Teacher salaries a larger problem
The recent salary impasse between the Collier School Board and the Teachers’ Union reflects a much larger problem for public school districts throughout Florida. Despite the fact that Florida is one of the wealthiest states in America, the average teacher salary in Florida is 50th in the nation (for comparison, neighboring Georia’s average salary is $14,861 higher, according the data from the NEA).
In Collier County’s “A” rated district, the school board would probably love to pay more, especially with the high cost of living in Collier County. Several school board members have publicly sought accommodations for teachers and staff members. The real problem lies with the state government and a voucher program that gives almost $5 billion annually to private schools without an ounce of accountability. Even several state senators have recognized that this is not a level playing field, but the Legislature refuses to act. With this voucher program, the Legislature has created an “unconstitutional” dual education system.
The voucher system began innocently enough: grants to special needs students and low-income students in poorly performing schools. Currently, there is no income test, transferring the program into “welfare for the wealthy.” Last year, more than 70% of new vouchers went to students already enrolled in private schools. Schools that are not accountable, schools that can and do discriminate, schools that do not have to offer I.D.E.A. or A.D.A. programs or English Language Learners programs and schools (80%) that focus on a specific religion. I, for one, do not believe that my tax dollars should be providing religious instruction.
It is time to take a stand and provide greater support to our public schools and our wonderful teachers. Re-establish the income test for vouchers and roll back the give-away. Take the newly found dollars and provide Florida’s public schools with the funds they need and pay Florida’s teachers with the competitive salaries they deserve. Finally, find candidates for office statewide who will support public education and our teachers. Your vote matters.
Bill Korson, Naples
Protesting works
I am proud to announce that all Publix stores will have signs posted at all the front doors discouraging people from open carrying firearms in their stores. This is a slight change in policy, but it is a good policy decision by Publix headquarters.
On October 15th, 2025, shortly after Publix decided to do what no other grocery store in the area did, which was to say they were just following Florida’s new open carry laws. Every business can choose whether to allow open carry or not. Publix decided to allow it. I protested inside and outside a Publix in Cape Coral as part of my civic duty. I strapped a toy AR15 with a sign saying “Peaceful Protest” to my back and a toy Glock pistol on a holster on my chest that said toy gun and I walked inside the Publix store in accordance with Publix policy. I also sat in my folding chair at the corner of Chiquita and Cape Coral Pkwy holding my sign that said, “BAN PUBLIX OPEN CARRY.” I lasted about 3 weeks before some other more important political protest took my focus elsewhere.
I’m here to tell you protesting works! I know I had only a very, very small part to do with Publix’s policy change but it was a part. I see it in people’s eyes at all 3 NO KINGS protests. Their real eyes, realize real lies. If you can, pick up a sign, volunteer, attend a rally, give at food drives, but most of all VOTE.
John Mark Simon, Cape Coral
No talking on your Marco lanai
Recent complaints about children swimming in residential pools are deeply troubling and anti-family. Marco Island is not a retirement community. It is a family-friendly island where kids and grandkids enjoy the beautiful outdoors.
Children participating in outdoor recreation should be viewed as a positive reflection of community life by reasonable people. Such activity promotes physical well-being and social interaction, particularly at a time when concerns about excessive screen use are prevalent.
The proposed noise regulations, advanced by Councilor Gray, raise significant concerns regarding their scope and impact on ordinary family activities. As currently discussed, these measures may impose undue restrictions on routine and lawful uses of private property, including family gatherings, outdoor dining, and recreation.
In particular, the suggested enforcement timeframe — beginning as early as 8:00 p.m. — appears inconsistent with Florida residential communities, where 10:00 p.m. is recognized as the start of quiet hours. We are not a national park and should not be compared to one. An earlier restriction will disproportionately affect working families with school-aged children whose schedules extend into the evening.
Moreover, overly broad enforcement of regulations risks creating an atmosphere of unnecessary intrusion, including the potential for enforcement actions in situations that do not constitute unreasonable disturbances. Like the police being called to kids’ birthday parties in the middle of the day.
I urge Council to carefully consider the practical implications of these measures and to ensure that any new regulations strike an appropriate balance between maintaining neighborhood tranquility and preserving residents’ reasonable enjoyment of their homes.
Melissa Palmeri, Marco Island
We are better than this
As America prepares to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of its founding, I ask myself, how did America get to where we are today? How did we come to making our fellow Americans the “enemy”? How did we come to “normalizing” violence, anger, lying, bullying, and disrespect? How does engaging in the “blame game” and “finger pointing” offer any solutions?
And for me, the most disturbing and distressing aspect of where we are as a nation today is the use of “toxic rhetoric.” The only purpose of this vitriol is to stoke the rage, fear, bitterness, suspicion, and hatred that is used to justify the horrific and shocking events we have sadly witnessed and experienced.
What has happened to the basic human values that our Founding Fathers embraced as American values; such as respect, honesty, responsibility, accountability, peace, and charity towards our fellow man?
We are better than this, America.
Virginia Segaloff, Naples
What’s next?
Our president disappoints us when speaks highly of Putin and negatively about Zelensky and our supposed allies. We’re reviled by his vengeful prosecutions of political rivals. Comey is a criminal for taking photos of seashells, and those who violently assaulted our Capitol are good Americans worthy of pardon. Compassionate agencies like USAID are dissolved, jeopardizing millions of lives worldwide. His ballroom, his bitcoin, and his bloviating disgust most of us. His misogyny and fraud convictions shouldn’t go unnoticed. His war on the evil empire of Iran is in chaos. There is no coherent strategy. He’ll be lucky to eventually make a deal on the Strait of Hormuz, a self inflicted wound. Dealing with the repressive regime and their uranium seems beyond the grasp of the great deal maker.
How can he shock and infuriate us in the future? He’ll try to dictate the outcome of the November elections. He has no intention of allowing free and fair elections. If he and his supporters can’t win fairly, he’ll do what he can to see they win unfairly. Gerrymandering and voter suppression may not be enough foul play to tilt outcomes in favor of an extremely unpopular president. He’ll claim the states are incapable of doing their job. He’ll point to the 2020 election he still says he won. He didn’t win. He’s lying. Recounts and investigations prove he’s lying. That’s who he is. We shouldn’t be shocked if he cancels elections his team can’t win. He’ll say as president he has unlimited power. He may actually believe he has no boundaries. He has said as much. The Constitution be damned. The will of the people be damned. This would be his crowning achievement. Our defense is constant vigilance.
Kevin McNally, Bonita Springs
Case for driving electric car
As communities across the country grapple with rising fuel costs, air pollution and the growing impacts of global warming, one solution is becoming increasingly clear: the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.
Electric cars offer a cleaner, more sustainable alternative to gasoline-powered vehicles. By producing zero tailpipe emissions, they reduce air pollution and improve public health, especially in urban areas where smog and poor air quality disproportionately affect vulnerable populations.
When you factor in that EVs cost roughly 50% less to fuel, and with fewer moving parts, require about half the maintenance of internal combustion engines, eliminating oil changes and frequent brake replacements entirely, the total cost of ownership is now a clear win for the consumer.
Advances in battery technology have extended driving ranges, while the rapid expansion of charging infrastructure is making electric vehicles more convenient than ever.
Many governments and utilities are also offering incentives that make the transition more affordable for everyday consumers.
Owning an electric car is not just a personal choice, it is a meaningful step toward a more sustainable future. By embracing this technology, we can reduce our dependence on carbon dioxide polluting fossil fuels, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and contribute to a healthier planet for future generations.
Ron Sadler, Naples
Profound questions
Recently a beloved street musician passed away in downtown Fort Myers. Soon a touching physical memorial arose in the place where he once played. There were candles, flowers, and artwork, but also notes that asserted the deceased will now play music in heaven with the angels. This claim raises profound questions about where each of us goes when we die.
Is this life all there is, and if so, doesn’t that undermine our intuitive sense of meaning and morality? Or is there a heaven to which everyone except Hitler and Mao automatically goes? Will we enter heaven if our good deeds outweigh our bad, a defense that would fail to absolve us of crimes in an earthly court? Do we each get to decide our own afterlife reality, though we couldn’t choose whether to be bound by gravity here? Is entrance into heaven restricted to those who had a savior pay for their sins?
What we believe could potentially have significant eternal consequences. Would it be too preachy to suggest we think about it while we’re still alive?
Tom Houg, Fort Myers
Immigration hearings for children
Immigration hearings for children are being moved up by weeks or even months, making it increasingly difficult for children to obtain legal resources or relief. These are children who are either unaccompanied minors or are taken into custody after their parents are detained for immigration charges. Children as young as 4 years old are subjected to frequent hearings and forced to provide updates on their cases, in some instances without legal help. The Trump administration has made it increasingly difficult for immigrant children to be allowed to stay in the United States.
At the end of March, there were 2,173 children in custody and their average stay was more than six months long. These children are at risk of trafficking and exploitation, and in some cases are brought across the border by cartels under dangerous and coercive conditions.
Unfortunately these children are too young to vote in the midterms. I suggest that it’s time for us, the voting offspring of immigrants, to vote for the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness of these children.
Joe Haack, Naples
Hyperbolic health reports
The incessant alarms emitted from some quarters about the condition of President Trump’s health and impending demise are sickening.
The latest include skepticism about his reported visit to a dentist on a weekend stay in Mar-A-Lago, which some conspiratologists ascribe to a more serious medical emergency.
A little over a month shy of his 80th birthday, the president has, to be sure, a number of afflictions. But none of these ailments has significantly slowed him down, as reflected in his upcoming trip next Thursday-Friday to China to meet with that country’s leadership.
The president’s policies, practices and erratic behavior generate a considerable amount of criticism, much of it well-deserved. However, the decline in his health attributable to aging does not seem to have impacted his ability to carry out his duties, at least not to the extent portrayed by some of the alarmists whose views are more colored by their opposition to him than to the reality of his medical condition.
These hyperbolic reports recall the famous response by Mark Twain to an erroneous newspaper report about his impending death, which he dismissed as “an exaggeration” some 13 years before he passed away.
Marshall H. Tanick, Naples
MAGA wake up!
The war against Iran so far is a failure. We have gained nothing and lost a lot. We are paying for weapons used to little effect, increases in gas cost, food cost and almost everything else. The Strait of Hormuz is closed where it was open before the war. So far 30 billion down the drain and with all this moron Trump tells us we are winning, MAGA wake up! In 2015 we had an agreement with Iran to limit nuclear weapons development, but Trump cancelled it and has been unable to produce a replacement even though he said he could make a better one. Trump is good at destruction but bad at producing good deals. Let’s replace the rubber stamp worthless Republicans in Congress with Democrats who will put him under control.
Benjamin Glick, Naples
Failure of guardianship
State Attorney Amira Fox (R, FL-20) has accurately identified a disturbing facet of human trafficking: the complicity of parents who exchange their children’s welfare for financial or social proximity to power. The protracted Michael Jackson litigation exemplifies this systemic failure of guardianship.
From Janet and David Arvizo’s documented consent for their son to sleep in Jackson’s quarters to the Cascio family’s decades-long immersion in the singer’s inner circle, the pattern remains consistent. The Arvizo parents facilitated the environments where alleged abuse occurred. Subsequently, they negotiated a secret, multi-million-dollar settlement with the Jackson estate. Now, just before the release of the Jackson documentary, the kids want more. Public denials by victims often stem from trauma bonding, intensified when parents actively encourage the exploitative relationship. While the celebrity remains the focus, justice demands we scrutinize the parents who pimp their offspring for profit. True protection requires holding these enabling guardians accountable for their failure to provide basic care. The kids should be suing their parents for exploitation, not hitting up the Jackson Estate again.
Bebe Kanter, Naples
Trump finally meets his match
From the very top of our political structure down to the lowest, hate, rape and corruption is so much more than just insidious; it is rampant. U.S. senators, representatives and members of Trump’s Cabinet have recently resigned and been removed for sexual misconduct and are alcoholics. A trillion $$ illegal war is raging with no end in sight. The obvious goal of this war is to distract the media and MAGAs from the Epstein Files.
Masked ICE thugs murder, imprison and export innocent people who are deprived of legal counsel. Federal payments five times the value of warehouses have been spent around the nation to imprison Trump’s opponents. Even medical billing services are duplicating billing for services also paid for by Medicare & BC & BS. Where will all of this evil end?
Pope Leo the XIV, appears as a shining light among all of these bases for despair. Yes, I have three degrees from a Jesuit university but have no confidence in the stories about Jesus’ virgin birth and his transition into heaven. Nevertheless, I have confidence in the efficacy of Pope Leo the XIV’s message of hope and common sense to influence the vast majority of the millions of Roman Catholics in the USA. Donald Trump has trampled over Congress and SCOTUS but he has finally met his match in Pope Leo the XIV.
William A. Pettinger M.D., Bonita Springs
Who is destroying our democracy?
The Democrats say that Trump is destroying democracy in the United States. The fundamental characteristic of democracy is executing the will of the people. The majority of people elected Trump. Democrats are defying the will of the people. So, who is really destroying democracy in the United States?
Tom Tess, Estero
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Teacher pay impasse reflects larger Florida problem | Opinion letters
Reporting by Letter writers / Fort Myers News-Press
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