Jailing teachers doesn’t help kids
A decade ago, my son had a poor teacher for fourth grade in Atlanta Public Schools. She wasn’t evil and she didn’t cheat, but she checked out early in the year and the kids knew it. I know one bad year did not ruin my son’s life, and I doubt that it ruined the lives of any of his classmates. One teacher does not make or break a student.
I understand the culture of a school is important and that systemic cheating throughout a school is demoralizing and most assuredly wrong. To sentence teachers who made bad choices under difficult circumstances to lengthy prison terms, as if they had dealt drugs in the hallways or physically assaulted their students, is wrong. It will also do nothing to help the children who were harmed. Our society has a love/hate relationship with teachers. We pay them less than many other developed countries, yet we expect them to counter the debilitating effects of bad homes, poor neighborhoods, low expectations and constantly changing curricula.
CAROLINE KNIGHT, ATLANTA
State health plan isn’t Obamacare
In “Obamacare isn’t really ‘affordable’” (Readers Write, April 13), the letter writer, a recipient of state contract-supported health insurance, complains his co-pays increased when the state dropped the United Health Insurance contract and substituted Blue Cross. How is this the product of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act? The decision to change insurers was made by the Georgia state administration and followed a $25,000 campaign donation from Wellpoint-Anthem Corp.
Although some benefits are required to be provided that were not previously required, this increased cost has been neutralized by the law’s requirement that insurance company overhead be reduced from 50 percent to 20 to 25 percent. If the writer received a clunker health insurance policy, he should look to the chief state administrator who changed providers and negotiated the benefits.
SAM NEWCOM, ATLANTA
Atlanta shouldn’t emulate Chicago
When most folks think of Chicago, they think of children being escorted to school by police or striking teachers. Indeed, 14 people were shot and wounded in Chicago on Sunday, the day “Our Future: Boom and or Bust” (News, April 12) appeared in the AJC. The article says there’s “rot in Atlanta’s economic foundation,” but more rot is in the financial foundations of Chicago and Illinois.
Chicago’s bonds have credit ratings just above junk bond levels; Illinois has the lowest credit rating of the 50 states. Recently, Moody’s Investor Services said Chicago and Illinois face a combination of large budget cuts and/or tax increases. In contrast, Atlanta has a high Aa2 Moody’s credit rating with a positive outlook; Georgia has the highest AAA credit rating. The article says Atlanta could become another “economic colossus” like Chicago. Let’s hope not!
ARNIE DILL, ATLANTA
