I thoroughly enjoy my generous $2000 a month pension.

I'm not complaining for sure. However, its a darned good thing that my S.O. is still working and can include me on her health insurance; otherwise, I'd probably be dead- either from lack of insurance or from having to keep working when the job was obviously killing me.

There is no doubt that the winter, spring, and summer breaks for teachers are a godsend. I suspect that without them, even more people would wash out of the profession. As it is now, the majority of new teachers leave the profession within 7 years. I haven't seen actual recent numbers on how many stay until they qualify for full retirement, but I would suspect that less than 10% of the people who start make it through to the 30-40 years needed to procure the full pension benefits.

Speaking of pensions, they've been disappearing over the past 30 years. For example, new teachers in Virginia are offered basically the equivalent of a 401K/403B defined contribution plan. However, I was enrolled in a defined benefit pension in Virginia. I remember thinking after 15 years, that if I could make it another 18 years, I could retire. Teachers in our state don't have that incentive anymore.

Regarding livibility of the wage: You are correct that there are $70/$80K salaries in NOVAsux. But those salaries skew the averages to the high side. I have no doubt that $70K in NOVAsux is a difficult salary to live on comfortably, but I can also tell you that living on $40K in Roanoke or $31K in Tazewell is no picnic. I always chuckle when I hear that Virginia teachers are paid about $8000 below the national average (usually this average is based on the 10 year salary). Yet, thanks to the skewing of the state average, teachers in my part of the state are more like $15,000-$20,000 below the national average.

BUT if you think that these work stoppages are simply because of salary concerns, then you are misinformed.

Teachers in WVA, Kentucky, Oklahoma and across the country are fed up. Fed up with a general lack of regard.
Fed up with increasing unrealistic demands on their time.
Fed up with nonsensical unfunded mandates.
Fed up with a lack of administrative support.
Fed up a lack of professional development support.
Fed up with a starvation of resource funding.
Fed up with capital needs that go un-addressed year after year.
Fed up with people who simply don't value public school education.

These work stoppages are wildcat actions taken by teachers that are mad as hell and frustrated beyond belief. I could be wrong, but I believe that these three states are RTW states with legal limitations to unionization and union activities. The only reason that these stoppages haven't caused the offending teachers to garner legal charges and professinoal reprimands is due to a desperate shortage of qualified people to replace them if they were relieved of their duties.

And why is there such a shortage?

Because fewer and fewer people are going in to the profession
Because the profession is trashed in the media relentlessly
Because it's increasingly expensive to earn a 5 year degree
Because the crushing student loan debt would hang around a teacher's neck for a lifetime
Because fewer and fewer teacher parents are encouraging their own children to go in to the profession (We instructed our own two kids to do anything but teaching...)
Because one salary alone isn't enough to live on.

I hear a lot of people utilizing false equivalency arguments. "Well, I have a 401K, why should teachers get a pension?" "Well, teachers get their summers off, and I don't ever get any time off." "Well, I work 2500 hours a year and my wife only works 1500 hours." I put forth two thoughts in response.

First, are you (the global "you"...not you personally HWA) really comparing two identical items? Are you considering all the variables or are you simply basing your argument on a snapshot in time and space?

Second, the discontent we are seeing playing out across the classrooms of the country is a mere symptom of a greater discontent in society at large. For far too long, compensation for services in our country has remained stagnant while the costs of living have continued to rise. Most of us, not just teachers, are falling farther and farther from the the affordable ideal lifestyle enjoyed 50 years ago. Where my father was able to support a stay-at-home wife and five children through college on a basic bachelor's degree, the typical household REQUIRES at least two wage earners or more just to make ends meet. It seems to me that more of us are in a similar position to teachers than are not. Maybe we should all be working together to change that failing paradigm.

I blame A-Rod.

Rant withered. That's the way I feel about that.