The Tribune's editorial about Utah teachers' pay (June 15) was welcome in identifying "the real reason there is not more money for schools: the higher number of children per household." But like Mark Twain's weather, we talk about it (occasionally) but do nothing about it. Envision Utah, for example, decided only to manage growth, not control it.

Well, someone has to stick his neck out if we're ever going to address this problem. I suggest, at the risk of being run out of town, that society deny economic incentives for couples to have more than two children. Radical, I know, but our society today should be interested only in maintaining the population, not growing it. Parents who have more than two children should have to pay for them.

More specifically, our Legislature might consider that for a couple's third child and beyond, born one year or more after the Legislature acts, tax exemptions would be eliminated and parents would pay the entire cost of educating such children. The one-year period would be, of course, so parents would not be penalized who already have more than two children, and so couples could plan their families in light of the new law.

--Earl Wunderli
published in the Salt Lake Tribune June 27,1999