"Teachers salary postings do not paint the whole picture.
My wife pays for many of her school supplies out of her own pocket."
I used to be a public school teacher. I spent lots of my own money to make my school room a better learning environment, and to make my teaching more effective. I knew I'd have to do that when I began teaching--before I applied for the job. I didn't get into teaching first, knowing the situation, then bitch for the rest of my life because I had to buy the stuff I knew I was going to have to buy when I took the job. Why? Because I was a professional. I left that profession 24 years ago, and posts like yours remind me why I did. Most teachers I knew were more effective whiners than they were effective teachers.
With the dismal academic performance of most American public schools, buying a few supplies is apparently the best of what's contributed by some of today's teachers.
I've got a hot scoop for you. Those young lieutenants in Iraq who are fighting to defend your freedom...many of them make less per day than a starting teacher in most Midwestern states. And, they've all got a college degree plus specialized education and training beyond their baccalaureate study...more than most starting teachers can say.
You can find the pay and benefits charts for officers in any branch of service. If you've got a second lieutenant living next to you, it takes about one minute to find their exact pay on the Internet -
http://www.dfas.mil/money/milpay/
When is the last time you heard some young officer whining because the public had access to his pay information?
When is the last time you heard some young officer complaining that his wife has to pay to have the oil changed in the family car, because he's not home to do it?
When is the last time you heard some young soldier complaining that someone else needs to pay him to get his rank and military insignias sown on his uniforms?
Most military personnel would kill to get the kind of health coverage enjoyed by most public school teachers. Instead, they get "TRICARE"...alias, Hillary-Care."
Do you have any idea what type of financial impact a military family faces when one parent leaves the country for a year?
Nobody's offering to pay for the extra day care, or for the maintenance on the car and house that needs to be hired now that the husband/father is out of country. Nobody's offering to pay for the extra cost of staying in communication with a husband/father/mother/wife whose on the other side of the globe. Nobody's offering to pay for the second income jobs are lost when a soldier whose working an extra job to make ends meet is sent overseas.
These young officers are fighting for your freedom, and fighting for their lives. Most young teachers' biggest concern is surviving the first couple years to reach tenure so they've got near-100% job security until they retire.
If you're concerned about the monetary outlay your wife is faced with in her job, tell her to stop paying her freaking union dues and put that money back in your pocket. Better yet, if its the money you're concerned with, tell her to get in to a full-time career.
Spare us your whimpering about buying pencils and paper. Start bitching at us when your wife gets deployed to the world's hottest combat zone for six months to a year at a time.