Teachers around the country, not just in Wisconsin, are facing potential pay and benefits cuts as lawmakers try to narrow gaping state budget shortfalls. Teachers individually remain very popular, but as a group they are being called greedy, lazy, and overpaid. "For most of my adult life, politicians have asserted that public-school teachers are underpaid and under-resourced," says Ed Morrissey at Hot Air. Has the pendulum now swung in the other direction?
Yes, teachers are overpaid: Look at the numbers, say Nick Gillespie and Meredith Bragg at Reason. (See their video argument below.) Including summer earnings, the average public school teacher pulls in $52,000 a year — "about $14,000 a year more in straight salary than private school teachers" — and their benefits are great, too. On top of that, they "teach fewer students than ever before." So, what do we get for our "ever-growing pile of tax dollars"? Stagnant test scores and unhappy parents.
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