Hypocrisy

This is a guest posting from a retired school teacher in the Palmerton Area School District. 

It isn’t much fun being a teacher these days.  One doesn’t have to turn too far on the TV dial to hear some network talking head accusing teachers, and all other public sector workers, of being solely responsible for the economic mess our country is in today.  Never has the concept of “overpaid and underworked” been so overused.  As a retired teacher whose husband, several family members, and many friends are still teaching, I can’t help but take these attacks personally.  

When I was asked to write this blog, my goal was to present a reasoned, researched response to the nonsense Republican governors and legislators have been spouting in the name of fixing education. It has become obvious, though, that they could not care less about fixing the problems of education in this country.  All they care about is busting unions, and I am very angry about that.

Their shameful hypocrisy can no longer be ignored.  During the debate about extending the Bush tax cuts, the president wanted to allow the cuts to expire for anyone who was making more than $250,000 a year. The arguments against the president’s proposal were loud and long. How can anyone think that people who earn $250K a year are rich? These poor people have mortgages to pay! They have children who want to go to college!  $250,000 a year is nothing in this day and age! Yet these same folks decried the avarice of teachers who are making $51,000 a year plus benefits. How greedy can teachers get?

And let’s not forget the sacredness of contracts, but only as they apply to the big shots on Wall Street.  After the taxpayer-funded bailout of the banking industry, it was suggested that perhaps these CEOs and other high-ranking officials of the banking industry might forego their bonuses so that the government “loans” banks received could be paid back more quickly.  But once again, the defenders of the status quo came to their rescue. These are contracts, after all!  Legal documents!  How can we expect to attract talented individuals to Wall Street if we don’t honor these contracts, written and signed in good faith?  

Somehow, these same standards don’t apply to public sector workers. Teachers must make concessions. They can’t expect the taxpayer to continue financing salaries, benefits, and pensions they don’t even deserve.  It is time for them to make some sacrifices for the common good.

Yes, I’m angry. I hope to present the more reasoned response I had intended when first asked to comment on the problems educators face today. But in the meantime, thanks for letting me vent.