This is response to Peter Geiger’s letter to the editor, printed April 10, that was about  Rep. Brian Bolduc’s proposed legislation, LD 817, “An Act Concerning Teacher Salaries.”
I was dismayed by Geiger’s comments on the legislation. Bolduc’s bill is a clear and very well-aimed attempt to protect the workplace rights it has taken generations of teachers to achieve.
Geiger’s assertion that the current teacher salary schedule is archaic and demotivating to teachers is the view of a businessman whose employees have never been unionized.
The idea that student achievement and teacher performance is quantifiable dehumanizes both the student and teacher into android status, and that is the reason labor unions exist to begin with.
How fortunate we are that teachers are public employees and schools are not run like private companies where the owners can readily dispatch an employee who has dedicated years of work to the company.
Is there an epidemic of bad teachers in Maine that need to be removed from the classroom? Apparently Geiger thinks there is.
Self-proclaimed chairmen of such organizations as Coalitions for Excellence in Education spouting theoretical nonsense isn’t needed.
What is needed are thoughtful public servants such as Rep. Bolduc, who have chosen to become professionally certified and have dedicated their lives to being a classroom teacher.
Geiger has lots of money that he has generously donated to public schools. What he lacks is the professional expertise and the experience it takes to be a life-long classroom teacher.
Ronald Flannery, Farmington

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