Politicians verses Teachers

It is instructive to understand how horrible teachers are. We have heard they make too much money, work too few hours, and have those great summer vacations. Let's compare these layabout teachers to the folks that hate them most, politicians.

US Congress vs Starting Teacher in North Dakota
$174,000 vs $24,872 per year
137 days vs 185 days worked per year

That's enough, don't you think? It all goes down hill from here. Congress does way better with many more perks than teachers. Sure there are teacher averages, but a freshman congressman gets that starting salary and the only difference between a new congressman and an old congressman is a multi-million dollar salary as a lobbyist and free parking at the Chinese embassy. Teachers get a sedate retirement and a part time job as a Walmart greeter so they can pay for prescription drugs.

Why would a congressman hate a teacher? Simple, competition. Teachers are part of the Educational Industrial Complex. This is like the Military Industrial Complex, but the toys aren't as cool and of course, there are more lobbyists in defense than education. We spend a lot of money on education. Funding education is like the war in Iraq, except there are fewer embedded reporters and the USO doesn't entertain (Bob Hope never did a parent teacher conference). Found an example of the taxes for education verses the military, 5% of our taxes goes to evil teachers and 27% goes to the military to fight evil (though not evil teachers). Loose the teachers, kill more evil. Sounds good, but not too compelling.'

A better possibility is that it's harder to get votes from educated and well informed people. Ah, see, obvious! Reduce the quality of education and you decrease the ease of re-election. Re-election is very important because you need to be in congress for at least 5 years before you are vested in the congressional retirement system. If you could make that much money, both on the job, with retirement, and those perk filled lobbyist jobs, you would do anything to wipe teachers off the face of the earth.

Same goes for teacher unions. They are hated by congress because they don't pay retired congressmen high lobbyist fees. That's a twofer! Greenpeace probably pays lobbyists more to save baby seals than teachers do, and seals are cuter and get more votes.

Is there something to learn about this? Sorry, no. Education is bad. Don't do it. Your congressman told us so.

sources
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/congresspay.htm
http://teacherportal.com/teacher-salaries-by-state
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/08/health-care-for-members-of-congress/
http://www.policynd.org/index.php?/site/article/teacher_salaries_and_market_forces/
http://www.thecapitol.net/FAQ/cong_schedule.html
http://www.slate.com/id/2223842/
http://www.lobbyinginfo.org/documents/RevolveDoor.pdf
http://education-portal.com/articles/Iraq_War_Spending_vs._Education_Spending.html