Robert Embry's article that addressed barriers to attracting quality teachers ("Maryland must remove barriers to attracting quality teachers," Feb. 1) raises several fundamental issues. First, as one who supervised teachers for 22 of my 32 years in public school education, I would posit that individuals entering the profession should be referred to as "prospective" teachers.

Second, given the compensation disparity between the public and private sectors, the best and brightest are not attracted to teaching. Until we offer pay and benefits competitive with business and industry, we will continue to select from among second tier college graduates. As a manager of teachers, I would rather recruit the brightest available candidate over one who simply meets course work requirements.

Finally, we need to rank schools based on the level of the teaching challenge and scale teacher compensation commensurate with the difficulty of the assignment.

Arthur Pierce, Randallstown

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