I wholeheartedly agree with Jonathan Phillips' argument printed in the Feb. 20, 1995 edition. University Park faculty are underpaid. Prior to being hired, each had to scrape a living out of perhaps six years of graduate subsistence pay. In addition, the workload of faculty is undoubtedly excessive for their salaries. Most of the faculty that I am familiar with are at work before most of us are out of bed and don't leave until often six or seven o'clock at night.

In contrast, suburban primary and secondary school teachers are highly overpaid. It is disgusting that many suburban teachers are earning $70,000 or more while only having to work until mid-afternoon every day for only two-thirds of the year. Equally infuriating is the fact that many inner-city teachers are doing the same job as their suburban counterparts for half the pay. Tax money needs to be redistributed so that prospective teachers will be attracted to competitive salaries in the inner-city schools. Shifting the burden of taxes that support schools from local property taxes to state sales taxes could be an effective method of fairly proportioning tax money to school districts.