I watched this two times, and I still had no words. I know most of my audience makes up the choir, but for any of you in the ambivalent congregation, please, please listen to my [Jon Stewart's] preaching and reconsider your erroneous opinions of teachers & education:
The Daily Show, Monday, February 28, 2011.
Also, I found this via Stephanie, and posted it around to many of you, but it bears repeating:
Are you sick of highly paid teachers?
Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or10 months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit!
Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 minutes off for lunch and plan-- that equals 6.5 hours).
Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to babysit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day.
However, remember they only work 180 days a year, and I am not going to pay them for any vacations. Let's see... that's $585 x 180 = $105,300.00 per year. And those are the teachers who don't teach Special Ed, and don't have Masters degrees.
The average teacher's salary (nation wide) is $50,000.
$50,000 ÷ 180 days = $277.77 per day ÷ 30 students = $9.25 ÷ 6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour, per student. That's a very inexpensive babysitter, and they even educate your kids, and work when your children aren't around! WHAT A DEAL!!!!
