How about this?
To the editor:
RE: Teachers worried over Race to the Top (Jan. 9, News-Gazette).
Let me see if I get this straight. The non-teachers from the feds on down are proposing using incentive pay, relying on greed, for teachers to raise test scores.
Isn’t that the same motivator that drove the likes of AIG, Citigroup, Enron and Bernie Madoff? Yep, that ought to end well.
Maybe a more effective alternative would be to offer the parents of poor-performing students a cut of the potential $8 million the county could get if their kid raises their scores. As a parent, you can bet I would shut off the video games for a slice of that pie.
David Douglass
St. Cloud

No ERA here yet?
To the editor:
Osceolans, tourists and new Florida residents go speechless on hearing that the Florida Legislature still has not ratified the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“Whaaat? My state of Michigan (or Wisconsin/ Hawaii/Texas, or any of the 35 states that ratified the ERA right off the bat) did that years ago. I had no idea Florida was so backward.”  
TIME magazine recently listed the reasons people are leaving Florida: jobs, housing and the Florida Legislature.
They aren’t the only ones.
Former U.S. Congress-
woman and new Florida resident Patricia Schroeder is “shocked” that Florida still has not ratified the Equal Rights Amendment.
After all, she had spent 24 years in Congress successfully leading the fights for women’s and family issues, and spearheading the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in her state of Colorado and in the U.S. Congress.
So appalled is the legendary Honorable Ms. Schroeder that she went before the Osceola County Legislative Delegation hearing recently to chide them about dithering on ERA ratification.  
Most of Florida’s 67 county legislative delegations have been hearing the same from their own constituents. Florida Senate’s Judiciary Committee has heard the ratification bill and passed it out twice, bipartisan.
Various House Speakers refused to hear the ERA for the past seven years.  Senators from both parties are asking, “What’s wrong with Florida that we can’t get this passed?”
ERA barely missed passing in the 1980s, lacking three required ratifications, including Florida’s. All nations since World War II have codified equal rights for both genders. Many were urged by our own government.
“Shame on us,” say a majority of Florida citizens and the Equal Rights Alliance with its 302,000 supporters, seven regional directors and nearly a third of the Florida Legislature.
 No same-sex or abortion strings attached, ERA simply reflects the fundamental, moral American value of equality for all regardless of gender.
ERA is win-win.
Who could be against equality for all Americans?
For details, visit www.RatifyERAflorida.net.
Sandy Oestreich
Founder and president
Equal Rights Alliance
St. Petersburg

Post office apologies
To the editor:
The Kissimmee Broadway Post Office at 402 Broadway would like to apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused you during Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
Postmaster Becky had an unfortunate accident that caused her to have emergency surgery and that closed the post office during some of our normally open hours.
We regret any problems that this may have caused and hope you will continue using the downtown post office for all your business needs.
We are now open normal hours, Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday’s hours are from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Randy J. Littlefield
Kissimmee