It’s not class envy to point out that many Wisconsin public school teachers make salaries that far exceed wages of many of the parents in the school districts which employ those teachers. Many people now protesting around the WI state capitol have bought into the fallacy that teachers and public employees are under paid, no so. Pointing out actual salary levels is valid information.
So is it class envy if a liberal point to bank profits and oil profits and says that Corporation need to pay more into the system and make sacrafices since the nation is broke.
Do you really expect them to care whether it's the teachers robbing the system or the other employed, be they bankers or store clerks, doing the same?
Let's talk about how EVERYBODY can get a job ~ we have at least 19% functional unemployed/underemployed and that is a real problem. This quibbling around the margins is DOG DOO DOO.
re: “It’s not class envy to point out that many . . . public school teachers make salaries that far exceed wages of many of the parents in the school districts which employ those teachers . . .”
I’m not sure it’s necessarily “class envy”, but I do think basing teacher salaries on what their student’s parents make is ridiculous. Should doctors that work in county medical facilities not make more than the average salaries of their patients? Or civil engineers not make more than the people who drive on the city streets that they helped design?
I’m not saying the skills required to be a teacher are on the same level as a doctor, but criticizing teacher salaries because they are higher than that of the parents is absurd.
Salaries should, among other things, at least take into account that state or county’s cost of living, the comparable wages paid to teachers locally and nationally in both the public and private sectors, the training and experience of the teacher, the performance reviews by administrators, and, most importantly, what that particular state can reasonably afford to pay based on its budget income.
I don’t believe unions are needed and only make things worse. I don’t think that “step” salary increases are right either - thats what unions came up with to keep bad teachers from being penalized.