All I hear is: we are falling behind the rest of the world, our children need mentors, we need top jobs for the future, we need future leaders, blah blah blah. However, who is the first person to be attacked and ridiculed? Teachers.
Don't people realize that teachers educate this country's future?
Teachers make too much? Have too much health insurance and big pensions? OK...if that's the case, then why didn't you become a teacher? How come you're working whatever job you are working making "way less" than we are and are unhappy? YOU CHOSE to not become a teacher, why fault us? Wouldn't you want the people directly responsible for the future of your children, of this country (!) to be making a decent living and have health care? Would you live in a home build by drunkards making $8 an hour? No. Would you get an operation done by a doctor who made $10 an hour and worked for minimum benefits? Heck no! OK, so then would you trust your kid's education to low-paid hacks? YES! At least that is what most people in this country think. How ridiculous.
Every other country in the world is starting to pass us by because education is valued and respected in those countries. In America, we just give it lip-service and then do everything we can to destroy it.
Remember the old adage, "you get what you pay for?"
I DARE YOU to send your kids to a school run by people making $25,000 or less a year (since teachers make too much). Then after they graduate you can go see them at McDonald's and be proud that you just ordered a hamburger from your high achiever.