It may be true that they don’t march every year or complain often, but it does make me roll my eyes when they speak in hyperbole that they are under-compensated and need more, and republicans want kids to be dumb, and that it is not fair that they have to pay into their own retirement. Well, sorry, teachers and unions…the rest of us do.
But I still don’t buy the argument that they are any more special than other professions. Most teachers that I know of went into teaching because they didn’t know what else to do, or they felt like they weren’t able to do other jobs.
If it is a specifically elevated position because they deal with children, then I feel bad for those who are “just stay-at-home-moms”. Somehow, they don’t get the same elevated privilege.
Again, not trying to demean teaching, but I am trying looking at it in a fair light. Maybe it is a hard “white-collar” job, but I can point to hundreds of professions that are much more demanding physically. Deep sea fishing is the most dangerous occupation, and they are feeding our country, but they get nothing.
Just like our President said in his state of the Union…teachers are “special” (to justify pay increases when the rest of us have pay freezes)…and then he talked about giving them more of our tax money to pay them higher salaries, which lead to bigger golden pensions and sweetheart deals for them. It just just spread out over their life, rather than given to them upfront, thus them feeling like they are underpaid.
It is a good debate to have, because our states are going bankrupt over these public employees’ golden parachutes.
