re: The 'absurd' truth about teachers' pay, In My Opinion, by Mischa Popoff, The Record, March 30.
Perhaps when government workers are required to have a minimum of an advanced five-year degree to even have a job and become an accredited and licensed specialist in their field, it would be appropriate to compare teachers to government workers. You might also want to consider that after eight years, teachers are not only ineligible for a lifetime pension, they are ineligible for any pension. Your suggestion that after eight years, a teacher is entitled to a lifetime pension is blatantly false and intentionally misrepresenting the facts.
Finally, your comments that imply that good teachers are worth their salaries but most teachers are not worth their salaries does a gross injustice to the profession of teachers as it implies that most teachers are incompetent. Either you feel the profession you entrust to teach your children the social and academic skills they need in order to achieve their full potential as human beings and as positive prosperous members of society is worth the wages teachers earn or you feel they are not. You can't have it both ways. If you feel the profession needs to be more accountable, that is an entirely different issue that should not be muddled with the issue of salary.
As a journalist, I would think you more than most should be acutely aware of the dangers of lumping an entire profession together and branding them no better than their least effective and most offensive colleague.
Comparing apples to oranges and distorting reality doesn't help anyone, especially a reporter's integrity and credibility.
James V. Simpson, by email
