In response to the BDN Jan. 27 education story, a rebuttal. Help wanted: Tax-padded salary with benefits galore for only nine months of indoor work teaching. We are sorry the salary/benefit compensation is not as high as a surgeon, however, be assured that the tax-paid salary/benefits is lofty compared to the mean average Maine scale of $8 an hour for real world specialties, with zero benefits.

All the years of acrimony in our educational system concludes that the answer is not more certification. Nor is the answer even more tax monies to be “equal” or “fair,” nor the solution more homework, nor doing the parents’ job.

The “endangered species” of teachers can be saved by recruiting from real world industry and commerce without the black-hole education certification and without tunnel vision teachers’ unions. Every other Band-Aid approach has been tried and symptoms of the disease treated to no remission. Let’s dare to cure the malignancy. Bill Capistran Stonington