"I've Had Enough"

So says a Louisiana teacher of some 25 years who is sick and tired of being scapegoated for all of the problems in education, almost all of which are deliberately created by "reformers."

Louisiana's politicians and school administrators are certainly welcoming this because if more teachers quit, they could save even more money.

Teachers are not the bad guys here. You tell society that we have three months off in the summer and get off at 3:30 in the afternoon. Well, I can tell you for a fact that we work at least 10 months a year. What about all the teachers that either get to school early or stay late? We give up a lot of time for our school children- sometimes our students are getting more time than our families. What about all of us who still after 25 or more years, are working all day and then are working more hours at night? What about all the hours we volunteer to coach, chaperone dances, plan field trips, and sponsor clubs? We stay late after school for meetings and programs, and we are constantly grading papers, at night, on weekends, and even on vacations. We attend in-services for either no or minimal pay in the summer or on weekends. Not to mention all of our OWN MONEY we spend on students. I can’t tell you how many THOUSANDS of dollars I have spent over the years for science and social studies supplies for my classroom alone.

Furthermore, when you are illegally fired, you never work in any kind of job in any kind of way to support yourself ever again if you are over 50.