Politicians, please stop saying, "We need to pay teachers more!" What we need is respect and support.

What do politicians always run on? "We need to pay teachers more!" But when parents receive their child's dismal state testing scores in the mail, they think, "Why would I pay someone more when they aren't doing their job?" We appear as a group to be incompetent and tone-deaf.

I want to hear politicians say, "We need to give teachers the support and respect they deserve. They need more from us to make our education system succeed." Those statements would also cover better pay, but it doesn't make us sound greedy and uncaring.

Teachers are perceived as losers. They pick a low-paying profession with little respect. If a teacher tries to change careers, they go into every job interview at a disadvantage. And, since there is a teacher shortage, if it's hard to pick between two candidates, then maybe it's for the greater good to leave the teacher in place. Once in, they are often stuck.

Submitted February 17, 2023 at 09:11AM by MantaRay2256 https://ift.tt/WPO2SI9