If they take away union protection, they should at least reinstate the teacher's capacity to flog the child and kick them out of class. If you aren't allowed the right to compensation or self defense, and have to go on "merit" pay, then let the students earn the education their parents pay for.

My daughter in law teaches Grade 12 in Canada. Health care is free so that is a non issue and when she was sub teaching she got 30 bucks an hour. Now she is in the 40 + an hour plus retirement etc. It is hard to find a job to teach there too as retirees keep coming back to teach.
BUT it is nothing like here. I dont know how you put up with it.
HUGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

"Like I said, I’m feeling defensive. And righteous. And a little entitled. I do an important job, and I want to be acknowledged for it beyond merely words and kudos. "

And you have every right to be ! I'm in full support of teachers and their unions.
♥R

Very well said. Teachers - and others threatened by reactionary, corporatist policies, which is pretty much all of us - need to stand up and say what they think. The time for remaining silent is over.

I hear you. I'm pissed off, too. I am a public employee and have been for 21 years. I took the job because I needed a job, and I work for exactly the same reasons anyone in the public sector takes THEIR jobs. i refuse to apologize for what I've earned--my living is pretty darned modest. I did not take my job and think 'haha, State of California , I am now going to bilk you for every nickel I can get!"

I just happen to think that earning a living, decent benefits and a decent retirement are not too much to ask in return for my years of conscientious service. I remember how Prop 98 was supposed to fund education; how long was it before Ah-nold took that money away? I remember Enron ripping off this state in 2003, and I remember Pete Wilson absolutely ransacking city and county budgets back in '93-- something from which we've never truly recovered. He was also a big fan of building prisons the state couldn't afford to open and operate--how is THAT good money management?? Yet it's somehow "all our fault" that cities and counties are now broke. Even though we haven't had a budget delivered on time for years. And for each of those years, I've watched a tiny, stubborn minority in the legislature taking the whole state hostage, refusing to even CONSIDER ways to generate more revenue. All of which has cost the state millions of dollars and which has downgraded our credit rating.

During the tech boom of the late 1990's, our cost of living went up sharply and our pay raises did not keep up. We sure weren't the ones getting the 401K's then, back when they were worth having. My public sector co-employees wryly agreed that we'd gone into the wrong line of work to get rich. i am genuinely sorry that so many people got soaked in 2008 and 2009. But we never had what they did in the first place.

My union has made concessions and cooperated and done our part to make sure that as many people as possible kept their jobs. If we banded together to hold onto as much as we could, it was not to take advantage of the state, it was to keep the state from taking advantage of US. I pay for half my benefits too, and paying into my retirement pension effectively wiped out my last raise four years ago with a net loss of take home pay. Since then, no cost of living raises at all. If it looks like we've got it so good, it's only because everything ELSE got so monumentally fucked up by the disaster in 2008.
rated

Shiral, you said it so much more eloquently than I did. Thank you.

Great post. Absolutely great post. Teachers should be protected. Rant on.

I haven't read Walter's post, so I'm not sure what he said, but I certainly think that teachers are undervalued and overburdened. It is also true that some union rules do allow the protection of incompetent teachers and that is no service to the kids or the community. But, in the end, I'd rather they had that protection than they were thrown to the Walker Wolves.

Pilgrim, I do agree that some rules protect poor teachers, and that the entire system needs reform. But I don't think we should completely junk it.