Letter: Is education really so unimportant?

I’m writing in response to the May 22 “Our View,” headlined “State must do the right thing.”

You said voters voted down 1B, “rejecting a $9 billion payoff to public school teachers for their support of prop 1A.”

Frankly, that’s a lie. Teachers wouldn’t have received that money. Teachers are actually getting less money each year due to increases in health costs, and little to no yearly raises with budget cuts already in place, and, with 1B failing, the governor says he will cut an additional $5.1 billion. Teachers face classrooms which could rise to 40-plus kids in middle school through high school soon. California is near 50th place in pupil-teacher ratio, and per pupil spending in the United States.

Is education really so unimportant to Californians?

We will get what we pay for. Teachers are not getting rich. We do a difficult job which most people don’t want, and yet you insinuate that teachers are money grubbers. Get real.

Think about what education provides for the future. Be careful about making broad false statements which mislead the public. Our students deserve better than what they get from the state. Most of the readers had a public school education of quality, and quality is even better now, despite “NCLB.”

Those with poor educations spend more time in prisons  than those with good educations, and it costs far more to house prisoners than to educate people.  Just where are the state’s, and this newspaper’s, priorities?

Richard Rawlinson

Sixth-Grade teacher

Andros Kaparos School

Marysville