When I was a kid, one of our best family friends was a family whose father was our biology teacher. He made about the same kind of money my father made in a union shop as a journeyman pipe fitter.
He was the ONLY conservative voice I heard in my childhood. He was a Goldwater Republican. He told us he would like to be making more money, but teaching is what he wanted to do with his life. Obtaining his masters degree would help get him a raise so he went to ASU during his summer breaks to accomplish this. He still managed to get in the 50 mile hike each summer with us in Boy Scouts and all the regular season camp outs along with Tuesday night troop meetings.
He LOVED teaching, and you could see it in his passion as he taught. He loved scouting, he loved his kids and his wife. He loved his life. He was rich.
Today I own a small motorcycle business, been in the motorcycle business since 1984 and I love the business. I love my customers, many of whom have become good friends. It is fun. It does not make me a whole lot of money; I drive a ‘92 F150 that I bought pre-dented 4 years ago, my wife drives an ‘03 Accord that defies its age as it’s pretty nice. I could have gone into the automobile business just as well as motorcycles and had a still modest but more lucrative lifestyle, BUT!, I have no passion for cars. Everyone has cars/trucks but a unique sector of our society rides motorcycles and they tend to be the people whose company I prefer. Hence, I am RICH.
Teachers who don’t have a passion for teaching SUCK. IMHO teachers’ unions are toxic.
I had a high school American History teacher who was a true gem. He was a very smart man who could have done lots of things but he choose to be a teacher and he was a great one. My Physics teacher was similar. He was from Wake Forest and came all the way to Oklahoma to teach me Physics.
Mom taught in a poor country school for three decades after she was 45. A lot of whatever she made went for clothes, glasses and things children needed. To teach is to touch a life.
I do not begrudge teachers a reasonable wage. I do not like them holding the state hostage and more than that I do not like the state for making them have to do it to get notice.
This state is the king of excuses. They have blown ever good thing that ever happened to them. In the last 12 years that they lament their budget crisis the oilfield went through some of the best years of my 40 year career in it. Still the state uses the downturn in the oilfield as an excuse for their budget woes and being the kings of mediocrity.