If Walker is going to cut the pay and benefits of Wisconsin teachers, raise the cost of tuition to become a teacher, take away your rights to bargain a fair contract which determines benefits and pay, cause class size to increase, then why exactly would any bright young student who is about to go at least 30,000 dollars in debt to pay for their education choose to be a teacher?
The answer is quite simple, they are not. I think teachers in public education are just as important as police and firefighters. To be a teacher in public education it is almost mandatory to have an graduate degree. If it requires that kind of investment, that should be compensated for, or the education that is required to obtain an teaching position should be free.
Originally Posted by: dhpackr
You made a good point, and probably don't even realize it. The main word is "FAIR".
A FAIR contract. Not one that gives you a lifetime job, where if you have "tenure" all you have to do is show up, and you get your pay check and benefits. Tell me, how many private sector jobs get the pay/benefits that teachers get? Or can goof off and not get in trouble/lose their jobs?
WHY are there so many people wanting to be teachers? The pay and benefits possibly???
I am NOT saying there are no good teachers out there that really DO care about the children. I have had the honor of knowing some of them. But i also have known WAY too many that were on "cruise control" and didn't give a damn about the kids learning.
I had one that litterally slept through every class. Another that had a booze bottle in his desk at all times, several that would say "read pages 20 through 40" and then would leave and go to the teacher's lounge the whole hour, one that verbally abused meall year because of the religion i was at the time.
When my Dad died when i was 16, i went off the deep end my senior year and missed most of the school year because i was out getting drunk most nights. Not ONE teacher asked me if anything was wrong.
And the day i graduated high school (i barely passed my senior year because of stated reason) my "guidence counselor" spent an hour before the ceremony screaming at me that i was lazy and didn't deserve to graduate. He not ONCE asked me what was going on that caused it. (I still graduated in the top third of my class).