Rantastic: Teachers’ Edition

Tory Time has his thoughts on the most recent settlement with the BC Teachers’ Federation.

16%. Not too bad, especially on top of the settlements that the teachers received over the past few years. And really, why expect it to stop here? Teachers can strike every year, the government can legislate them back to work every year, and arbitration can push the pay up and up and up. There’s no way to stop it.

In Newark NJ, teachers currently make an average of 87,000 a year. I’m very sorry to all of you who are teachers or who are connected to teachers in some way, but that is fucking ridiculous. 87,000 per annum for a position that requires one year of university on top of a bachelors degree? Outrageous.

Capitalism is good because it rewards behaviors that sustain the system. People that take risks (businessmen) have the potential for a bigger pay-off. People that pay to go to school for a long time (doctors) develop skills that are desired and they are therefore paid well for their services. Teachers unions buck the trend. Teachers put in one year of education after the BA. And they take NO risks; they walk into a job and join a union which virtually guarantees job security and perpetual pay raises.

Someone will argue with me here that teachers should get paid more because we value their services, because we value our children. Bullshit. First: I don’t care about your children and I have none of my own, yet I have to pay to reimburse the teachers that educate them. And really: giving more money to a bunch of teachers who start job actions every few weeks is not a good way to show appreciation for your kids. And second, people don’t really care about their childrens’ education. If they did, everyone would make a sacrifice where it hurts (the wallet) and send their kids to to private school.

And, to be perfectly honest, it pisses me off to no end to see small businessmen out there working fourteen-hour days every day to turn a profit while teachers waltz into schools for their eight-hour days standing there pointing at a chalkboard or reading out a book or saying, “That’s very bad, Billy” before heading off to a union meeting to be told “You’re so important” and “You’re not appreciated.” It’s funny how nowadays when everyone talks about “appreciation,” whether it be teachers or natives or whoever, what they actually mean is that I should open up my wallet even wider.

Here’s what I appreciate: Hard work and risk. Capitalism appreciates those things too. But teachers’ unions appreciate collusion; teachers can form a cartel and, through their uncivic behavior (”I’m gonna strike, I’m gonna go have a job action”) can wring more and more money out of the taxpayers.