Letters Teachers deserve more Thanks to former President Ronald Reagan, we are enjoying unprecedented prosperity in America, but some sectors of our society are being left out.
School teachers are one of our most important professionals and among the least compensated.
The problem is our antiquated local tax system that relies mainly on real estate taxes to support a fast growing school system. We still have the same real estate base that we had when we had a few thousand children in our public schools, and most of the improvements to real estate have been low-cost homes that do not pay their own way. To make matters worse, the federal government gives very expensive mandates with very little money to support them. We must find a way to get some of those surplus dollars from Washington back to the localities to support our school system. Last year our board of supervisors gave our school teachers a raise, only to have the school board take some of it away in increased health insurance premiums.