Dori: If teachers can’t afford Seattle rent, they should commute

Real estate firm Zillow has released data that teachers in the area cannot afford Seattle rent prices. It would take 75 percent of a beginning teacher’s salary to afford the average rent payment in the city.

So what?

Since when is your salary predicated on the housing prices of the city in which you live?

The Seattle teachers got an 11-percent raise last year and now they’re getting another 11-percent raise; that’s a 22-percent raise over a four-year period. In three years, it will cap out at $124,000 a year for a nine-month job. That’s not bad dough.

Dori: Teachers union’s greed causing massive deficit, layoffs around state

You know what? If you can’t afford to live in Seattle, maybe you have to do what I had to do when I was starting out in the radio biz, making minimum wage. I had to get out of Seattle. I had to commute into the city because I could not afford Seattle rent. Or, you could stay in the city and get roommates. Don’t live above your means.

Who said that you have to live where you work if you can’t afford it? That’s not the way salaries are determined.  Salaries in the free market are determined by supply and demand — you are worth what someone is willing to pay you.

Now, in the public sector, free market economics are not at play because you have a monopoly. In this state, we have a party in power that will never stand up to the teachers union, because the union has bought off the politicians.

Let’s extend this idea out, though. Consider this — if we’re going to base teacher salaries off of rent in the city where they teach, then teachers in Colfax and Hoquiam should take massive pay cuts. They make way more than it takes to afford the average housing prices in those cities. In Colfax, the median house is $154,000. Teachers could get by on a lot less there.

So if we’re going to make the case that Seattle teachers need even more money after a 22 percent hike because of high housing costs, let’s stay consistent and cut salaries all around the state where housing is much cheaper. Keep it consistent for every single city in the state. I’ll bet the taxpayers would reap a fortune in savings.

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