I don't think too many of us are complaining about what others earn.

The only point that was made is that there is a tax levy on the ballot in one of our local school districts, and the guy who spoke in opposition to it was simply pointing out that the school board in this district had chosen to agree to a contract with the teachers' union that was a very sweet deal for the teachers.  In these hard times, he was simply arguing that if the district needs more money, perhaps the first thing that the school board should look at is its cost structure before saddling middle class home owners with increased real estate taxes.  That's the sum and substance of the original post.

Teaching used to be a low paid job, as Mick pointed out, but it isn't anymore.  As I said, my undergrad degree is in education, but I chose not to teach full time, mainly because of the low pay, and low esteem that teachers were held in back in the early 1970s.  Teachers should be paid well, as they are the ones who form our youth, especially now in the day when kids predominantly live either in a single parent household, or in one where both parents have full time jobs - either circumstance reduces parenting time over what the average kid enjoyed back 50 years ago when the average mother wasn't employed outside of the home.

However, I love to teach.  20 years ago I was a part-time adjunct professor at both Air Force Institute of Technology and at The Ohio State University for a few years.  Both of these appointments actually cost me money because of the time away from practice that both required.  I did it because I enjoyed it; certainly not for the small checks I got.

Even now, I keep my FAA flight instructor certificate up to date, and do some part time flight and ground instructing, again because I enjoy it and hopefully, I can pass along some knowledge to younger pilots to keep them alive.  They pay is a pittance, maybe enough, after all day on a Saturday, to take my wife out to dinner.

Tenure of public employees is a problem, but like most problems, it has two sides to the story.

Measuring a teacher's performance is very difficult to do objectively.  You can't use student grades or test scores as much of a measure, because they depend in large part on things outside of the teacher's control.  Take the same teacher working in a high income, suburuban district where the kids get good parenting, have educated parents who value education.  Naturally, those kids will perform better than would the same teacher's students in a poor, underprivileged, urban ghetto school.  So a lousy teacher may appear to be a good one in a certain school, while the reverse may hold true in another school.

Of course, like all public employees, we need to protect teachers' careers from politicians on school boards who might be inclined to want a faculty in their schools who agree with them; who may be their political allies.  We sure don't want that to determine who stays, or who gets fired.

So, I, like most folks, am at a loss to come up with a sound way to measure a teacher's performance that is fair, and that works across the broad spectrum of different schools, in different places, serving kids of different backgrounds.

I work as a teacher- when I retire- it will be when I can't go to work physically. I am 58 and there's no end in sight. The retirement is so low. I've worked since I was 14. Yet my state takes the pension money to balance the budget, then doesn't want to pay it back. If you say you'll do it - then do it. Nobody should be allowed to weasel out of a contract. Look around- I don't know anybody making big bucks and retired - another myth.