Want a quality teacher? Go for experience

To the editor:

In response to the Wednesday story, "Research questions teacher bonuses":

After spending 35 years in the classroom I learned a few things. First, there is no "silver bullet" in teaching. Second, there is no magic in teaching, only hard work. And teachers are not magicians. They are academic travel guides to a brighter future and role models for many students without one at home.

The fact that merit pay does not work in education was apparent to me even before it was first proposed. What I discovered is, there is absolutely no substitute for experience. The more experience, the better chance of an effective educator.

More than 75 percent of our teachers have fewer than 10 years in the classroom, and half or more of those have fewer than five years -- so we are looking at a very weak base of experience in this profession. Merit pay will never make a better teacher when the experience level is so low.

A teacher has to be able to very quickly adapt to a gamut of situations that can occur on a daily basis in his classroom. Exposure teaches you how to adapt. A teacher needs a minimum of 10 to 15 years exposure before he can effectively respond to the many challenges he will face.

There are far too many naysayers when we mention that teacher base pay is too low to keep qualified educators in our classrooms. Yet statistics prove that very point. The only way we can keep qualified teachers in our classrooms past this five- and 10-year plateau is to pay them from the very beginning a salary that will encourage them to battle through those difficult first years learning the skills to become effective educators.

Anything else is just another silver bullet.

Jim Hayes

Las Vegas

Few options

To the editor:

Pity the poor senior citizens. There are seniors out there in this nation who can't afford health insurance. If they pay for health insurance, they don't eat. So what option do they have?

Social Security doesn't give you enough to exist. We are not getting a raise, or a stimulus that we were promised.

I am a senior who worked my whole life. I was just informed that my monthly payment on my health insurance was increased by 79 percent. I am one of the few who can pay this increase.

If this is Barack Obama's health care reform, I think we as senior citizens should move to Africa. At least there we will get help from the people of the good old USA.

G. BAXTER

HENDERSON

Far left

To the editor:

There is an old adage that says you can't judge a book by its cover. This can be applied to politics.

Politicians such as Rep. Dina Titus want the cover to say "Moderate Democrat," but when you start turning the pages, it reads "Spend and Tax Liberal Democrat."

Since she took office, it is an irrefutable fact that Rep. Titus has voted with Speaker Nancy Pelosi 97 percent of the time to push a far-left agenda down our throats. For instance, Rep. Titus strongly supported and voted for ObamaCare.

The House version of ObamaCare is HR 3962. Rep. Titus did not read HR 3962, but she voted with Rep. Pelosi to pass it.

As a result of her actions, here are just a few of the facts of ObamaCare that Nevadans will be confronted with:

It slices $500 billion from Medicare; repeals the Medicare Advantage program; sets up a Medical Review Board (rationing); taxes wheelchairs, pacemakers, prosthetic limbs and much more; taxes one-third of your health plan at 40 percent (union members don't get taxed); uninsured Nevadans would be required to get insurance, costing an average of $6,000 for an individual and at least $10,000 for a family.

In addition, the IRS will be employed to enforce ObamaCare.

What Rep. Titus says and what she does are two different things, and because of her actions she must not be re-elected to the 3rd Congressional District. We need a representative who will repeal ObamaCare and look after the best interests of Nevadans. We need to elect Joe Heck to represent the 3rd Congressional District.

JOEL W. DE SARIO

HENDERSON

The writer is a volunteer for the Heck campaign.

Ticket trap

To the editor:

I recently had the opportunity to contribute to the Nevada general fund in the amount of $421. These contributions were in the form of three traffic citations that I received in two days while traveling through your state.

I know that all states are having a difficult time with their budgets and we should all do our part. I do have a suggestion, however.

It has been 10 years since I have received a traffic citation prior to these, so I don't consider myself a flagrant repeat offender. So if it wasn't for your very alert and creative officers, I may have left the state without contributing. There are probably several visitors who do each day.

My suggestion would be to make each state and interstate highway a toll road, and we could all pay at the toll booths and no one would be excluded. This would also make it easier for us to budget as we plan a vacation and determine which routes we travel.

ARDEN ANDERSON

SHELLEY, IDAHO