Yes, and some of us, particularly those of us with math, science, and technology degrees, could be making just as much or more than you do. I bet you're making a lot more than a teacher does (which is not criticism, just a fact.)
The difference is, we've given that up to educate other people's children, because we feel that the future of our society depends on the education its children receive today.
The system needs a lot of help, and no one teacher is going to fix it...but those of us who are conservative teachers like to feel we're doing our small part to make things a little bit better instead of just sitting on the sidelines complaining about how bad things are.
Not everyone can teach, and not everyone can homeschool. But I don't think that those of us who choose to teach deserve as much derision as we receive from some here -- in fact, it looks like we'd get a little bit of support for doing our small parts to turn back the tide of liberalism in the public schools.
If you choose to homeschool, good for you. No one is complaining. But please don't tar all public schools, and all public school students, teachers, and systems, with the same brush.
The law of supply and demand sets my salary, and teachers’ salaries. At least mine is paid for by the people who directly want my services. I’m not demanding my neighbors pay my salary. Every time teachers complain about their salary, I grit my teeth because that means they want to take more of mine. Obviously they are not providing a service that enough people want if the only way they get paid is by taxes.
“Free” education is a disaster. The students place no worth on it. Which gets a bigger reaction from parents? Suggesting a schedule change to the school year that interferes with their work schedules, or releasing abysmal test data? I’ve seen bigger protests over school delays than the fact that kids can’t read. That should tell you what the American public thinks of their schools - they’re babysitting facilities.
My criticism is not of any particular individual teachers, but a system that is so rotten, so corrupt, that the longer we delay, the more painful the remedy will be. Unfortunately, many people think it is not as bad as I think it is. So they will delay and delay, prop up an old system, until it becomes obvious even to them... and then what? All the people they needed to help them fix it are leaving, have left. We’re on the second generation of homeschoolers now. Many stay at home moms who might have been the linchpin of a school’s rehabilitation have given up and are learning to educate their own children.
They can take my tax dollars, by the threat of violence. But when they come whining that my kids can read and theirs can’t and it’s not fair, tough. It’s too late to take the easy way out. Children’s minds and souls are too valuable to gamble on a broken system.
The following are common to **all** compulsory government schools both good and bad:
1) It is **impossible** for any government school to be religiously, politically, or culturally neutral.
2) All compulsory government schools will establish the religious worldview of some and undermine the religious worldview of others.
3) All compulsory government schools are in conflict with the parents and children's First Amendment Rights to free speech, press, assembly, and expression of religion. And...All government schools *establish* the government religion of Secular Humanism.
4) **All** government schools violate the freedom of conscience and First Amendment Rights of many taxpayers. Taxpayers are under police threat to support schools that often promote a religious, cultural, and political worldview that can never be neutral and is often abhorrent to the conscience of the taxpayer.