Even one of Arizona’s best schools can’t keep teachers

I am writing to you about a dire situation that has fallen upon education within Arizona: the teacher shortage. Even my school, which is one of the best schools in the state, has not been safe from it.
The career of teaching becomes more and more undesirable even for the most passionate of educators. At my high school, teachers are made to teach for all six class periods this year. Before, they were given at least one class period for preparation and grading.
How is one supposed to work in these conditions without bringing their work life home? Some teachers may be passionate enough to do that, but many teachers cannot afford to.
Many of the greatest teachers I have met have left due to these new policies and for lack of pay and appreciation. While my school district is a little better than other districts when it comes to teacher pay, it is still not enough compensation for raising the next generation.
I fear that all the work that we have put toward improving our education system will come crashing down in a few years due to this shortage.
Cyrus Faisal, Chandler
Doesn’t a yellow light at an intersection mean slow down and prepare to stop? A yellow light means slow down, not speed up to get through the intersection!
We all have noticed the exponential increase in people running a red light, especially large trucks and fast sports cars, related to fewer traffic police officers able to enforce the law of not going into or through an intersection when the light is red.
The proposal of using red light cameras is a great start.
In Minnesota at many such intersections, there is a warning light located on the road at an appropriate distance before the intersection. It alerts the driver that the green will soon change to yellow and that at a legal speed you will not be able to enter the intersection before the light turns red.
These warning lights are often used when the legal speed on that road is 45 mph or greater. Such intersections are common in the Phoenix metro area, and the adoption of these warning lights would save lives and prevent many accidents.
Can we consider these as well? I urge our law enforcement officials to consider strongly these suggestions and to enforce them in every case.
Michael Sarr, Cave Creek
An Arizona Department of Child Safety caseworker was nearly killed in attack by the father of a child. There were no security personnel to help the caseworker due to cost cutting, according to the agency. The response of the agency to the incident is laughable:
“The Department is committed to keeping our staff safe as they carry out this essential work, and we are conducting a comprehensive review of this incident in an effort to prevent it from happening again.”
Please dispense with the meaningless and gratuitous scripted responses. It is quite clear that the agency is more committed to pinching pennies than preventing the risk to personnel working in a dangerous environment.
Warren Kotzmann, Gilbert
We had to go into Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix very early one morning. Often, people going to the hospital have a problem and feel stress.
Every person there, from check-in throughout, was so nice. Of course, there are a few minutes to wait, but everything was handled so nicely.
More letters:Phoenix’s pot smell is back again
Our thanks to the staff, doctors, nurses and even the coffee shop for their help and kindness.
John and Bobbie Bookhout, Tempe
It’s a bad idea for President-elect Donald Trump to be plucking Republican representatives out of the House to fill cabinet positions.
We have a very thin majority in the House. All it takes is for a weak Republican to become an independent or one from a blue state to die and be replaced by their Democrat governor.
Or, in the case of a special election, the local Republican Party runs a weak or corrupt candidate like George Santos who was later forced to resign.
It would be smart to leave the strong conservatives in the House to maintain a small conservative cushion. Tha’s especially true for positions like U.N. ambassador, which can be easily filled by a competent pro-America businessman.
Ray Jussila, Gilbert
Trump has vowed to kick out all illegal aliens living in the U.S.
My wife plays golf with a white friend from Canada who has lived here 15 years, owns a house and drives a Cadillac. She technically is an illegal alien.
Will she be targeted by Trump’s SS and deported, or will just brown and Black people be forced to leave? Should she be worried?
Jack Olive, Phoenix
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