Seattle teachers are already paid enough

Taken from Friday’s edition of the Dori Monson Show.

When a teacher who makes $80K a year goes on the TV news saying that they’d like a raise and a state income tax so that a family has to take a pay cut, I think that’s pretty selfish.

When people hear me give these numbers ($66K package for a 6-year teacher, $62K package for a 1-year teacher, ($72K package for a 31-year-old teacher), they think I’m dissing the teachers. I’m actually not. I’m just presenting another perspective on this story because is all we’re hearing is how underpaid they are.

Not everyone agrees. Here’s an excerpt from an D-mail to the show:

My daughter is a second-year teacher. She has already done amazing work with a very poor population of kids in the area where she teaches. She is an inspiration to those kids, she is an inspiration to me. She is kind, caring and incredibly hard working. She doesn’t work in the Seattle district, so is not on strike. She doesn’t complain about the pay. She teaches and tutors in the summer to make extra money – no “two months summer vacation” like you always say in disdain. I gotta tell you, you have insulted her vocation, her importance to our society, and the personal virtue of anyone who teaches. To hear you ridicule these people … I’m glad she’s not listening to your mean spirited, ridiculous diatribes.

Related: Seattle teachers, school officials to resume talks Saturday

I’m a high school basketball coach and I’m with these kids for two hours a day. For (anyone) to suggest that I don’t know what teachers go through, I will tell you that it’s similar to what a coach goes through – dealing with a broad cross-section of kids on a daily basis.

My wife is a counselor in the public school system and she deals with kids on a daily basis. I see everything you’re talking about. I choose to do it for almost no salary &#8212 $6,200 as a basketball coach.

But that doesn’t change the fact that I think $60K-$80K is a decent salary. And when they say they want to go to the state Legislature for a state income tax so that we take a pay cut and give them more money, I’m still against it.

Great teachers are wonderful and they should be paid more. Horrible teachers should be flushed out of the system. Since we don’t have a way to do that, I will continue to say that on average, what they’re making is enough for the job they do.

The average truck driver, or engineer, or retail workers shouldn’t take a pay cut to give the teachers more money.

Taken from Friday’s edition of the Dori Monson Show.