Brain gap hits NEA

NEA: The Bill's Come Due

Their occupations—White is a teacher, Bradley a nurse—require comparable training and skills, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' National Compensation Survey. Yet nationally, nurses make far more in weekly wages ($942) than elementary teachers ($811) like White, says a report by the Economic Policy Institute.

Ok, ok, nurses make more than teachers, that’s kinda expected. Let's see how the NEA stacks up the numbers.

Name: Karen White

Job: First-grade teacher, Cherokee Elementary School

Where: Johnson City, Tennessee

Years in the field: 13

Higher education: Bachelor's degree and Master of Arts in Teaching

Kudos: Winner of 2002 national Milken Family Foundation educator award for excellence.

Hours at work: 40 hours a week by contract, but she puts in an average of 10 additional unpaid hours each week.

Salary: $45,000 (plus $2,000 for attaining certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards)

and

Name: Angelitti Bradley

Job: Nurse, James Quillen VA Medical Center

Where: Johnson City, Tennessee

Years in the field: 29

Higher education: Associate's degree

Hours at work: Eight-hour shifts, plus regular paid overtime. On call one day a week and one weekend a month.

Salary: $54,000 (which includes some extra pay for special projects, such as training other staff on operating room safety)

So the first grade teacher with 13 years of experience makes $7k less than a nurse with 29 years of experience? Wow, we should be paying nurses more, they have to be on call, and a mistake by a nurse could mean life or death, not so with a teacher.

I agree that teachers should be paid more, but there are some factors that go into it. For one they are a government employee, and there is no money in the government. So you would think the NEA would push for private schools right? Well for some reason they hate private schools. Another thing is, that I think almost everyone forgets, is that teachers get three months off a year, plus the weekends and holidays off. Think about that, three months off. That means that they only work ¾ of the time that other jobs do, so they should be making ¾ less than other professions.

What I really don't like about the NEA is that they take $500 a year from teachers to go push very liberal political views, and then they skew their numbers to the point of lying when they have a "report" in their propaganda magazine.

You would think teachers would be smart....