Who wants to teach, guv?

I understand that I may quite possibly be beating a dead horse, but here goes with the horse violence: teachers are underpaid. (That calls for a "duh.") Despite the fact that education was one of the first areas to get slashed in most states to attempt to deal with their horrendous deficits, and that states (and the federal government) were irresponsible with their budgets in the first place (if my Mom were in charge, everyone would be on the frugal budget and only allowed to buy one pair of shoes a year. Yes, I'm talking to myself and my bad shoe-buying habit.), there still may be a chance to save our kids but leave it to people like Kasich and others who don't value educators' skills. I invite you, Governor Kasich, to teach for a week and see what is involved in being in the classroom. I also invite you, sir, to take home what a teacher makes in a week. Then take another 10% of your income away to pay for health care and yet still pay higher co-pays and then spend your hard-earned cash on school supplies for your classroom (because your classroom budget is about $150/year). Whatcha got left? And who was going to take care of your kids and your partner? Oh, and I'm sorry, did you think you got to "relax" during the summer? Yeah, try working a part-time job, preparing lessons to meet the ridiculous academic content standards arbitrarily determined by administrators and also taking care of your family full-time. Got it?

I'm not saying that unions are perfect; they're not. And I'm not saying that all teachers are the best either. But I am saying that the middle class (to which many teachers belong) can't afford all this mumbo jumbo. We need pensions (I won't even embarrass the state of Ohio by announcing the pittance that my mother made after teaching for 30+ years) in order to pay for that assisted living that medicare won't cover after a certain period of time. We need to take care of our children and our grandchildren. And by the way, we (the middle class) didn't piddle away millions and billions on bail outs and mortgage crises. Most of us were just working. Hard. And now my friends and colleagues are being rewarded with unemployment, lowered salaries, and barely-there pension possibilities.

Seriously, guv, walk a week in any of my friends' shoes and see what it's like. And then try paying a teacher what you pay your plumber and we'll talk.