Are teachers greedy? Sure. In the same way every one else is: We want to make enough money to pay for the things we need and a little more so that we can get some of the things we want. If we can make some savings so that we can buy some nice things, then that would be great.
I take that back, we are not like everyone else. Those who make a million in one year and complain about 180,000 in taxes taken out. (18%) That is a lot of dough taken by the government, I know! BUT in reality it will take over 10 years for me to make that 1 million that they made in one year. That is before taxes. So, after taxes they have 820,000...that will take over 8 years for me to make...if I keep my entire income and don't pay any taxes at all. The sad thing is, most people in the category of making millions make multi-millions each year. How can they understand what it is like to work 10 years to make 1 million dollars? Yet, they are our politicians. They claim to know me. They claim to know my financial problems.
They state that they want to 'save education'. That they want to get rid of my union, so that real work can begin. In reality, though, they cut my pay and pack my class room, because they have laid off tons of teachers (over 30,000 in CA). They claim that the unions prevent job growth, but in reality, if you listen, they talk about getting rid of teachers that the union protects! That is not job growth that is fewer jobs. I am not saying that bad teachers should stay in the profession, but I would probably lose my job in a non-union world, because I am more senior and make more money. It makes more business sense to pay someone less to do my job, right? My union protects me from that happening to me and my family.
I have worked as a teacher for 18 years, have 75+ units over my B.A., and have a M.A. So, I make more than most of my colleagues. Do you realize that it will take me 1,000 years to make a billion dollars? Hard to have sympathy for a billionaire that doesn't want to pay taxes to pay for more teachers and a better wage. A beginning teacher will make 35,000 a year. It will take them 28 years to make 1 million dollars and 28,000 to make a billion at that wage. I don't think we can call teachers greedy and we definitely are not elitist.
What is an elitist? Someone who thinks they know what my job is, but has no clue, because they made 10 years worth of my labor by investments in which they didn't have to wake up at 6 AM, go into a classroom that have students that throw chairs at you, cuss you out, stab other students with pencils, trip people and laugh, burp and belch during tests and quizzes, don't understand why they get in trouble, don't turn in any work, and don't care that they have a bearing on my status as a professional.
Next time you are watching the news or any TV, keep an ear out for talk about millions and billions. Look at it though the lens of how many years of work it would take you to get to that much money. Why are you begrudging teachers, or any working individual, the right to have a pay raise instead of a pay cut? The sad thing is, teachers are not talking about pay raises, we just want to take home what we made 3 years ago. We want more teachers to help with the burden. That is going to take money into education, but California is billions of dollars short....so maybe by next year it will take me 11 or 12 years to make a million.
