Teacher shortage here has many causes

I was dismayed to read Hawaii State Teachers Association President Corey Rosenlee say, "We’re just trying to find bodies sometimes. It’s a non-competitive situation" ("Education at a crossroads," Star-Advertiser, Aug. 23).

If Rosenlee wants to increase teacher salaries, he may want to point out teacher successes rather than their warm-body status.

Furthermore, while salary is important, studies show school climate and teacher support also help to attract good teachers.

Nationally, many have commented that the fallout from Common Core, which has unwittingly eroded teacher professionalism and autonomy, is to blame for the current teacher shortage. In the midst of this latest teacher shortage, then, why are we spending money to run radio ads on Common Core?

Rosenlee’s comparison of public schools to Punahou, a comparison he has made elsewhere, is unfair and ludicrous. A Punahou education is paid for not only with tuition but also through donations and endowments.

Jacquelyn Chappel
Kaimuki

Scapegoating used by would-be tyrants

Vicious scapegoating and xenophobic vilification of "others."

Willingness to tear families and communities apart to "make this country great again."

Appealing to frustrated Americans’ most paranoid fantasies.

Inflammatory promotion of crude, cruel approaches to nuanced human issues, while excusing those who actually carry out violent acts as "passionate" patriots.

Harangues on imagined victimization ("they’re taking our jobs").

Specious promises of recompense, backed by no credible methodology.

Wild exaggerations and, where those don’t suffice, outright lies seasoned with half-truths to make the lies sound credible.

Flagrant demagoguery, deifying wealth and privilege, while simultaneously resorting to cheap bullying, intimidation and threats of retaliation.

Faked humility to mask shameless self-aggrandizement.

Promoting a cult mentality, idolizing the great and dominant man, who’ll bulldoze for us a road to in-group supremacy.

Sound eerily familiar? Students of history will quickly recognize these profiles as the kinds of patterns tyrants, and would-be tyrants, weave.

Don Hallock
Diamond Head

Ruling on NextEra deal should be an easy call

The NextEra deal is not good for the state of Hawaii, and indeed, not good for the world.

NextEra’s opposition to clean energy, especially solar (which is a great energy source in our state), should make this an easy "no go" decision for the state Public Utilities Commission.

Douglas G. Kreider

Kaneohe

Stores wasting cool air is much too common

I agree with Bob Ress’s statement about cool air being wasted ("Allowing cooled air to escape is big waste," Star-Advertiser, Letters, Aug. 15).

I walk in Waikiki and I notice all — I mean all — high-end retail stores with their doors open and their cool air on high going out into the street. I feel the air when I pass by on my bike or walk on the sidewalk. All wasting energy.

People in their parked cars with air conditioning or talking on the phone. People leave their condo’s central air on 24/7. They don’t realize we all pay for it.

Patrick Carvalho
McCully