I'd like to take this opportunity to respond to Jane Schleusner's letter to the editor in the Nov. 13 edition of the Tribune. The title of her letter is "ACGC kids should come first," while on the front page of the same paper, the headline on the lead article says, "Schools have turned their focus to teacher shortages instead of directing it towards the kids."
In my opinion, that's been a big part of the problem all along. I read somewhere that upwards of 80 percent of our tax dollars go towards paying teacher salaries. That reminds me of President Ronald Reagan's trickle-down theory of the 1980s.
If the figure of 80 percent is correct, that means 20 percent of our tax dollars has to be divided up among all the kids in our state. No wonder the schools are always crying for more money. In years past, we used to have a superintendent and a principal, along with a couple of secretaries. Nowadays it seems as though we need several different layers of people to do the same job.
In Schleusner's closing paragraph, she quotes CBS news anchor Katie Couric as having said, "We'd rather build stadiums than bridges." Schleusner took the liberty of adding schools to that list. In closing she asks this question, "Are you like drunks who would rather buy beer than necessities?" The obvious answer to her question is a resounding "no." Some of us also like shot of whiskey now and then. I'd also like to take the liberty of adding the Department of Education to the list.
Norm Baker
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Willmar
