Bonuses for Stanford 9 Testing Are Outrageous

According to “School Improvement Brings Bonuses” (Oct. 10), the state of California will be giving out $100 million in cash bonuses to to teachers, principals and other school employees in the range of $5,000 to $25,000, based on improvement in Stanford 9 test scores.

Don’t say that they all deserve it for bringing up our kids’ test scores, because they don’t. First, they are all public employees, and they all knew what their pay would be when they signed on. Second, they all got a permanent and recurring bonus last year when the governor and Legislature cut the state income tax for teachers.

Let us not forget that teachers already have the bonus of not paying any Social Security taxes, and they have their own lucrative retirement system--the California State Teachers Retirement System--a state-run, $300-billion stock and real estate investment house for teachers.

Teachers are taking away from reading, writing and arithmetic to cram Stanford 9 testing stuff into our kids’ heads.

Andy Levinson

Thousand Oaks

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Why not reward parents and students with bonuses for test scores? One more time the emphasis is on the schools (read teachers) to provide the improvement in test scores, neglecting the fact that there is another very important component, the student and his or her parental support.

At targeted schools parents could earn points for attending parent conferences, monitoring homework and providing educational outings. Students could earn points by turning in homework, maintaining good grades and behavior and, of course, improving their test scores. These points could be turned into dollar rewards.

Too much paperwork, you say? With a budget of $100 million it seems quite possible. While I don’t begrudge the teachers their opportunity to have some extra money, families in the low-income brackets would probably be thrilled with far less than the $25,000 checks that will be issued to some teachers.

Marty Wilson

Retired Teacher, L.A.