Get rid of public schools payed for by taxes. Let the market decide all these things and we will be fine.

Make pay increases, retirement pay, and continued teaching employment dependent on productivity of the students in SAT tests and after graduation.
"Sorry, Marge, but 29% of your students are getting government transfer payments and living with their parents. Don't go away mad, just go away."

"They (teacher unions) say higher salaries are needed so they can attract good teachers." So the unions are implying that the current crop of teachers aren't very good?

Everyone wants a higher income than the one they have.
So should someone have a union who says muster into a group at such-in such a place, wave signs
and complain about the pay in hopes of getting a raise, what y'all think is gonna happen?

As a High School teacher, I speak from the inside on this issue. Many of my colleagues are utterly incompetent and not deserving of their salaries. Then again many of them are extremely good at their jobs and go above and beyond on a regular basis. The problem is that the system basically has no mechanism to sort out the good from the bad.

At this time the only real means of evaluating a teacher is to schedule a time with the teacher in advance for an observation. This is a time when the Administration (whom are Largely incompetent failed teachers) sits in a class for a specified amount of time and records their observations. Pretty much anyone can arrange to look like they are doing their job this way.

Even if a teacher is found to be incompetent. Unless they do something illegal or immoral that would cause a teaching license problem, they can just move on to another school. Moving around every 1 to 3 years this way, it is easy for a teacher to remain in the field long enough to retire.

With this said, SURE I WOULD LOVE A RAISE! but do I deserve one? My students would argue both sides of this issue. Some would say that I am a jerk and do not deserve my job at all. I am no saint those that give me problems receive problems in kind. Whereas other students would do anything for me and would certainly say that I deserve a huge raise. Again those that do right by me, find that I can be extremely helpful. I recently set up 5 graduating seniors with a friend of mine for IT positions that will start at more than $20.00 hr.

So I guess the real question is am I a good teacher and do I deserve a raise. In a word "NO." If by being a good teacher you mean do I follow the prescribed curriculum, then I cannot say that I do. Well yes my lesson plans state that I am teaching exactly what I am supposed to teach. But the truth is that I rarely spend much time on what I am supposed to be teaching. I often go down rabbit trails and teach things having nothing at all to do with my subject Math. I speak about History, the Constitution, Morals, Right and Wrong, Politics and why I view things the way that I do. I speak from my life experience and what I have seen during my life time. I know that at 50 I am not "old" by any means. However, I have seen and done things that makes students come alive when we talk about these things. I guess what I need to do is take the certification test to teach Social Studies and History so that I can at least be doing what I am supposed to when I speak on these subjects.

Well at least there is 1 teacher in America that isn't teaching Socialism and Communism as if it were a good thing. Even if I am a bad teacher.

We allot more than about any other country per pupil to under-educate students. Why, because use it to indoctrinate them, leaving them way down on the lit in academics internationally. It got worse when schools of education were set up, which teaches theory, but not such subject. I saw a group of budding teacher candidates at my university, lying on the floor learning to do snow angels in the carpet - which then was used to produce snowflakes! Teachers get also their Masters degrees, usually in "education" paid for them. They work for a salary paying for 9 months, more than most people get for 12. No one ever questions today, the relationship between per pupil spending and student academic performance - more does not make it better.