Couldn't agree more. Thank goodness I live in a 'right to work' state and cannot be forced into the NEA.
I thought about high school teaching. Then I considered the political agenda and the many lazy teachers I knew. I know that quite a few public school teachers really care and know their stuff, but the system is cancerous. I decided to avoid high school teaching and applied instead to a place associated with the military.
When I looked over my graduating class from high school, studying the old reunion books, I saw that many started out as teachers and then left.
I had wonderful, patriotic, conservative public school teachers. My mother, sister, and wife have taught in public school.