This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Senate President Wayne Niederhauser and House Speaker Greg Hughes have finally proven beyond any doubt that the time has come for them to give up the guise of public service and return full time to the business community from which they came.

In The Tribune (Sept. 15) it was reported that these two men want the State Board of Education to be filled with business people because educators disagree with them and are hard to work with.

Hey guys, democracy is best when opposing forces are allowed to express their points of view, and believe it or not, there are no people alive that know more about education than educators.

Or perhaps you will accept my thesis that educators should be put in charge of business regulation? And ice skaters should be umpires in baseball and construction crews should be directed by fashion designers.

Education is not and will never be a business! The responsibility of teachers is not to provide business with trained monkeys, it's to provide society with thoughtful, critically-thinking citizens. Stop dissing educators and start supporting good public education!

J.C. Smith

Salt Lake City