"Stop being a Missionary"

So Capistrano, Ca. teachers walked the picket line today because the District Office unilaterally decided to impose a 10% pay cut on their teachers and they made it permanent. Meaning: they won't get it back even if California's economic outlook brightens. Every other district in California (including my own) has language in the contract that says salaries are reinstated when more money becomes available. ** By the way that is also not likely to happen. Once teachers show the district they are capable of doing a good job and for less money why would the district give money back? Out of the kindness of their hearts? Because it's the right thing to do? District Offices and school boards don't do things like that. Trust me most of them do not do things like that. The Capistrano district essentially said F.U. to the teacher union and just did what they wanted. Teachers in San Juan Capistrano didn't teach today and they shouldn't until the language is changed in the contract so that they get their salaries back when more money is available.

In Florida the legislature voted in a bill to end all teacher tenure. Only in Florida!

In Poway Unified (San Diego) the district and the union showed they are still sleeping together by combining to offer their teachers a 2 year contract with a 2.3 % pay cut each year after an already imposed 2.7% pay cut this year. If ratified ( a certainty since younger teachers are sheep and don't have a clue about union business) the teachers in Poway will have done this to themselves:
1. 7% pay cuts over 3 years
2. Larger class sizes (up to 45 per classroom)
3. Less clerical and janitorial support (currently barely visible as it is)

I don't want to hear one more person saying , "well, it's hard times economically, we're in a recession" so teachers have to make concessions. Let me make it clear to the half blind and half duped. There is plenty of money in the State coffers. Taxpayers pay more taxes in California than any other state. Is there as much money as say 5 years ago....of course not but there is funding in Sacramento.
The issue is the fact that State legislators CHOOSE TO NOT GIVE ENOUGH MONEY TO EDUCATION.
If learning / education were really the high priority everyone says it is in this state, money would be made available and some other program would have to get less. Education is the first program to lose money in hard times away and the last one to get money back? Here's why:

1. The perception  is that schools (teachers) are failing students and that is why Jose can't read and doesn't have a work ethic.
2. Teachers have demonstrated over and over again a willingness to work for less, buy their own supplies, take on more and more students, and devalue themselves at every twist and turn.
3. Teachers keep doing good jobs despite getting treated like shit, hence many districts test scores don't drop even in crappy economic times. We sort of pride ourselves on maintaining quality with less. So, educators get less.

Teachers needed to (many years ago and now) say: we won't accept bad work conditions, we won't take less money, we won't be treated like cheap skanks on a Friday night. What if all state teachers walked off and said we'll come back when you fund education properly? Tax-paying parents would freak out, and it would only take about a few weeks to see major changes in how education is funded in this state. Teachers have a lot of power, and they act like they have none.

As long as teachers see themselves as missionaries and are willing to take less over and over again because they are "sacrificing" for the children; we will see aggressive District Offices trying to subjugate teachers entirely. Teachers love believing they are do gooders in a bad world, motivated not by money but by sacrifice. Only when you have respect for you, your talents and demand respect from others will you get it.