My compliments to Liv Finne for a well-reasoned, impeccably documented Guest Opinion that states the obvious — that there is no correlation whatsoever between what we pay teachers and the quality of education we get for our money.

In fact, if there is any relationship at all between money and quality of education, I would argue it’s an inverse one.

On standardized tests, U.S. students are comparable to their peers in other countries in early grades, but as they get older their performance grows steadily worse — this despite the fact we spend more per student in this country than any other nation on earth.

Anyone over the age of 35 or 40 probably remembers when teachers weren’t even paid a living wage. And why should they have been, considering they only worked nine months out of the year?

And yet there were still great teachers out there who got into the profession because they sincerely loved to teach — unlike teachers today, many of whom are simply attracted to the idea of making upwards of $50,000 to work three-quarters of the year.

The entire education system is out of whack, and money isn’t what it will take to fix it.

J.M. STONE

Port Orchard