Readers Write for Tuesday, June 30

How can Minnesotans allow more than 2,500 of our children to be the experimental subjects of teachers who have not been licensed with our high standards of teacher quality while they learn how to teach? That is what will happen when 80 Teach for America "teachers" enter Minnesota classrooms next school year.

Do the corporate leaders who are supporting this effort realize that their investment will evaporate after the two-year commitment of the TFAers? Do school districts realize that the resources they spend bringing these "teachers" up to speed in their local curricula and community culture will likely walk away with the teacher after two years, speeding up the revolving door of teachers in and out of our schools?

How can we read in the pages of this paper one week that more than 100 experienced teachers in St. Paul schools have been laid off, and the following week read that 80 teaching positions will be given to "green," unlicensed teachers imported from out of state? Teach for America makes no moral, educational, or economic sense for Minnesota.

MISTY SATO, ST. PAUL

Binge drinking is a problem at the University of Minnesota? The cost of an undergrad degree is now almost $100,000. With President Bob Bruininks' "let's make a deal" pricing adding uncertainty, who can plan when you don't know how much you'll pay?

No wonder students need an occasional bender to try to forget about how they're going to pay for this.

JIM REA, EDEN PRAIRIE

Surely he knows that another successful explorer, Roald Amundsen, was able to successfully navigate the Northwest Passage in 1905. Maybe we shouldn't assume the polar region should have ice covering it based on data seriously collected only since the early '70s. I am left to conclude that he and all the other global warming alarmists are fools.

CHUCK CHARNSTROM, WATERTOWN

Most elected officials respect the democratic process and appreciate the wisdom of compromise. Gov. Tim Pawlenty is not one of them.

The governor did not negotiate in good faith during this legislative session. He refused to consider budgeting options that included both cutting expenses and increasing revenue. He vetoed a tax bill, creating a budget gap, and then refused to call a special legislative session, the time-tested process for forging compromise. Instead, Pawlenty imperiously used his unallotment power to slash the budget and then deferred spending and shifted taxes, budgeting gimmicks that have brought California to the brink of bankruptcy.

Minnesota has a history of good government and deserves better than this. Perhaps a bipartisan commission of highly regarded Minnesotans should study the imbalance of power between the Legislature and the governor's office and recommend changes. A governor who does not value the democratic process is free to put his personal political ambition before the interests of our state.

The June 24 letter "A stronger voice needed from the White House" says that President Obama doesn't see the correlation between the freedom fighters of Hungary, Poland, the Soviet Union and China.

It doesn't point out that America did nothing while the freedom fighters of Hungary (1956) and China (1988) were crushed and that America does nothing to oppose the Chinese occupation of Tibet (Soviet and Polish freedom fighters prevailed without American intervention).

There's also no mention that America and Great Britain overthrew the only democratic government Iran had and replaced it with a dictatorship (1953). America only became interested in democracy in Iran when the dictator we liked was replaced with a dictator we didn't like (1979).

Finally, why should Americans believe any stories coming out of Iran without independent confirmation? The same media got it wrong about Saddam's involvement in 9/11, his ties with Al-Qaida and his "weapons of mass destruction."