Paul Sassone

No one has the answer on funding Illinois schools — at least not an answer that is acceptable to Republicans and Democrats.

There does seem to be some common agreement on who is the villain of the piece: Teachers.

Often teachers are resented, viewed as greedy people who don’t work enough, don’t succeed enough and are paid too much.

What are teachers paid?

PayScale, a salary reserach firm, states that nationally, the median annual income for elementary school teachers is $43,185 and $46,968 for high school teachers. The average teacher salary in Illinois, according to the National Education Association, for 2013 was $37,166.

Not exactly princely sums.

Nevertheless, teachers are resented because, I think, they are public employees. Worse, they are public employees with a union.

Most Americans are not represented by unions. And many of those workers argue that teachers (and public employees in general) ought to be treated as employees are in the private sector. That is, they should be paid what the employer wants to pay, receive tiny or no raises, have reduced or eliminated benefits and have no job security.

“Please sir, may I have some more?”

“No, you may not.”

“Thank you. sir.”

This is not how we want to be treated. But it is the way many of us are treated. Nobody should have it better than we do. And since we can’t have it better, those who have it better should have it worse.

Come, on, do you really, objectively, think teachers are paid too much?

Isn’t it worth $43,185 to pay someone to teach young people how to think, to write well, to do mathematics, to play music, to be good and thoughtful citizens?

I’d rather pay that than $53 million a year to a venture capitalist, whatever that is.

But, that’s just me.

It comes down to this: Teachers educate our children. That is the most important and valuable job there is. Why would we not want teachers to be well-compensated?

The results of good teaching benefit all of us.

Putting it purely in dollars and cents, paying teachers decently is the cost of doing business as a country.

Without education we have no country.

Just think about it before you launch into your next anti-teacher rant.

–Paying teachers decently cost of doing business–