Public misled by stories on salaries

Public misled by stories on salaries

I keep reading all of the insulting articles in your publication regarding the extreme amounts of salaries and perks given to educators and I just had to respond. The Daily Herald has been misinforming the public on salaries and pensions long enough. I am so disappointed that more people have not responded to your skewed views.

Here are a couple of thoughts. First, most educators do have at least a master's degree. A good number of them pay for that advanced degree themselves. As with any person in the private sector, pay does increase with more advanced degrees. Why is the extra pay an issue with some one in education? Don't we want our educators educated? How about publishing an article on how overpaid attorneys and CEOs are?

Secondly, the whole pension debate burns me. Do people realize (or care to realize) that the money in our Teacher Retirement System is funded mainly by the educators in the state? Do people realize that the state continues to use our pension fund as a piggy bank for other things? Do people realize that the only reason that the pension system may cost taxpayers is because of the continual damage caused by our legislators? By the way, I am so glad that our state senators, representatives and the executive branch can just vote in their own raises and then rob from the educators. How about that for a system?

In many other countries, educators are held in high esteem. In our country, they seem to be the scapegoat for a lot of the problems with America's youth. Does anyone wonder why it is so difficult to attract talented young people to go into education? If the job is so easy and the perks are so great, why aren't the universities bulging with education majors? Wake up people! The only way to get this country educated is to respect the educators.

Lynne Kaskela

Wauconda