Dear Governor Scott Walker.....

Dear Governor Scott Walker,

I often hear it said that being a teacher is a thankless job, but I never really believed that statement until recently. I graduated from college about 13 years ago with both a bachelor's degree and 12 credits into a master's degree. In August of 1999 I started my current job of library media specialist at $25,000 and just about the same amount in student loans. This doesn't include the credit card bills I racked up, because I was required to student teach for 9 months at no pay before receiving my degree. I wonder what your starting wage was when you quit college without a degree to take a marketing job with the Red Cross?

Over the years I have earned my master's degree and taken countless required graduate classes (at $200 or more a credit, to which I am reimbursed $75 a credit) in order to maintain my teaching license. I have also gone from having two school libraries, 650 students, and a full time aide in each school to three school libraries, 1150 students, and an aide one day a week for 4 hours.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not writing this letter to whine about working conditions. I love my job. I love working with students and seeing that moment when their faces light up with new information learned. I love seeing students get excited about reading or new technology tools. What could be better than students who are excited to see you when they walk into school? So you see, being a teacher is not thankless.

It is these same students who are suffering as our school budgets have been slashed over and over again by the state. Now you want to continue to slash school budgets, while also punishing those who choose the teaching profession. Why? Because you believe that teachers are the ones robbing our state of millions of dollars.  You believe that teachers make more money than those working in the private job sector.  What other private job sector workers are required to have a degree, required to take graduate credits in order to stay employed, and required to practice the job for months without pay?

You believe that teachers are ruining our middle class, yet we are the middle class. We live in the communities that we teach in, pay property taxes in these communities, and spend our money at businesses in these communities.

I think it's time to stop using teachers as the scapegoat for why our state is in such a terrible economic crisis.  It's time to start celebrating our schools and all the great teachers and students that will be the future of our state.

Some links for your consideration:
Are Wisconsin Public Employees Over Compensated?

CNN: Government jobs not so cushy

National Institute on Retirement Security

Another letter to Governor Walker

Wisconsin Corporations Skate as Governor Targets Public Employees