Bellevue teachers strike

I admittedly don't know a lot about all the issues as I'm not closely tied to the negotiations, but I agree that the district shouldn't be as stringent with unified lesson plans. Teachers should adhere to similar plans to ensure students maintain similar progress when they advance to the next level (i.e. first to second-year algebra).

It also is important for teachers to have flexibility with their lesson plans to incorporate current events. Can you imagine not being able to focus on 9/11 in a Contemporary World History class shortly after it occurred because it would deviate for the district-wide course outline? That seems asinine to me.

It's difficult to sympathize with teachers on another aspect of the dispute. Many claim that their salaries are too low to buy a home on the Eastside. I spent nearly 2 1/2 years commuting to Bellevue because it was the best job available locally in my profession at the time. I didn't sit around and whine about not being able to afford to buy a house in the most expensive area in the state — I just accepted it as reality and appreciated the opportunity to have a job I enjoyed.

The starving, underpaid perception that some teachers like to present in Washington is a myth. After the strike began, I elected to do some research on teachers salaries where I grew up. And it wasn't nearly as affluent as the Eastside. Here's some numbers I can up with from teachers I had growing up:
Kindergarten teacher: Retired
First-grade teacher: Retired
Second-grade teacher: Retired
Third-grade teacher: $73,480
Fourth-grade teacher: $78,786
Fifth-grade teacher: Retired

OK, that's a small sample size of two veteran teachers. Here's some other notable numbers from teachers I had:
Sixth-grade math teacher: $78,686
Seventh-grade math teacher: $74,237
Seventh-grade physical-education teacher: $88,943
Eighth-grade math teacher: $78,786
Ninth-grade science teacher: $83,686
Sophomore English teacher: $74,237

I could go on, but you get the point. I'll acknowledge that I've been out of school for a while, which means that many of these teachers have more than 10 years of experience and some — particularly my elementary-school teachers — are close to retirement. So I looked up a few teachers that I knew in college, or recently changed professions and became teachers. All of them have 5 years of experience or less, and all work in different districts. Here are their numbers: $51,805, $49,504, $45,413 and $42,680.

That's not exactly enough to buy a house on Mercer Island, but it's a profession where you can make a comfortable living in this state. The next time you hear someone waxing poetic about teachers facing poverty, understand they're either grossly misinformed or lying.