I was very impressed that David Connerty-Marin, the new director of communications for the Maine Department of Education, read my guest column (Sun Journal, March 18). However, in his rebuttal (March 26) he is guilty of the very thing he is accusing me of – not reading thoroughly.

My saving estimate for the teachers was $25 million per year; Gov. John Baldacci’s $24 million was over a three-year period. Therefore, my savings over that same time frame would equal $75 million.

I am a taxpayer, too, and certainly want tax reform. So I ask, how is it that Connerty-Marin’s position is a newly created position by the governor, while, at the same time, the education budget is being cut statewide? If we are truly going to lose local control for the sake of tax reform, then officials in Augusta have to abide by their own promise to cut taxes and not create additional spending with the savings created elsewhere.

That will not equal tax reform, and I do not have to visit the state’s Web site to figure that one out.

Stacie Everett, Turner