Educators

Living in the barren wasteland that is North Dakota, one of the most talked about topics is the teachers pay for the state. North Dakota has consistently ranked towards the bottom of pay scale for teachers and every year we hear how hard teachers work and that they deserve more pay, current average salary is $35,000. At one time I did sympathize with them but I no longer can...

Let's look at the teachers 'work schedule' for this region...

They work Monday-Friday 7:45 (or 8) until 4 PM... well, heck, right now most people with other jobs are already jealous. Then they get every known holiday off - a minimum of one a month - and extended time off during Christmas. Then they get 3 months off a year over the summer. What really gets me now is the fact that the teachers have scheduled twice a year time to hold parent-teacher conferences - no school for the students. So what do the teachers do? Schedule the conferences on days before scheduled time and then go to Disney World over this break...and I'm not kidding, my daughters' teacher is going to Disney World.

The teachers average salary of $35,000 is a very good wage for this region and considering the abundance of 'perks' these people take advantage of, I no longer have any tolerance for their arguments as to why they deserve more pay. Yes, I believe there are teachers that do work during periods of vacation. But for every one teacher that works during their time off there is approximately 1,500 other teachers that are sitting on a beach.