Do Teachers Have The Voting Power To Give Themselves Raises?

Teachers are the largest professional group in the US workforce today. There are more elementary and secondary teachers than doctors, lawyers, and engineers, etc.

"During the 1999–2000 school year, a total of about 3,450,000 teachers worked in public and private elementary and secondary schools across the country—representing about 2.7 percent of the overall U.S. workforce that year. Elementary and secondary school teachers constituted a greater percentage of the workforce than physicians (0.5 percent), legal professionals (0.8 percent), postsecondary faculty (0.9 percent), engineers (1.0 percent), firemen and law enforcement workers (1.0 percent), registered nurses (1.5 percent), or any other professional group that year. Elementary and secondary school teachers constituted about the same percentage of the workforce as all secretaries and administrative assistants (2.7 percent) and slightly less than retail workers (2.8 percent) (U.S. Department of Labor 2002)." From National Center For Education Statistics, Special Analysis 2005.

Many teachers also live in communities where there is school budget voting. I suspect teachers are more likely to go to the polls to vote to approve larger school budgets and teacher salary increases..

When you add together the budget votes of spouses and close relatives of teachers, it is not surprising that salaries of teachers are rising.

They have the voting power to give themselves and other teachers raises, under the guise of improving children education.

The above was also posted on The Beacon, "Why More Spending Doesn’t Produce Better Schools."