Letters to the editor: Lanny Ebenstein’s attack on public pensions; L.A. Unified principals and teacher evaluations; reforming the NCAA

Better than a bribe

Re “Patt Morrison Asks: Lanny Ebenstein,” Opinion, Oct. 15

Lanny Ebenstein’s attack on public pensions is penny wise and pound foolish. Some public pensions are excessive and, worse, underfunded. Those should be renegotiated. But there is a good reason to provide decent pensions for public employees.

Public pensions were created to give public servants a larger stake in their jobs than any bribe could replace. Public servants are exposed to great temptations, and there are people who would pay to have a police officer avoid a certain place at a certain time. Others are willing to buy off a building inspector.

A good pension diminishes the temptation to take dirty money. The pensions also help to attract high-quality employees.

Public pensions are an easy target when private workers have lost their pensions. Still, they are the wrong target, and over time, getting rid of them will damage the quality of our public service.

Catherine Burke

San Gabriel

The writer is an associate professor emerita of public administration at USC.

Banning collective bargaining for public sector employees doesn’t go far enough. Courts have said that taxpayers cannot get out of paying outrageous pensions already promised to government workers, even if cities, states and counties declare bankruptcy.

The only workable solution would be to heavily tax those pensions. If public employees had to subsist on the same benefits as the rest of us, there would be more people interested in improving the benefits we all receive.

James Dawson

Woodland Hills

Ebenstein says that public employee benefits are unsustainable. The fact is that private sector salaries and benefits have been decreasing as companies moved jobs overseas, putting pressure on governments to do the same with salaries and benefits.

The right wing has escalated these attacks as it protects the rich, whose taxes have decreased.

Public employee benefits would be sustainable if taxes were raised on those who can afford to pay more. This would in turn put upward pressure on private sector salaries.

Domenico Maceri

San Luis Obispo

Putting too much weight on scores

Re “Principals to see teacher ratings,” Oct. 16

The Times quotes Education Secretary Arne Duncan as saying, “I think dropout rates matter. I think graduation rates matter.”

Teachers, administrators, parents and (most important) students agree. What does not matter to students, however, are their standardized test scores, which the Los Angeles Unified School District plans to report to principals as a measure of teacher effectiveness.

Students spend more than 10 hours each school year taking tests. Teachers and administrators pore over the results, compare notes and strategize to raise scores. But these scores do not affect class grades, graduation or any thing else that really matters to the students.

Until the scores matter to students, they should not be used to judge teacher effectiveness.

Gary Serbeniuk

Long Beach

I teach eighth-grade math. We math teachers face a dilemma: How do we cover all 28 eighth-grade math standards in the 81/2 months before we administer the tests in May?

Our ability to accomplish this task is connected to the amount of information the students retained from the 41 math standards that they were taught in

seventh grade.

This insistence on students and teachers being forced to cover so many standards — almost one a week — leads to frustration. When students are not given the opportunity to investigate math concepts in depth, many simply will not remember them. This system sets students up for failure.

Peter Koonce

Monrovia

Our costly sports addiction

Re “Boola boola vs. moola moola,” Editorial, Oct. 17

NCAA reform? The true social costs of our sick addiction to violent sports haven’t even been added up. How many serious injuries, permanent disabilities and even deaths are due to “sports”? Who doesn’t know someone who dreamed of a professional sports career and then hit the wall because of serious injuries?

The horror and shame our society covers up for the false dreams of glamour and commercial gain is the real story that needs to be investigated.

Call it the 99% rule of the losers. For every gladiator who makes it to the big time, how many are left with broken bodies and unfulfilled dreams?

Sure, pay the college athletes. But call it out for what it is — a Band-Aid for a severed artery.

Tom Tomeoni

Thousand Oaks

As a former college librarian, I can assure you that students working in the library are trying to offset tuition and do not have the full ride enjoyed by many athletes, not to mention the early registration and tutoring the athletes often receive.

Schools also provide athletes a TV showcase for those seeking professional contracts. And when their playing days are over, many have the degrees they earned.

I find it ironic that this editorial ran one day after a Times sports article said, “In the Pac-12, most athletic departments need cash from school coffers to make ends meet, sparking criticism in a time of shrinking budgets.”

Sandra Smith

Yorba Linda

Dodgers’ woes run deep

Re “A Dodger double header,” Editorial, Oct. 18

The Dodgers didn’t languish on the field, as the editorial says. Most teams lacked the slugging power of Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp and James Loney. Plus, pitcher Clayton Kershaw might even win the National League Cy Young award.

There were thousands of no-shows every game because fans no longer felt safe at Dodger Stadium. The Bryan Stow beating highlighted what everyone already knew: Drunken, abusive fans, combined with minimal security, made Dodger Stadium the wrong place to be.

Bob Munson

Newbury Park

Since Frank and Jamie McCourt reached a divorce settlement, perhaps now is the time for them to settle with the IRS and the California Franchise Tax Board.

How can people who make more than $100 million owe no income taxes? Not only have they nearly destroyed a cherished sports franchise, they don’t even contribute their fair share as citizens.

It is outrageous, insulting and symbolic. Perhaps next we can “Occupy Chavez Ravine.”

Victor Kenyon Brown

Pasadena

Call it detente

Re “Hamas feels ‘Arab Spring’ heat,” Oct. 18

Where are the outraged cries of “disproportionate response” from the international community when Israel gives 1,027 Palestinian prisoners for one kidnapped Israeli soldier? How is it that two sworn mortal enemies can come to an agreement when neither recognizes the other’s right to exist? All this while the politics of the Israeli and Palestinian governments are not even a bad joke. Is there a lesson here?

Maybe the goal with Israel and Palestine ought to be detente, not peace. It’s only semantic, and as long as the children are safe, the world is better off.

Bob Biederman

Irvine

Market watch

Re “Investors protest as well — by leaving,” Business, Oct. 15

Rather than imitate Europe and impose a financial transaction tax and worry about its effects, simply make it a requirement that stocks be held for a minimum of, say, five minutes.

This would not be enough to be of significance for the average investor, but it would stop the microsecond churning that appears to serve no purpose other than to encourage speculation and enrich a subset of investors at the expense and confidence of the overall market.

Darrel L. Miller

Santa Monica