Letters

To the Editor:

Winston Churchill once remarked that democracy was a terrible form of government, except that it was less terrible than any alternatives. Wellford W. Wilms and Richard R. Chapleau strongly criticize pay-for-performance plans, but they don't proffer a less terrible alternative ( "The Illusion of Paying Teachers for Student Performance," Nov. 3, 1999).

They offer pabalum that "only teachers, parents, and students working together at teh schoolhouse levele can improve the systems by which teachers teach and students learn." Unfortunately, they omit a critical member from their reform party that has clamored loudest demanding pay...