Readers Write (April 16): The 2016 campaign, teacher-tenure lawsuit

I was visiting my dad at his house when he could not find the pants he laid out that morning. I started to think about what our presidential candidates would say in a debate if my dad asked them where his pants were:

Donald Trump: 'The illegal Mexicans took them."

Ted Cruz: 'The government took them."

Bernie Sanders: "The evil corporate billionaires and Wall Street took them. Either them or Hillary Clinton, for she is one of them."

John Kasich: "This is a really stupid question. Here, just take my pants."

Hillary Clinton: "Um … did you check in the laundry room?"

Trump later would make an inane joke about Bill Clinton and his pants. Cruz would ask who does the laundry at the Clinton house. Sanders would up the ante, offering my dad all his clothes and stating he would perform the rest of the debate in his underwear.

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I watched the Democratic debate on Thursday. After being bombarded by Hillary for 40 minutes with her statement (paraphrased) that Bernie is a problem-identifier and I am a problem-solver, I thought, my gosh, she is right.

Bernie identifies a problem, thinks of the perfect solution and hangs onto it like a dog on a bone. Hillary, on the other hand, gets a problem and immediately adopts a plan to effect it and starts to methodically run through it, trying to keep all options open. There is no difference in their philosophy, just their process.

I have always favored Hillary, so my motives are totally suspect. It might be helpful if people saw a clear statement of their differences rather than going through many issues to which it applies.

• • •

It's true that every child deserves an excellent teacher ("Suit assails teacher tenure law," April 14, and "Teacher case gets an early jolt," April 15). Yet, researchers have discovered that about 9 percent of variation in student achievement is due to teacher characteristics. About 60 percent is explainable by individual student characteristics, family characteristics and such variables. All school input combined (teacher quality, class variables, etc.) accounts for approximately 21 percent of student outcomes. That leaves some 79 percent outside of school control (see http://tinyurl.com/hy2aanu and http://tinyurl.com/7kn6jn6).

Claiming that teacher-tenure laws (which affect those of us who contribute to the 9 percent of the achievement factor) are the problem seems like a nonstarter, especially considering that a similar case was just tossed out in California.

• • •

Wisconsin already has in place the system that the teacher-tenure lawsuit would install in Minnesota. The question it seems to raise is: If you were a highly committed, exceptionally skilled teacher job candidate, in which state would you apply?

An April 15 letter writer, in his comments about state Rep. Phyllis Kahn, said that "[s]he is just a sad old gadfly without the dignity to pass the reins to a new generation of DFLers. Kahn is the past and Omar is the future."

Kahn's opponents for state representative are Mohamud Noor and Ilhan Omar. Omar says her "campaign is bringing people together to create a more prosperous and equitable Minnesota." In a letter, Noor states that his goals are to unite his community and to fight for equity and to become a powerful voice for equity and equality at the State Capitol." At the DFL convention, Noor said that his great desire is to become the first Somali man in the Minnesota Legislature.

Rather than burying the parochial and provincial front-page story about Minneapolis City Council members' national and foreign travel expenses ("Mpls. funded travel for council," April 11), the Star Tribune doubled down on the matter with an editorial ("Mpls. officials' trips suggest lack of focus," April 13). As the editorial points out, each council member has an annual ward budget of $10,490, which can include travel. Not one of the council members exceeded the allotted amount. Alondra Cano, who had the highest amount of travel expenses, fell $2,500 short of her ward budget.

As one who appreciates the immeasurable value of travel, I feel it's critical that our city leaders be exposed to urban solutions beyond our city limits. We either present our city as one that exists on the global stage or as a small, narrowly focused community in flyover country, but we can't have it both ways. The Star Tribune Editorial Board is clearly conflicted on this matter. In the final paragraph, the writer equivocates by stating that "city leaders may need to travel out of state or out of country to inform their decisionmaking." If that is indeed the case, and if council members are adhering to their budgets, then I would ask the Editorial Board: Other than for sensationalism's sake, what is the issue?

I enjoyed the April 12 article "Telling Minnesotans' stories, one photo at a time," about photographer Stephanie Glaros' blog "Humans of Minneapolis." For another fascinating look at Minnesotans through photos and brief stories, I suggest your readers look up Lisa Hoff's posts on Facebook at http://facebook.com/TCTrainspotting, or at TCTrainspotting on Instagram and Twitter. Hoff, a former Star Tribune letters editor, captures brief moments in the lives of transit passengers she encounters while riding on the trains and waiting on the platforms of our light-rail transit system.