I am such an instigator....

Toady, I felt compelled to post a message on an online forum, which I rarely do. I prefer to avoid confrontation, thank you very much.

This issue warranted a post, however. Today, my dad and his fellow teachers are striking. Yes, it's the end of the school year, and yes, it's an inconvenice for everyone involved, but it seems the strike has become an unfortunate necessity. You see, they have been working since December 2005 without a contract. (That's my dad, in the middle!) You read correctly, the Area Education Association (AEA) has been negotiation with the School Board (SB) for a year and a half. If I understand it correctly, the hot-button issue is healthcare. The SB wants the teachers to start paying a portion of their premiums. The teachers do not take issue with that, but they do, however, take issue with how much the SB is asking they pay. Compared to other districts in the area, the SB is asking the teachers to pay premiums much higher. The SB has also, for all intents and purposes, refused to negotiate for most of the contract-less period of time. This is the bare bones explanation.

Being the daughter of one teacher and fiance of another, I am obviously biased. What I don't understand is the amount of animosity that my hometown community shows its teachers. I remember the teacher strike of 1994 that lasted two weeks and the local paper was riddles with letters to the editor that railed against teachers. Now the forums are online and I felt the need to post this:

It is baffling to me that anyone could call [name of town removed] teachers greedy or that anyone could insinuate that they don't deserve everything they are asking for. It is a thankless profession that is too often taken for granted; especially it seems, in [name of town removed]. Have people forgotten that we are talking about educating our children and what an enormous task that is? Isn't that worth paying a little more to make sure qualified people do the job and do the job well? Why is there so much resistance to this? It's no secret that it's difficult to make a living these days, but in the big picture, shouldn't educating our children, so that they might one day have an easier time of it be the highest priority? So the teachers want a fair healthcare agreement. So what? If the school board's goal is to drive all of the qualified, passionate teachers to other districts, I'm afraid they may just succeed and it's not the school board that will suffer those consequences. It will be [name of town removed] and all of its residents who are counting on these same teachers to give their children a quality education.

Whooooaaaah. I think my favorite reply so far would have to be this:

give me a break. There isn't a thing you said that justifies teacher's not having to pay what workers in the 'real' world are having to pay. Teaching is a job like all the rest. It doesn't entitle them to anymore than anyone else.

Hahahahahahahahahaha! "Teaching is a job like all the rest"! Oh, stop it! Hahahahahaha! Seriously, stop, I'm crying! I love it when people try to lump teaching in with other occupations. I often wonder where some of these people think they would be without teachers?