What type of person, indeed?

[Playinghardball]

[ZombieHorde]

1. Awesome! nt

[dkf]

2. Do people get that teachers salaries are a local issue?

So the 3% increase at the top for federal income tax doesn't do anything for teachers salaries.

States have their own budget problems.

[RevStPatrick]

4. Really? That's your response to this silly little meme thingie?

Your schtick is boring...

[kestrel91316]

5. Still more concerned about the 1% than the 99%, I see........

[world wide wally]

9. Fuck your rich buddies. I'm a teacher and it would be nice to get adult wages...Just sayin'

[newfie11]

14. You are so right

My daughter teaches in SD, the lowest wages per state in the country.

She has a Masters Degree, specialist in math, also majored in special Ed. 15 years of teaching and she is making in the 30's.

Wonder where this teacher making 50 grand lives. I am sure they are not living high on the hog!

[liberalhistorian]

24. Thank you and a thank you to your daughter.

I also live in South Dakota, and I sub at our local school when asked (I have a BA, but not a teaching degree, so I can sub), and I'm the proud daughter of now-retired teachers who worked their asses off for nearly forty years and got NOTHING for it in the way of appreciation or money, since all their money now goes to my stepdad's illness and nursing home institutionalization. My stepdad had a MA and, although we lived in OH, still made hardly anything compared to so many other professions with an equal education.

SD has the lowest salaries in the nation; a starting salary in many districts doesn't even crack 30 grand a year and even those with a decade or more of experience are lucky to hit forty grand a year. It is one of the most difficult, yet important, professions, yet it and its professionals are treated and paid like shit while those with far less important and critical professions make far more, often by spending their days screwing others over, and are given far more deference.

[HoneychildMooseMoss]

28. I have heard that average teacher salaries in Connecticut

are among the highest in the nation. Nearly $50,000 to start, average salary nearly $70,000

http://www.teacherportal.com/salary/Connecticut-teacher-salary

[Squinch]

35. The median home price in CT is about twice the median home price in the nation as a whole.

So is 50k to 70k twice the average teacher's salary across the nation? Ummmmmm. No. So by that standard, the "what can your money buy" standard, CT teachers are underpaid relative to others.

[roody]

36. Are they unionized and

not in a 'right to work' state?

[UnrepentantLiberal]

15. Well said.

[garthranzz]

23. I applaud you

I'm a teacher. My wife's a teacher. My mother when she worked was a teacher. My children are teachers.

[dkf]

43. Well talk to your state and local officials.

And while you are at it tell them they should fix their damned roads and bridges.

The truth is we get a lot more services from our local governments and that is
where taxes should be raised if this is the argument you want to make.

How am I supposed to take people seriously if they don't seem to understand the basics about who pays for what? What would you tell kids in your class? Would you really mislead them and keep them ignorant about how government works?

[world wide wally]

44. Now you can see how the Republican theory of "trickle down" works. It starts when the federal budget

goes down the tubes and costs are pushed down to the states. Then ultimately down to state workers including teachers.
But another tax cut for the rich will fix all that... right?

[LWolf]

10. I'm a teacher.

I get it.

I get that many of my colleagues have lost their homes to foreclosure, or sold them in short sales after the last 4.5 years of salary and contract cuts. That I've been barely holding on.

Regardless of what the base salary is, which is a local issue based on local budgets. Teachers' budgets are based on those local salaries that have been sliced to ribbons.

At the same time, we are told we must simply do the same and even better job, with less and less and less and less. Or, of course, our evaluations will suffer.

I get that just fine.

I get that states are terrified that whatever tax-generating business they have will simply move to another state if they have to pay their fair share of state taxes.

I get that.

I get that, whether at the state or the federal level, corporations are more deserving of tax breaks than the working class, middle or not.

[Squinch]

13. Do you get that your response has little to do with the message of the OP?

[liberalhistorian]

25. Don't expect this particular poster to give a shit.

He's too busy sticking his nose up Wall Street's ass, while bashing those who truly make an important difference in society and advocating taking away what little crumbs they do still have and feeding them to said insatiable Wall Street.

[savebigbird]

22. It's an examination of right wing priorities.

The same group of people who widely support teacher cuts passionately object to increasing taxes on our nation's wealthiest.

[Fumesucker]

34. Whether the issues are linked financially or not they are linked morally

Because for the most part it's the very same people making the two arguments, against tax hikes for very high income earners and for wage cuts to teachers.

It's the hypocrisy, silly.

[Ikonoklast]

45. If they are 'local' issues, why the assault on teachers and education by out-of-state 1%'ers?

What right do they have interjecting their opinions in 'local' issues, if they neither live or vote in those districts?

Do you get that there is nationwide assault on teachers and public education by holders of massive private wealth that wants to privatize education in this country?

Do you realize just how lame your defenses of the poor, misunderstood, massively wealthy are getting?

[Ganja Ninja]

3. Two kinds.

Millionaires and brainwashed morons.

[abelenkpe]

6. Exactly. Nt

[Brigid]

7. A One-percenter, of course.

Who else?

[world wide wally]

8. People over the age of 5 who like "Tea Parties"?

[valerief]

11. A heartless asshole, that's what kind. nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. What kind? People who don't have education or on whom education is wasted. Teabuggers in a word. nt

[tecelote]

16. Teachers should be paid like lawyers.

Police like doctors. Etc. What a better country we would have.

Congress should get paid the average wage of their constituents.

Big government is not a problem if it works.

[Ed Suspicious]

17. There should be a direct link between constiuent standard of living and a congressman's. Perfect!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

18. Teachers are KNOWN for being underpaid....

That was before corporations sent all their profits to shareholders instead of payroll.

Now a teacher's salary seems high by comparison to workers who have been screwed and of course, the Right Wing took that situation and flipped it on it's head to claim it's not that workers have been UNDERPAID, it's that teachers are OVERPAID.

All it took was to have a slew of talking heads all making seven figures tell people making under 40k that they should be OUTRAGED that some government worker is making more than them and appeal to their jealousy. Then claim THEY should be making that type of money but they CAN'T because their boss is paying too much in taxes and had to put those silly air scrubbers on their smoke stacks.

Keep in mind that the icon for industry is this:



What's sad is the white collar workers who feel lucky to show up for a comparably low wage job at a cubicle in a tower of glass designed to impress shareholders.

[lunasun]

20. +100

[Blanks]

19. We need to raise taxes on the wealthy to be certain...

But a lot of school district money comes from local property taxes.

A lot of districts could pay their teachers more if they trimmed the districts bloated administration costs. That's one of the problems of local control.

That teachers are underpaid is a problem; I don't know that raising income tax on the upper brackets is the solution (which I support whether teachers benefit or not).

As long as there is local control; we can raise taxes, send the money to the schools, and there's nothing preventing the school district from hiring 7 new assistant superintendents and keeping teacher salaries where they're at.

I don't think anyone is going to support establishing a federal property tax to fund schools. Especially if we leave it up to the school district superintendent to decide where that increased revenue goes.

[MyOwnPeace]

38. Blanks,

"Divide and Conquer" is just what the 1% want you to do. There IS a need for good administrators, just as there is a need for good teachers.
You are correct stating that there will be no support for a federal tax to fund schools, just as there is now no support for the people in each local district to pay more to support schools!

[Blanks]

40. How am I supporting 'Divide and Conquer'?

School districts need good administrators to be certain. The percentage of a school districts budget that goes toward administrative costs should be limited.

I think run away administrative costs is the issue that we are facing. If we want to pay teachers more; it is my opinion - that is where we should look first. If school districts are paying a reasonable amount of administrative costs; then there should be financial assistance available, but I have personally witnessed several instances where school districts have gotten themselves into trouble for having a large wish list; with nobody holding the superintendent and the school board's feet to the fire. Some of it in excessive administration, some of it in excessive construction.

If the local school district decides that it wants a new stadium; that money (including interest) is going to have to come from somewhere. It isn't the millionaires fault that a school district chooses to live beyond their means. Even though the millionaires should pay their fair share; school districts should live within their means.

[WillyT]

21. HUGE K & R !!!

[Kalidurga]

26. Thanks for laying that out...

It is an awesome and handy rebuttal to those that think taxes shouldn't be raised on millionaires but everyone else should pay more and take pay cuts as well.

[blkmusclmachine]

27. .

.

[dtom67]

29. the answer is increasingly clear;

The politicians that are owned by wealthy elites, such as the Koch brothers...

[mgardener]

30. Or..

Hungry children to go hungry so we don't have to cut the military budget.
Or sick children and adults to sit tight, no doctors no medicines so we can have another weapon to kill another human being.

[madokie]

31. idiots

that was easy.
Next question please.

[union_maid]

32. Well put!

Concise and to the point. And correct.

[Ian_rd]

33. Meanwhile ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/opinion/luring-foreign-high-tech-workers.html?_r=0

[mwooldri]

39. I suggest we Finn-ish this problem.

Teachers should be regarded more like doctors and lawyers as they are in Finland. Teachers have a huge impact on our lives. I bet nearly everyone knows the name of their favorite primary school teacher. Conversely I bet most people cannot remember the name of their favourite lawyer, unless that lawyer is one on TV.

There's a lot to be admired about the Finnish education system - I like that students and teachers share the journey through the grades/years, starting in kindergarten. Teachers require masters degrees. However they are better compensated.

Teachers need pay raises, and more pay for better educated teachers.

[noiretextatique]

42. i would love to teach, and i'd be good at it, but

i cannot take the $30,000.00 pay cut to do it. i'd have to win the lottery in order to teach.

[The Wizard]

41. What sort of person?

Republicans, because they don't like thinking. It's too much like work. Republicans, because the military never has enough. Republicans, because cutting teacher's salary translates into tax cuts for the wealthy elites. And they all believe they'll be a wealthy elite at some point. Republicans, because they're easily fooled by the likes of Pox News and hate radio. Republicans, because being uneducated gives them an excuse to play the victim. Republicans, because they're inherently lazy. Republicans, because they know education will expose their belief in imaginary sky heroes as mythology. Republicans, because they are fearful of normal people.