Paying Teachers Enough

PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS in Detroit all called in sick one day recently, arousing suspicions that there had been a big party somewhere, a bug going around, or a stike-hint. Working conditions and pay, as always. Maybe we don't need to keep sending money down some public education black hole, as conservatives suggest, but at least we could keep the buildings standing, with electricity, and water that runs in the right places, with the proper chemical composition. With regard to salaries; why don't we just pay teachers, and everyone else for that matter, something reasonabl with respect to today's cost of middle class living, and leave it at that. Eternally trying to "pay people what they're worth" creates a whole set of problems we just can't seem to solve, free marketarily. How much is a good teacher really worth? Not much, in public or private schools, where the free market rears its ugly head, and Americans get to demomstrate their preference for entertainment, firsthand. How much is a stay at home mother worth? You hate for teachers to fail to show up for work en masse because it hurts the kids, hurts everyone's future, and makes a mockery out of cherished institutions such as labor unions, public schools, and economics. surely it doesn't have to come to that. Rather than a strike, a good old fashioned public relations campaign might arouse the general public to the need for money to maintain educational infrastructure, and public infrastructure of all kinds, water, electricity, roads and bridges, you name it. Let's just admit that we can never pay teachers or mothers enough, and stop trying to. Instead, let's pay them reasonably, sensibly. Many American professions could use a good dose of sensible salary structure. Due to highly advanced, computerized, 'sabermetrics", you can't even tell how much a baseplayer is worth these days, although you can come closer than ever. Are they worth thirty million a year? Not to most people.