Teacher retirement, Regents change, war, Cinema Arts Centre

Run the numbers on teacher retirement

I’m trying to comprehend the logic behind David Griffith’s essay, specifically where he implies that lowering the retirement age for teachers would have a ripple effect on school taxes and budgets [“Giving in to teachers unions, at a cost,” Opinion, Sept. 18].

True, lowering the retirement age would increase the number of pensions the New York State Retirement Teachers’ System pays, but has anyone actually calculated the offsets? As in other lines of work, most teachers maintain their enthusiasm, but as a former teacher, I witnessed a small group who kept teaching less enthusiastically, counting the years until they could retire.

Doesn’t it make fiscal sense to hire an eager, qualified young instructor, sometimes at perhaps half the salary of the outgoing educator?

— Thomas Olivieri, Smithtown

Exam-optional plan fails fairness test

I strongly disagree with what the New York State Board of Regents is doing [“New paths to graduation,” News, Sept. 15].

Beginning with the Class of 2028, students will no longer have to pass Regents exams to graduate from high school. The exams will be optional. According to Angelique Johnson-Dingle, a state Education Department deputy commissioner, “This transformation is about creating a graduation system that is . . . more equitable.”

I think the exact opposite will be true.

I predict that students at some schools, like Jericho, Syosset, Manhasset, Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech and Bronx Science, will continue to take the exams and receive “Advanced Designation” endorsement, while students at less noteworthy schools may choose not to take the exams because they don’t have to.

How is that “equitable”? I expect some lesson plans will be abridged to skip any more challenging material once the exams become optional.

We should all be concerned about this dumbing down of our education system. The article mentions the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. The title itself sounds like the participation trophies that many 5-year-olds get after soccer matches. The awards don’t prove ability or proficiency.

 — John Campanella, Albertson

Hard line on Putin, a nudge to Ukraine

Once again, we see something of a disconnect and a breakdown in our federal government [“House votes for more sanctions against Russia,” Nation & World, Sept. 17].

Congress passed new sanctions on Russia that would curtail its government’s income, part of which is being used to wage its 4 1⁄2-year-old war with Ukraine.

The House vote came just days after President Donald Trump urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop striking Russian President Vladimir Putin’s oil refineries, part of a sector that is a major source of Russia’s income.

Trump blamed those strikes for high diesel prices, though analysts say the Iran war and disrupted Strait of Hormuz shipping are the main cause.

Congress moved to shut off the cash spigot while Trump, who signed the sanctions bill Sept. 18, urged Ukraine to ease up. This is the state of our government today.

— Michael Genzale, Shoreham

The board’s action is what harmed CAC

As a longtime member of the Cinema Arts Centre, I was saddened to learn that Dylan Skolnick was fired as co-director [“Fired CAC director addresses claims,” News, Sept.  15].  

I sometimes attend two or three films a week there. Since learning of Skolnick’s situation, I have not attended a single film. That is distressing to me, because it is my happy place.

But I cannot, in good faith, patronize a business that is so callous as to oust a longtime co-director who, with his family, put so much into this establishment.

Skolnick’s parents founded the Cinema Arts Centre, and he and his family helped make it a leading independent film cinema on Long Island and beyond.

After hearing from Skolnick himself and former board members, I have concluded that the “serious misconduct” cited in the board’s letter to the public was the board’s own action, not Skolnick’s.

— Cathy Ribando, Huntington