Dear Grinches--Let's Pay Teachers 100K/Year!

I am sooooooo glad you put out that flier with the Gazette! I just love the Gazette, don't you? So does my dog--Coco Chanel the Fashion Dog. Education Grinches, I had no idea at all how underpaid teachers are! I am shocked--shocked to the core--I tell you!

Teachers' salaries should begin at $50,000 and shouldn't top out under $100,000!

I love you, Education Grinches! I really really do! I love all Grinches. You are so very easy to love. I love all the people of the world who hate this and hate that and then never do their homework! It makes my job so much easier. After all, it is easy to win arguments with people who never do their homework! 

[Holy kitty cats! You Grinches were not good students, were you!?!  That is one of the too numerous to list reasons you hate teachers and education! You still hate that 7th grade English teacher. Sad. Very sad. Buck up & get over it!]

Hope I didn't hurt your feelings!

Educations Grinches, I have been waiting with bated breath to hear that you have taken your children out of our rotten horrible no good Wisconsin schools with those sorry slacker teachers who couldn't cut it in the REAL WORLD and begun homeschooling them! What? You haven't!?! Why not? You hate ­ public education and Wisconsins' school teachers! Withdraw your children now, I say!­

Hmmmm?

Wait! You are going to take your children out today and send them to private school because you cannot bear for them to spend another minute being taught by those horribly rotten no good slacker school teachers who have more money than Scott Walker’s defense fund! 

I will be watching the private school and home school registration to make sure you are walking the walk. Because that is the only thing that matters, doncha think? Walking the walk?

I admit I have been thinking about that whole "rich school teachers who couldn't make it in the REAL WORLD" criticism.

[Side bar: Where is the REAL WORLD? ]

Have any of these critics ever seen a child before? A hormonal teenager? A group of children? What job could be more daunting than that!?!

I wanted to substitute teach when my daughter went to college, but I learned that I have a paralyzing phobia of more than 10 children in a group.  Who am I kidding—I don’t even like children!

There isn’t a compensation package big enough to entice me to face a group of 5 year old children—or 16 year old adolescents. Let teachers have them.

So, my dear, dear Education Grinches, here is my response to you! No, you don't have to thank me! I love doing research! I learn so much. You should try it. I especially love the Bureau of were Labor Statistics. No, sweethearts, biased sources don't count.

TEAHCERS SHOULD MAKE $100,000/YEAR PLUS BENEFITS—AND, HERE’S WHY!

First, we must clarify why we are even talking about why about this at all.

There are many ways to address any state budget problems. The only reasons that Wisconsin’s problems were addressed at the expense of public employees are political:

1. TO WEAKEN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS
2. TO STRENGTHEN PRIVATE CORPORATIONS
3. TO BREAK THE BACKS OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS.
4. TO HANDICAP FUNDRAISING ABILITIES OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

It is vital to understand the politics behind the attacks on teachers and “the budget bill.”

1. Republicans have a dictatorship in any state when they have the governor’s seat, a majority in the Senate, and a majority in the Assembly. They want to strangle any opposition—in order to keep this stranglehold that is tearing Wisconsin apart. It sounds dramatic--but, we have a dictatorship going in Wisconsin.

2. Scott Walker & Wisconsin Republicans need to handicap the fundraising abilities of Democrats in every way possible by continuing to sow as much dissent as possible.

3. Republican support comes mostly from large corporations and small business owners who are deluded into believing that they are big business owners.

4. In order to increase the power of corporations in Wisconsin & the U.S, Republicans need to weaken American institutions and our public life and strengthen the power of private for-profit corporations—in order to increase their own power & wealth. Read that again: REPUBLICANS WANT TO WEAKEN OUT PUBLIC LIFE & PRECIOUS PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.

5. So…attacking teachers & municipal employees (& their unions) allows Walker and Republicans to give the impression of being heroes, to weaken our public institutions, and eventually to handicap the Democratic Party—the ultimate goal.

Too bad if it also turns Wisconsin into a third world state.

THE PUBLIC RELATIONS STRATEGIES USED TO ACCOMPLISH THIS ARE:

*Create envy of unionized public employees—“The overpaid lazy teacher and government employee.”

*Create disdain for government employees—“The overpaid slackers who couldn’t cut it in the real world.”

*Create an “Us vs. Them” mentality—The “independent hard working earned everything by themselves never got a dime from anyone” private sector employee vs. the “spoiled overpaid” teacher & public sector employee.

Now, those lines are drawn! Now countless people believe that every teacher makes $75,000 dollars a year for babysitting from 9 am to 3 pm—because that is what Republicans tell them.

Countless Wisconsin citizens think a teacher with 25 years experience in the same profession who coaches 2 seasons and works summer school—with a college degree, a master’s degree and credits toward a doctorate—should make the same amount of money as a receptionist with a high school diploma or a factory line worker with no independent decision making responsibilities.

With all due respect to receptionists, all those who didn’t go to college and all hourly employees, I do not think so. Although, I do think everyone should make a family supporting wage.

DO I REALLY NEED TO STATE WHY TEACHERS NEED UNIONS AND HIGHER SALARIES? APPARENTLY SO.

Starting salaries for teachers in Wisconsin are now 49th in the country. Republicans would like us to rank 50th. What a goal.

Without unions, if the superintendent’s niece wants you job, she gets it  and you go to Timbuctoo. Sorry, Mr. or Ms. Superintendent. It had to be said.

20 REASONS TEACHERS IN WISCONSIN SHOULD HAVE LARGER COMPENSATION PACKAGES:

1. All teachers have bachelor's degrees and over 50% of Wisconsin teachers have master's degrees. They should make more money because they are better educated.

Fewer than 25% of Wisconsin residents have college degrees and even fewer have master’s degrees, yet critics of teachers’ salaries constantly compare the salaries of this highly educated population with the general population of Wisconsin.

They are not overpaid when their education and years of experience are taken into consideration.

Those with master's degrees make less than in the private sector but their benefits compensate for the lower salary.

2. Starting salaries in Wisconsin are 49th in the country and should be raised to make Wisconsin competitive with Illinois—or Wisconsin school teachers will flee to IL.

3. A four year college degree costs about $80,000 at a state school in Wisconsin and $200,000 at a private university. Scholarships & even loans are very difficult to come by. Opportunity costs raise that another $40-80,000—teachers give up an annual income of at least $10-20,000/year to attend college.

So, teachers with only a B.A have invested a minimum of $120,000 in their education and as much as $280,000 – 300,000 just getting the basic requirement to teach—a B.A. degree.

In order to recover just the cost of the education alone, a teacher would need to make over $8,000-20,000 more over the entire course of their careers than they would if working in another field!

Teachers cannot even recover the costs of their education—the pay is too low.

4. Failing to compensate teachers competitively will result in a "brain drain"—the most competitive & qualified teachers will begin leaving the field or not enter it or leave Wisconsin to teach in other states that are "friendlier" to teachers. Web-sites rate states according to the pay scale, benefits, scheduled raises, etc.

5. Public education is the final common denominator in our culture. If we despise our schools and our teachers, we despise ourselves. Our schools reflect our culture and are the one experience most of us share.

Most children will attend public schools. Relatively few will attend private or home schools.

Public schools are required to accept all students: those with devoted parents and those with negligent parents; those who are well-behaved and those with behavior problems; those with mental illness; those with learning disabilities and those who are gifted and talented, etc. Public education is not comparable to private education.

Teachers do not create our social problems and do not have the power to solve our social problems. They have no choice over their "client" – They have to take all comers. They have to play every hand that is dealt them year in and year out. They deserve generous compensation for this.

6. Teachers work independently, using their own judgment, without close supervision. This is in no way comparable to factory work, office work, or clerking in a store and they deserve compensation for this.

7. Children are, quite literally, the single greatest resource of any person, family, or country.

If our educational system has problems, we must solve them. But, those problems will not be solved by competing with McDonald's for employees.

The people who are responsible for our next generation of physicists, doctors, lawyers, engineers, and mechanics deserve our utmost respect and compensation. If you do not value the people providing the education of your OWN children, shame on you!

Your corporations, your research labs, your armies, your hospitals are worthless without well educated population to work in them.

Compete in a global economy? Go to war? You want to pay the people that teach our children peanuts and yet have the gall to talk about a global economy?

I submit that Republicans have no money sense at all--and haven't had for years. They are "penny wise and pound foolish." Oh, look it up, for Gawd's sake!

8. Teachers are "on" all the time they are not on a designated break. They cannot chat on their cells, take long potty breaks, or snack when no one is looking.

9. They have to be in the room with OTHER PEOPLE'S SPOILED BRATS all day long. Pay them a lot, I say!

10. Teachers grade papers, make bulletin boards, read, attend seminars, etc—all on their own time.

11. EVERYONE should have a family supporting wage, health care, and a retirement plan.

If you are envious of teachers’ compensation packages and union benefits, go to college—it’s never too late! Get a job requiring a college degree or a union job. But, don’t try to cut teachers down to your size.

12. We love and revere Thomas Jefferson don't we? An educated public is necessary to a democracy. There is no more important job in a democracy than that of a teacher. We cannot claim to value education and then refuse to pay for it.

13. Did YOU teach YOUR own children to read or teach them math skills? Why not? Enough said.

14. Education as an industry is a powerful economic engine. Every dollar taken out of the salary budget for education is a dollar taken out of the local community’s economy. If you want teachers eating at your restaurant, buying cars at your dealership, shopping at your store, pay them.

15. Fringe benefits are not “free.” They are part of the compensation package that teachers receive. Is there something about “compensation package” that you don’t understand? Grinches, learn to use "Google" for goodness sake!

Articles criticizing teachers’ salaries frequently refer to them as free: “Teachers receive free health care,” etc. These benefits are part of a total compensation package. If an employer can purchase an insurance plan for $10,000 that would cost me $20,000—or which I could not buy at all on the non-existent “open market” for insurance—then I am better off taking the insurance in lieu of a higher salary.

16. Articles criticizing teachers salaries usually compare teachers with master’s degrees and years of experience (and include their total compensation package) to the “average worker” who does not have a bachelor’s nor the same years of experience. Comparing apples to apples, teachers are slightly underpaid.

17. Teachers buy supplies with their own money. Some of my elementary school teachers bought Christmas presents for every poor child in class every year.

18. Parents are required by law to send their children to school or to register as a home school. We cannot require our schools by law to provide a service and then under-fund them and the people who provide that service.

19. Did you educate your own children? If you think you can do a better job, do it. Go ahead. Walk the walk. And, while you are at it, please teach a Sunday School class and be a Big Brother or Big Sister. Were you at the PTO meetings? I didn’t see you. Teachers carry a heavy responsibility for your children's future.

20. Teachers change children’s lives. Teaching can be a spiritual calling. Teachers hold the hearts of our children in their hands. They are responsible for the emotional, intellectual, and physical well-being of our children. They can change the future. They should make at least as much as our politicians.

My dear Education Grinches, if you hate public education so much, withdraw your children today! Today, I say! How can you possibly keep up your military and police state with such a woefully uneducated population! It is frightening!

What if your children cannot read the directions on their new handgun box because their teacher who cannot make it in the REAL WORLD didn't teach them well! Get them out of our horrible public schools and teach them yourselves! :>)

Another possibility is that we cherish public education more! Join the PTO! Raise teachers' salaries! Send your children to school every day! Do their homework with them! Don't let your children be bullies--or be bullied! Make them respect their teachers! Teacher your children to read BEFORE they go to school! GASP! GARGLE! Why, we could all teach our children etiquette! OK, now I'm getting carried away...Breathe, Vivian, breathe...

I love you. I really, really do. But, if you want an educated population... well... you have to educate your population. And, nothing in life is free.

Your friend,

Vivian

In memory: Wilma Detherage Creekmore. My mother taught school and was a librarian for 30 years in rural Eastern Kentucky. We thought she was a rocket scientist—and so did everyone else.

As a child, I could not have imagined a day when people despised teachers. People treated us like we were the children of “Brad & Angelina!” She began teaching at 18 years of age (after WWII with an emergency teacher certificate and 2 years of college) in one and two room schools up “hollers” where the school district had contracts with neighbors to board her when it snowed.

She taught in schools that had coal stoves. She taught in schools that had 16 year old six feet tall delinquents in 8th grade. She was never afraid. They, and we, were afraid of her! She graded papers at night, bought her own supplies, and took clothes to her students. She finished a bachelor’s and a master’s degree after having 2 children. She was the role model of an independent career woman. She fought to unionize the schools—but lost that battle. She fought for sex education in the schools—and won that battle. She always fought for increased funding.