Letters: Playing politics with teachers' seniority

ISSUE | EDUCATION

Playing politics with teachers' seniority

The campaign by Republican legislators in Pennsylvania to have teacher effectiveness replace seniority in determining layoffs is eerily similar to their campaign to require voter identification ("GOP ties teacher bill to budget," Wednesday). Both efforts seemed aimed at groups that tend to vote Democratic.

It is also ironic that Republicans, who decry the size and reach of government, are, through this legislation, inserting themselves into the affairs and collective-bargaining relationships of hundreds of local school districts. The central problem for schools is that the state does not cover its share of school costs, either for kindergarten through 12th grade or state universities.

Gov. Wolf was elected based on his campaign pledge to fund education adequately and recognition of the need for additional taxes to make this and other long-overdue state improvements possible. The legislature has shown itself to be immune to the influence of Democratic lawmakers, protesting citizens, and others. The option remaining is for concerned citizens to vote these obstructionist lawmakers out of office.

|Gerald D. Klein, Elkins Park