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Public School Teachers Pay Zero Income Taxes!
Want to Increase Teacher Recruitment and Quality?
Do I even need to regal you with the depressing stories of teachers quitting their jobs because they can’t afford to live on only a teacher’s salary? Do I have to narrate the journey of the teacher working two jobs during the school year? And then working full time during their short-lived “summer vacation?” Do I have to produce the stats on the woefully low starting salary that can be in the range of $30K in some states?
I know. It is disheartening. So…
How about we skip right over the teachers who are quitting by the droves and the classrooms that do NOT have a certified teacher to instruct children? I do want to scream “I’m as mad as hell, and I can’t take it anymore!” — but, of course, the parents dealing with this issue are the ones who are tearing what’s left of their hair out.
Naturally, they are parents who live in districts with far too little funding because the state allocates money for districts based on the taxes they contribute. Jonathan Kozal makes that case over and over in his books, beginning with Savage Inequalities and The Shame of America.
So rather than terrifying you with horror stories about the public schools being savaged by political forces that keep the…
