Letters to the editor

Inject Rationality Into Teacher Pay

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

Teachers with subject-matter expertise should be paid in part based on the subject matter they teach. Math and science experts, for instance, command greater pay in the private sector than art or literature experts. As a result, luring a good-quality math or science expert into public education necessarily requires a little more pay than some other fields. Paying the same for all subjects results either in low quality here or overpaid employees there.

Mind you, all parts of our curriculum are important. But school buildings are themselves important, and yet we never intentionally pay more or less than the market price for building materials. We never pay extra for cinder blocks just to be fair to cinder block makers, or to signal the importance of cinder blocks to our buildings or society.

Our hard-working teaching staff should be rewarded for working in our "hardest" schools. Because rougher, troubled schools are a more challenging work environment, those schools may be avoided by the best teachers. Paying more in troubled schools will tend to equalize education quality. Teachers should be paid more to teach older students for the same reason.

But older teachers are another matter. Independent research has found that teacher performance does not continue to improve with seniority beyond about five years. But Richmond, like most systems, pays its most senior teachers lavishly: 55 percent more than a fifth-year teacher, for no measured improvement in instruction. To fund this useless seniority bonus we necessarily reduce starting salaries. Low starting salaries reduce the quality of applicants and discourage non-career teachers from contributing their talents for brief stints.

Let's do change.

Tim S. Fite. Richmond.

Republicans Mess Up, Democrats Clean Up

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

A few months ago

The Times-Dispatch published a graph showing all recessions since the Great Depression. All except the shortest occurred while a Republican was president, with that short one occurring during Jimmy Carter's term. The conservatives have been howling about what a horrible president Carter was for the past 30 years, and even try to blame him for today's troubles. As usual, it's the same old story -- a Republican president gets us in the mess and a Democrat gets us out.

Paul V. Jaszewski. Midlothian.

The Fed Is Looking Out For the Bankers, Not Us

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

Enough! Let's end the confusion and get on the road to the recovery of the American Dream.

Here's the key: The Federal Reserve Board (the Fed) is no more federal than Federal Express. That's right. It's not a governmental agency, it's a private company with shareholders -- and its shareholders are the banks. Perhaps that's why the Fed told Congress that the world economy would suffer a meltdown unless, with no time for deliberation, Congress gave $700 billion of taxpayer money (TARP) to the Fed's owners, the banks.

Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson agreed with the TARP plan. Paulson? Before becoming secretary, he chaired a bank where he made hundreds of millions of dollars. While there, he lobbied for banks to leverage up to ridiculous levels, which largely contributed to today's despairing crisis.

Every private corporation is charged with acting in the best interests of its shareholders. The Fed's shareholders are banks. Isn't this a clear conflict of interests?

Congress and the Treasury Department are complicit. Do you believe they gave AIG $180 billion of taxpayer money without realizing there might be undeserved bonuses and full (not lesser, negotiated) payments to banks owed money by AIG?

Before another taxpayer dollar is "lent" to banks, President Obama, who was given a mandate to stop business as usual, should require full disclosure by each bailout candidate regarding the amount and quality of each asset and liability of size, then allocate losses among banks, investors, and (though we don't deserve it) taxpayers -- and renew the promise of America.

We taxpayers are angry at being fleeced by the banks and their company, the Fed, with Congress and Treasury consenting. The mystery of the bailouts is not that mysterious at all.

Jeffrey R. Goodstein. Richmond.