I have been thinking a great deal about our predicament as public workers.
The public needs us, teachers, and every other service oriented job which requires a depth of skill and knowledge, which is not commonly held amongst our fellow citizens. And yet, the public is not "happy" to pay us what we earn, for salary, benefits, and retirement.
I previously wrote about the TWO obligations a democratic nation has. One is to protect its citizenry and the other is to EDUCATE them.
The government did not always have an interest in education, until they realized how much money was rolling in...I am sure this is what ignited their interest, so they commandeered it.
Unlucky us.
Right now, there is not "class envy". It's more public sector versus the private sector envy.
Who should get what?
The complaint out there is that there is a great deal of money going to teachers, via the taxpayers, for our pensions and health benefits.
Ironically, the private sector sustains themselves on taxpayer money as well. It's just in the form of money spent on services or products.
I would actually be HAPPY as a public servant to be able to get ALL the money that goes towards my retirement (which I absolutely do NOT believe will be there when I retire) and health benefits, so I could do with it what I please. But, this is not the case. My hands are tied.
Those "benefits" are really part of the enticement for well-educated individuals to choose teaching as a profession, since public educators ARE under-paid, if you compare them to individuals in the private sector who work as many hours as we do and have as much education as we possess.
What am I trying to say?
That's exactly what I am trying to say.
I do not know what to say to the public.
They are so angry at teachers instead of the politicians and bureaucrats who spent our state budgets into oblivion, when these irresponsible people should have been putting money where it primarily belongs in a state: in EDUCATION!
Remember the movie "A DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN", well, the public should try " A DAY WITHOUT A TEACHER",
not a babysitter, a TEACHER.
