Friday, February 3, 2012

Blame Jesus for low teacher pay?

From Indecision Forever:
It's a common refrain among education reform advocates that the best way to improve teacher performance is to increase teacher pay. So what's the hold-up — low budgets, sexism, market forces?

Nope, it's the Bible
According to Alabama state Sen. Shadrack McGill (R), the Bible says that increasing teacher salaries would only lead to less-qualified teachers…

"If you double a teacher’s pay scale, you’ll attract people who aren't called to teach. To go in and raise someone's child for eight hours a day, or many people's children for eight hours a day, requires a calling."

"And these teachers that are called to teach, regardless of the pay scale, they would teach. It's just in them to do. It's the ability that God give 'em… If you don't keep that in balance, you're going to attract people who are not called, who don't need to be teaching our children. So, everything has a balance."

Funny, isn't it? These same Republicans will defend to the death those multimillion dollar bonuses to bankers, since without that, we wouldn't get the very best. Of course, they care about bankers. Who cares about teachers? Who cares about education?

Why do we always hear these guys defending tax breaks for hedge fund managers? Hey, if that's your calling, you'd be a hedge fund manager no matter how much money you get, right? Giving such lucrative tax breaks to bankers, to hedge fund managers, to vulture capitalists will just ensure that those professions will "attract people who are not called."

I'm sure that no one who enters a teacher college is concerned about actually making a living in their profession, no more than someone who enters a business college, right? We're not going to attract the best people to certain professions, which is why everyone in America earns the minimum wage. Don't they? After all, corporations won't want to pay extra to anyone, because otherwise they'll get employees who aren't "called" to the profession.

Whenever I think I hear the craziest thing ever from a right-wing Republican, another one opens his mouth. It's just incredible, don't you think?

1 comment:

Jeff said...

You read that, too? I saw that last night on a site called Addicting Info.

And this "epiphany" was from a politician from.....Alabama!!! Imagine that!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tqxzWdKKu8