Pardon My Rant

All this educational budget talk has brought out some comments that, frankly tick me off a little bit. As a teacher I'm naturally a little biased. But I am tired of people feeling justified in saying that teachers need to experience what the rest of the workforce has been feeling lately, namely budget cuts and layoffs. Maybe this is a little egotistical of me, but I don't put my profession on the same level as a lot of other professions. I put it higher. Public school teachers educate children.  What more important job is there? (I would certainly put firemen and policemen on the same rung of the ladder.) I would love to be part of a community that puts honor where it belongs. I could say a lot about the price of a Super Bowl ticket in our city verses the amount of money we pay to teach each child per year. Why can't we be extravagant in an area that will make a real difference in the quality of life for our kids?