Some Teachers Need 2nd Job

* Re “Teachers Authorize Strike; Talks Continue,” Sept. 29: As a third-year teacher with LAUSD, my immediate reaction to UTLA’s dismissal of Supt. Roy Romer’s latest offer was, hey, what’s wrong with that? It is 10.8% to 15.8% this year and 3% in each of the next two years.

But then I thought about one of my co-workers: A young man who has been teaching for several years and motivates students to learn as much as any teacher I know, yet must work an extra teaching job four nights a week to help support his wife and two young children. Oh yeah, one of his children attends an LAUSD elementary school and was recently deemed eligible, based on her father’s minimal income, to receive assistance in the state’s lunch program. Then I remembered how much more we teachers have to fight for.

BRADLEY GREER

Los Angeles

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What’s the deal with the school teachers voting to authorize a strike? They were offered a raise of 20% over three years. It seems the union decided to ask for 18% the first year to bring them up to par with some other school districts in a hurry. What’s wrong with 20% over three years? That’s a huge raise, in my estimation.

I am a substitute teacher. I’ll take the district’s offer. I spent 36 years in the private-sector computer industry as a programmer-analyst. I remember in recent years often getting raises of 1% or 2%, tops, and being happy to get them, and I’m a family man.

A few years back, teachers got a big raise and then had to give it back when hard times hit the district. Also, what’s so great about going on strike?

Union solidarity may sound like a good thing, but that’s no reason to support outrageous demands. Let the union negotiate while the schools stay open.

CHUCK COLTON

Van Nuys