I was compiling survey responses for a politician in the area. One hot-button issue was tenure for teachers, so there were hundreds of responses from teachers. Oh, dear... the majority were borderline illiterate. And they were screaming the loudest about how wonderful they are, how they “deserve” tenure, higher salaries, etc. Obviously, they don’t even know how stupid they are.
And then there were responses from people who are personally well acquainted with teachers. They relayed what teachers had told them about why they had gone into teaching. Summers off. Not “really” work. Guaranteed salaries forever with tenure. Etc.
I personally don’t blame the teachers themselves. I’ve known many who try to buck the system.
The real fault, as it always is, lies with the local pols, especially Democrats, who roll over for the unions, to save their own butts.
Several hundred teachers, voting as a block, can mean a HUGE shift in a local election, and even for state house elections, especially primaries.
And a wanna-be career politician is going to be very wary of getting on their wrong side. so, you buy them off, keep’em happy, and move on to the next level. leaving the problems you created for someone else’s headache.