THE ISSUE: Whether seniority rules should be scrapped when it comes to NYC teacher layoffs.

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When faced with unprecedented budget cuts, principals are forced to make hard choices (“Keeping the Teachers NYC Kids Need,” PostOpinion, Jan. 21).

Many would choose to cut a fine teacher with many years of service at a top salary to save two new also fine teachers with little experience.

The problem began when, instead of staffing schools with the number of teachers needed, actually the DOE began issuing budgets per student and charged schools exactly for the salaries each teacher earned.

Principals need to provide quality education for their students. They should not have to choose between keeping quality, experienced teachers and

adequately staffing schools.

H. Kobrin

Fresh Meadows

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If you are looking for a brain surgeon, you would never hire the most recent medical-school graduate.

If you are searching for good food, it goes without saying that an 18-year old who has just cooked his first meal would not be the ideal cook. And we all know that a 5-year-old is not wiser than an adult.

Why, then, do the numbskulls at the Department of Education believe that a 21-year-old teacher is better than a senior one?

Sidney Rubinfeld

Middle Village

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To lay off effective teachers while retaining ineffective ones due to seniority rules is child abuse, pure and simple.

There are untold numbers of low-quality teachers who will negatively impact an untold number of students.

Anyone who plays along with this system is responsible for increasing the possibility of our youth receiving a bleak future.

David Bergstein

Manhattan