Michael Sauers
May 15, 2025
There is a serious lack of teachers at all levels. The pay and working conditions are awful. The majority of teachers scrape by most of their careers. Towards the end (25 to 35 years) there is ray of sunshine called a pension. Paired with Social Security, teachers get by if they are healthy. Most people are not going to do this.
Add to the above that everyone (parents, taxpayers, politicians, unions, business) is weak kneed when it comes to the issue of adequate school funding. Education is by far the most powerful economic development tool. Our problems would quickly disappear if we truly gave all students a top notch education. An educated, critical thinking, questioning and involved citizenry is a potent force that can drive a civilization. It is also a direct threat to establishment power structures. Power structures want a compliant, working, tax paying, non-questioning citizenry. That is why education is continuously and seriously underfunded.
Razor Hegseth wants a 1 trillion dollar defense budget. Trump is making “deals” for multi-billion dollar WMD sales. The establishment’s priorities revolve around weapons’ production (foreign and domestic), defense readiness and policing the world to protect American interests. That is where our money goes. It is not rocket science.
Keep in mind that the State of Pennsylvania had to be dragged into Commonwealth Court (2023) for a lesson on the unconstitutional paradigm it used to fund schools. Typically, with adequate surplus funds available, Shapiro and the legislature chose to concoct a seven year plan to reach adequacy. Cowards!
Worse yet, most states and the federal government continuously ignore the two most important problems, class size and government supported teacher salaries. If education was truly a priority, as many politicians claim, class size would never be above 12-15 and state and federal governments would help make teacher salaries as enticing as other four year degree required professions. Money talks in America and we need the best and brightest in our classrooms. This assumes the lunatics don’t crush many occupations via AI. They are greedy.
This is all a matter of priorities. We love our children. Why do we short-change them?
Research it. Make it an issue!