School Salaries

Statistical analyses of teachers’ and administrators’ salaries (Metro, Nov. 27) may mislead by affirming the public’s already uneducated belief that teachers earn enough for their 10-month school year. A more enlightening article would deal with the challenges that Los Angeles teachers meet daily: children representing 30 or 40 different cultural-ethnic backgrounds, gang presence on school campuses, children who are chronically absent, children of over-burdened, uninvolved and/or disinterested parents, children who are homeless, children who are abused, children of substance-abusing parents, substance-abusing children, children who are suicidal, in addition to artificially low class-size “norms,” inadequate textbooks and materials, filthy hallways and classrooms, to name a few.

Perhaps a more educative article would have shown teachers’ concerns that cannot be reduced to salary figures, and that teachers’ idealism is a value which our school district, our state, and our nation should encourage, and reward.

NANCY FISHER

Sherman Oaks