Well-Heeled Educators

Apparently, in Michigan, teachers believe that tending to the union is more important than doing their jobs:

Several Michigan school districts are closed Tuesday as teachers called in sick or took a vacation day to protest proposed right-to-work legislation that pass the state legislature last week.

The "sick outs" have caused district-wide closures across Warren Consolidated Schools, Taylor School District and Fitzgerald Public Schools. According to Michigan Capitol Confidential, a publication by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a right-wing think tank in the state, the closures affect at least 26,000 students.

"While I understand this is somewhat unusual, my number one priority is student safety and without an adequate number of staff members, we cannot hold school," Warren Superintendent Robert Livernois said in a statement, according to WDIV.

A large number of teachers are also likely absent from schools in Detroit, according to the Detroit Free Press, and St. Johns, according to CapCon, as they head to Lansing to rally against the right-to-work bill.

I don't have any problem with unions in theory---that is to say, I don't have a problem with a group of adults working together to achieve something. But the theory is usually so much better than the practice. Average teacher salary in Michigan last year was over $60,000, and yet still they behave as a child who ruins everybody else's good time when he's grumpy.

Now, perhaps it should be noted that the sweetheart deal that Michigan "educators" get is a direct result of union influence---that is to say, the only reason they have no reason to complain is because of the union that they are protesting in favor of. Ergo, the protest.

Let us so stipulate. Yet all that proves is that many teachers in Michigan care more about their salary then their students! That's hardly a persuasive argument for paying them $60,000 per year.