‘Running Short of Good Teachers’

Hayden seems to think that increased government involvement in education is the answer to the problem of the declining ranks of teachers. I had always considered teaching as a career choice, so when I received my bachelor of science degree in physics I looked into becoming a high school physics/math instructor. Due to previous experiences, I knew I could be an effective teacher.

However, I was not about to spend another year in school taking useless education classes, ridiculous tests (CBEST, National Teacher Examination), and student teaching workshops, when I could be earning an engineer’s salary. I did go so far as to take the CBEST, however, and easily passed. Even though I feel that I may have enjoyed teaching more than engineering, I was repulsed by the red tape created by bureaucrats and politicians like Hayden.

As time has gone by, problems in education have been answered with increased government regulation. And, yet the problems have only multiplied. For once, why don’t we decrease government control?

BRIAN K. HARTMAN

Whittier