LETTER: TEACHERS' PAY COMPARED TO NEWSPAPER COST

To the editor:

Your July 19 editorial, "Teaching salaries," reflects the attitude of this community toward teachers and education. In the same five-year intervals of time that teachers' salaries rose from $10,900 to $15,000, $19,400 and to the current $20,750, the newsstand prices of the Missourian rose from 20 cent to 30 cents, 35 cents and to the current 50 cents. If teachers' salaries had kept up with your prices, the salaries would have been $10,900, $16,350, 19075 and $27,250. Thus while the salaries in 1985 and 1990 were keeping up with everyday expenses, the most recent increase leaves salaries at 76 percent of what they should be, measured by the increase in your newsstand prices. Perhaps the next time your renewal notice arrives I should send you a check for only 76 percent of the requested amount with a note paraphrasing your words:

"The public realizes the importance of newspapers. A price increase will help the newspaper attract good writers. But newspapers must realize that their prices have come a long way in the last 15 years."

GIULIO VENEZIAN

Cape Girardeeau

Editor's note: This circular reasoning fails to note that teachers' salaries are paid by revenue from taxes over which taxpayers have little control. For example, public schools in Missouri currently are receiving funding from a $310 million tax increase sought by Gov. Mel Carnahan and approved by the Missouri General Assembly without a vote of the people. Whenever teachers (or any other public servants) receive pay increases, the customers have little recourse but to pay. Retailers, on the other hand, set their prices with a built-in risk: The customer can choose not to pay. The writer's reasoning links teachers' salaries to the newsstand price of the Southeast Missourian. Why not other retail items that have tripled or quadrupled in price over the past 15 years? This reasoning fails because school administrators and board members don't set salaries based on such arbitrary indices. School officials realistically consider the amount of available tax revenue that can be used for a particular purpose, and they set salaries (and other expenditures) accordingly. School districts have the option, in some cases, of asking voters for more taxing authority to increase spending. If left to voters, teachers' salaries would be subject to the same built-in risk as retailers' pricing: The customer could choose not to pay. If that were the case, the writer's arguments might carry more weight. The Southeast Missourian stands by its editorial: Teachers are important. The just-approved salary increases will help keep and attract good teachers. And, with a 90 percent increase in the past 15 years, teachers' salaries have come a long way.