>>>>>>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/opinion/west-virginia-teachers-strike.html
>>>>>>
>>>>>>We need a lot more strikes like this.
>>>>>>Here in NJ and in NY, teachers are grossly overpaid, so it's not a national issue.
>>>>>
>>>>>Really? Overpaid?
>>>>
>>>>Yes. Overpaid and overstaffed.
>>>>The count of assistant principals, teachers, teachers' aides, guidance counselors, nutritionists, librarians, security guards, secretaries, coaches, assistant coaches, etc. at my grandsons' middle school exceeded the count of the entire staff at the college I attended- and back then the were no computers.
>>>
>>>You must live in my town :). I knew when I asked the question that you would give me pretty much this answer. A couple of years ago I was at the high school of my town attending a town meeting (the town uses high school auditorium for town meetings) and I had overheard a conversation of a couple of women. It appeared that one or both of them worked in one of the town schools. I was hoping that I would hear some gossip about an intimate affair of some sort :). But no. They were complaining vigorously about the schools being overstaffed and overpaid. Since the women were at the meeting, I knew that they lived in the town and pay high property tax (I think our town is the second or third highest in the state of Massachusetts). Since my kids finished the schools some time ago, we should move out of this town (and stop paying exorbitantly high property tax) but my wife and I like the town and keep putting this decision for a future.

So the women in the meeting were there to complain about high property tax. Of course they are going to claim the teacher's make too much money as that is where a lot of the property tax goes - so the merits of their claims regarding teacher's pay seems questionable considering the forum in which they were complaining about it. Part of the problem using property tax to fund the public schools is that the schools in poor neighborhoods end up with less money and fewer qualified teachers.

>>Just in- the teachers got the 5% raise they had asked for and the strike has ended.
>>Workers of the world- unite!
>>You have nothing to lose but your chains!
>
>Power to the people! :)

I'm glad the strike is over and they got the 5% raise. When someone is working full time as a teacher they shouldn't be able to (or need to) qualify for food stamps. I've always that that teachers are way underpaid.