Teachers don’t expect riches, can’t live with cuts

To the editor:

Teaching is a very valuable profession. I began teaching for the Clark County School District in 1976 and look back over the years with gratitude. It is very rewarding to be able to work with children and share their sense of wonder in learning.

I never became a teacher to achieve financial riches, but I can guarantee you that I am a rich person for the years I've spent in the classroom. There has never been a penny paid to any teacher for overtime, yet when I left school at 5:30 p.m. recently, there were several other teachers' cars still in the parking lot.

But somehow, our governor just doesn't get it. I'm asking the community and the Legislature to stand up and say it loud and clear: We will not balance this budget on the backs of teachers by cutting their pay ("Gibbons to seek pay cuts," Friday Las Vegas Review-Journal).

Don't wait until teachers are forced to work elsewhere in order to take care of their own children. Now is the time to come together and stand up for education.

Lana Hess

MESQUITE

Misplaced paychecks

To the editor:

As an elementary school teacher, I'm usually pretty organized. But I must have misplaced a bunch of checks. If you are a teacher, you know the ones I'm talking about. Those big, fat checks we received when the economy was booming in Nevada a few short years ago.

I'm sure that when I find them, that money will more than offset the 6 percent pay cut it looks like I'm about to get.

Heather Simpkins

HENDERSON

It could be worse

To the editor:

Would someone please hand me a handkerchief? I feel so sorry for the Nevada state employees who are being asked to take a 6 percent cut in pay.

Meanwhile, my wife, who works as a hostess at a Strip property restaurant, has been told she will be going on a four-day shift. For those of you who are math-challenged, that's a 20 percent cut in pay. But she's more fortunate than the food servers, who will be going on five-day, six-hour shifts; a 25 percent reduction.

What makes state employees think that they should be immune to shouldering some of the pain during the financial meltdown? Just who works for whom? As one of their employers, I say be happy you still have a job.

Jerry Fink

LAS VEGAS