Sunday letters: Limits on teacher sick pay will backfire

I retired in 2001 after teaching for 39 years. I was blessed with good health and retired with more than 200 unused sick days. I was paid for those days and that saved the Chicago Public Schools more than $20,000, because they never had to pay a substitute teacher for those days. The new contract rule prevents teachers from building up too many sick days and teachers are forced to use them or lose them when they reach the maximum number.

Some bean counter thought that he would save millions with this bright idea. He did not realize that every time a teacher uses a personal business day or sick day, CPS has to pay the regular teacher and the substitute teacher. They are spending millions instead of saving millions!

Teachers should not be encouraged to miss school, but that is what is happening. A teacher who is maxed out on unused sick days needs to take 15 days off every year or they will lose those days. What was CPS thinking?

Greg Lopatka, Downers Grove

Preckwinkle goes back on promises

County Board President Toni Preckwinkle was elected on promises to reduce the sales tax and eliminate patronage hires. She almost at once reduced the sales tax and got rid of some of the hires of the previous board president. Looks good, right? But now she has reinstated the sales tax and she wants to impose a tax on soft drinks. That will be an additional tax on soft drinks, given that the City of Chicago already taxes drinks.

John Culloton, Norwood Park