May 6-10 is National Teacher Appreciation Week and all teachers in Sanders County certainly deserve many thanks.

The ranking of beginning pay for teachers in the fifty states and the District of Columbia has Montana teachers ranked 51st……dead last.

That makes it exceedingly hard for our rural schools to recruit new teachers. It also shows why so many teachers trained at Montana colleges and universities go the large city systems in our state or leave Montana for a job.

It would be nice if parents and school board members this week would express their appreciation for the dedicated teachers we have as well as all other school employees.

It is sad that the state legislature chose to do practically nothing to support Montana teachers in the session which just ended.

Ernest Scherzer, Trout Creek