letters

It is easy and common to blame teachers' unions or "bad" teachers for what is wrong with schools.

Minneapolis has settled its teachers' contract by giving more power to principals to choose their staffs. Would that it were so easy!

What principals must do is to serve as real curriculum leaders in their schools. That does not necessarily mean closer evaluations of teachers. It means creating an atmosphere where learning can take place; it means backing teachers when they try to discipline students; it means being honest with parents when more parental support is needed. It means serving as a voice for the teachers with the school board, city leaders and the Legislature.

Critics of teachers' unions forget that contract guidelines which have been hard-won by teachers are not for the teachers' convenience; those guidelines attempted to create reasonable conditions for teaching -- a reasonable amount of time to prepare for various classes and correct homework, a reasonable number of assigned students and reasonable compensation for supervising after-school activities.

When budgets are tight as they are in Minneapolis, more and more is expected of teachers for only a small or no increase in compensation. Think about what a beginning teacher in Minneapolis will receive and (as an example) only a $250 tax credit for out-of-pocket classroom expenses (which are above $600 on the average). Consider that when you consider the number of decisions and responsibilities teachers encounter every day. Greater support from the wider community is urgently needed.

CORINNE ROBINSON, MINNEAPOLIS; RETIRED MINNEAPOLIS TEACHER

Small instant refunds are a bad idea whose time may have come. They should be rejected. We have sent jobs overseas and are in debt to China for the Iraq War.

We need investment in renewable energy resources, mass transit and education so to create new jobs with a future. We can use and export new technologies.

We don't need quick fixes that do not solve our long-term economic problems.

ROGER CLARKE, MINNEAPOLIS

Assuming there is in fact a spare $145 billion in cash lying around to return to American taxpayers, I've got to wonder why it was taken from us in the first place.

DAVID PETERSON, APPLE VALLEY

Great story on Kevin Kling (Star Tribune, Jan. 20). He's come a long way from the first film he and my son produced in Osseo High School, which they did as a class project.

Kevin starred as "Big K" -- a diminutive version of Jimmy Cagney, replete with oversized raincoat and wide-brim hat; a very terrifying gangster indeed. They even filmed a police chase and had an old car which they shot going over a precipice in the Osseo gravel pits as part of the action.

One of his stories, the infamous high school band trip to Milwaukee, also described his having to march behind "big Mike M." -- another of my boys.

Tell him I said hi.

GEORGE MAYERCHAK, LONG PRAIRIE, MINN.

I support the University of Minnesota's possible pilot program to offer monetary compensation for kidney donation. I have considered donating, and getting financial help to cover lost wages instead of taking vacation time would tip the scales even further. I am an upper-middle-class professional. Monetary assistance can be an incentive for many people, not just the poor.

PAULA DESANTO, ST. PAUL