It is evident that teachers spend plenty of money out of their own pockets to ensure important lessons are taught effectively. These folks are not money-hungry individuals. If they were they would not be working in Kentucky, where the rate of pay ranks 37th in the nation.

Parents, we need to attract college students headed for the teaching profession to Kentucky, not encourage them to take their talent elsewhere. Gov. Ernie Fletcher's budget plan will do just that.

Mary Beth Wilson
Burlington

Ky. leaders must make bold changes

The one-day Kentucky teacher walkout is a polite reminder for Gov. Ernie Fletcher that he was elected Kentucky's chief executive officer to advance all of our interests in a thoughtful, responsible and creative manner. The governor should be able to detail some of his staff and get the Legislature working with him, Gov. Arnold Schwartzenegger-style, to make some bold moves in tough times to lower health insurance rates in a program that they created. Nudging and nibbling at the margins of problems is a safe, self-defeating, old-school approach.

Accusing teachers of hurting students by taking this one-day political action ignores our teachers' problem of surviving here while teaching our children. This is a time for leadership, creativity and hard work at the state level.

Alfred S. Dziczek
Covington

Pro-Bush bias shows in article

I hope the Enquirer got compensated by the Bush-Cheney campaign for "GOP hopes to show this is Bush country" (Sept. 24), because it crossed the line from legitimate news coverage to a political advertisement for their campaign.

George Bush might be the sitting president, but he is one of two political candidates running for office, and this is a campaign appearance, not a state visit. Both candidates have come to the Tristate many times, but I have never seen this kind of advance billing for John Kerry. The length of the article, the references on where to get tickets, and photos of campaign workers made me wonder if Bush's operatives wrote the article for you and helped with layout.

Regular Enquirer readers already know from your extremely biased editorial staff that your paper wants Bush to win this election, but it would be nice if the staff writers at least acted like they are covering the two campaigns with equal favor.

Jerry Baker
Evendale

Borgman reflects liberal mindset

Once again Jim Borgman blasts our president (Sept. 25). Does he ever credit President Bush for anything? The Homeland Security Act has proven more times than we know that it is effective against known or would-be terrorists. The latest on Cat Stevens shows how the system is working and alerting us. The liberal mindset is still at Sept.10. Let's be proactive instead of ignoring our dangers.

Mike Stewart
Erlanger

Pledge bill defies Constitution

Perhaps not surprisingly, there has been virtually no coverage of the Pledge Protection Act of 2004 in local news. Basically, the bill declares that "under God" is going to remain in the Pledge of Allegiance and dictating that the Supreme Court cannot hear any cases that would determine whether it is "constitutional" for it to remain in the pledge.

Determining the constitutionality of legislation (and the pledge) is the primary purpose of the Supreme Court. Congress is literally trying to change the Constitution by dictating whether the Supreme Court can determine the constitutionality of legislation. This is the most despicable end-run around the Constitution in the history of our government.

I really thought the Constitution was the basis for our country. Give the Republicans much longer in power, and I can kiss that goodbye, just like my sense of security under President Bush.

Ryan Cragun
Sycamore Township

Social Security is not a slush fund

In the article about Nick Clooney's suggestion to increase tax on Social Security ("Clooney, Davis jab on Social Security," Sept. 23), perhaps we should stop using Social Security as a slush fund for indiscriminate government spending. Then we would have a surplus.

Pat Andres
Fort Mitchell