Give the quality of the product they produce, they are overpaid and they know it. Hence the tantrum.
I’ve a better idea. Let’s pay teachers for what they accomplish and make it easy to fire them if they don’t actually TEACH children what they know. Let’s also hang the responsibility for educating children on the administrators also and fire them along with the teachers unless they school produce X percent of graduates per year.
My children’s teachers in Elementary school have indeed been little more than exceptional babysitters. They are worth perhaps $20/hr. They can afford their own health insurance out of that. Pensions? Let them open an IRA like the rest of us.
I don’t begrudge them decent salaries. Just don’t bitch when the “man” comes looking for some scalps. Thats the way it works in the real world.
If you are making money for them, they will pay you what the market bears. But, if you are one of those “superstars” you had been not have a bad quarter or two.
Let's look at it from the other side. If you wanted to hire the best teacher you could find that would give your child individual attention and actually teach them what they need to know to become successful in life, you would probably be willing to pay dearly. Maybe as much as $50 an hour.
But the union is set up so that all teachers are paid the same, regardless of their ability. So you have to look at the other end of the spectrum... the self-described “babysitter” teacher. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't pay a dime for that. But to be fair, let's assume that the union school will give you an average teacher... $50 + $0.10 = $50.10 / 2 = $25.05.
So that's pretty good for an average teacher that gives my child the individual attention he deserves. But now you divide that teacher's attention among 30 kids. And let's face it, the bottom 20% of the kids get the attention while the top 20% sit, bored to tears, as the teacher tries to bring the bottom 20% up to minimum. But let's be fair and divide that time equally among the 30 kids. $25.05/30=$0.835 per hour. I'll be nice and round up to $0.84.
I realize that a teacher works outside of classroom time to prepare lesson plans, grade papers, etc. So let's give them the full 8 hour day.
So $0.84 x 8 = $6.72 per day per child x 30 kids = $201.60 per day x 180 days = $36,288.
That's why we think $50,000 plus benefits seems a bit high.
But here's an idea... attach that tax money to the individual child, let the parents find the schools with the best teachers, private or public. Let the bad teachers suffer the lack of funding and either get better at teaching or find another job. The market will start bidding for the best teachers as parents are given the opportunity to vote with their feet and, low and behold, teacher salaries will rise based on the skill with which they teach.
Seeing how the kids are often worse off after being left with these ‘babysitter/teachers,’ most teachers should be charged with neglect.
I don’t mean to be hyperbolic, either. After a kid has gone through the school system, he has learned bad habits about reading and writing, hasn’t learned enough practical mathematics for most needs, and has wasted precious years that, if taught by competent teachers, could have made him ready for life in the world.