"A mind is a terrible thing to waste," the long-standing slogan of the United Negro College Fund, should be in Tom Friedman's repertoire as he argues for a deep financial commitment to education as part of the Obama stimulus package. However well-meaning his guidance quoted below, and I can agree with most of it, eliminating federal income tax for all teachers is nonsense. Clearly we need incentives for good people to teach, but we also need incentives to rid the system of bad teachers. Pay for performance should be the norm, not pay for longevity and credits earned.
"...My wife teaches public school in Montgomery County, Md., where more and more teachers can’t afford to buy homes near the schools where they teach, and now have long, dirty commutes from distant suburbs. One of the smartest stimulus moves we could make would be to eliminate federal income taxes on all public schoolteachers so more talented people would choose these careers. I’d also double the salaries of all highly qualified math and science teachers, staple green cards to the diplomas of foreign students who graduate from any U.S. university in math or science — instead of subsidizing their educations and then sending them home — and offer full scholarships to needy students who want to go to a public university or community college for the next four years...."
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