>As one of the supposed “bashers,” let me state that the teachers I have encountered and am personal friends with have been for the most part dedicated, hard working and professional. I would add extremely patient (to deal with unruly kids and the parents who constantly hover over teachers’ shoulders).
All these nice things aside, there is a gigantic disconnect between what teachers earn in terms of salary and benefits (pensions, healthcare) relative to 1) what the taxpayers can afford and 2) relative to what those working in the private sector earn (related to what taxpayers can afford).
This disconnect must be changed. I.e., teachers’ comp must come down. The main way to do this is to have teachers pay some or all of their healthcare benefits (like all private sector workers do), and to cut or even eliminate defined benefit pension plans.
Teachers can and should dislike this reality (I would if I were a teacher). But it doesn’t change the facts.
Also, the affection that many hold for their teachers of their youth is irrelevant. People in bad schools or poorly funded ones (Catholic schools) have similarly strong positive recollections of their teachers. We must correctly attribute why schools are “good” in terms of test scores, AP classes, college enrollment rates and all the other criteria conventionally used to make such determinations. It’s pretty clear: good schools is most closely correlated with kids’ innate intelligence, which is closely correlated with parental intelligence. “Good schools” = “good kids” = “good (intelligent) parents” — that’s at least 60% of the equation, folks. Teachers can influence this, no doubt, but their performance (good or bad) is a less important factor in the “good school” equation.
