LOCURTO AND THE LIVING WAGE

A footnote to Bruce Jackson’s excellent article on Byron Brown’s campaign to replace the Delaware District’s Mike LoCurto with Jessica Maglietto (“Targeting Delaware,” Artvoice v6n34): Why is the Brown administration targeting Mike LoCurto? In addition to his resilience against pressure to rubber-stamp the Fulton Street property deal and his history of working with Sam Hoyt, Councilmember LoCurto has held fast in the evenhanded application of Buffalo’s living wage ordinance. LoCurto fights for economic justice and is unswayed by relationships with specific employers or deals made in back rooms.

This untiring effort to improve Western New York by supporting all Western New Yorkers (and not only a wealthy handful) is just one more instance of LoCurto’s clearheaded commitment to the have-nots. He is a rare example of a politican whose voting record is consistent and principled. Working people of Buffalo are lucky to have LoCurto in their corner, and we’d be fools to let him go.

Sara Faherty

Buffalo

ON MERIT PAY FOR TEACHERS

Watching the Democratic candidates debate on TV the question of merit pay for teachers led me to re-examine my own thinking.

The first question is whether merit pay is really possible. Its proponents would have it based on improved student performance. But it may be difficult to measure such performance. When I used to string tennis rackets, the rackets gave me no grief. They didn’t throw things at me, they didn’t disrupt the class, they didn’t fail to do assignments, all of which behaviors I encountered from my students at least some of the time.

When I taught at South Park High School, I strung rackets before and after school at Ace Racket Shop. At the machine I zoned out, allowing the mindlessness of stringing to be a healing balm for any student misbehavior I had encountered in school.

Some teachers’ classes were better than mine were, some were worse. My point is that with such diversity among the students, it would be difficult to come up with a uniform tool to measure improved student performance.

The second question is how to set up a fair merit pay system for teachers. France has a merit pay system and when I was a Fulbright exchange teacher there from 1988 to 1989 I learned all I could about it. Teachers were observed, not by a local administrator, but by an inspector from the national office. Just as in the United States, there is a salary grid based on years of service and graduate education. If the teacher receives a favorable evaluation, she will be moved up one step. But once she reaches the top of the grid, she stops and will continue to be paid at the top step until retirement.

Most of the teachers I talked to had no complaint about the system, which may stem from the fact that they have no political power. There are three or four teachers’ unions, which few of the teachers join. One union declared a strike during the year I was there. Only a few teachers stayed home. The principal and I agreed that I should not participate in the strike and I got no grief from the teachers who participated.

A surprise for me was the fact that French teachers cannot hold a summer job. They are encouraged to write books and articles, but if I was a teacher in France and decided to string rackets during the summer, I would be docked the amount I had earned from my job.

One reason merit pay works in France is that it’s a national system, covering all teachers. But in the United States, with so many districts having to work out a fair merit pay system for all their teachers, I don’t think it would fly.

Ken Rummenie

East Aurora

DEAR ASK ANYONE:

CO-OP AVOCADOS RULE

My review of your advice to Walk-Away Renee (“Ask Anyone,” Artvoice v6n35):

Food Reviewer: Guercio’s produce is cheap and the store is fun. They have traditionally bought a lot of their produce from Haas, the consignment house at Bailey Clinton. Stinky, stinky. Guercio’s fruits and vegetables are a caveat emptor deal, and you know that.

Gadget Guy: “way more indie” and “all the vendors there are local” can’t change the fact that we don’t grow avocados here at 43 N. latitude.

Gay Perspective: Umm, right again.

Ruthless: Your honesty is the best policy.

Love,

Cranky Reader

Roy Cunningham

Buffalo

I enjoy buying and eating avocados from the Lexington Co-op.

Steve Taylor

Buffalo