Ruth of the Ann Arbor School Musings blog responded yesterday to various arguments against the upcoming countywide school millage vote by commenters on AnnArbor.com and ArborUpdate.

Many of those speaking out against the millage seem to harbor a puzzling amount of vitriol against teachers. Ruth addresses the issue:

After reading comments about the millage question on arborupdate.com and annarbor.com, I get the feeling that a lot of people are upset that (here are some arguments that I have heard, along with my response):

Teachers get paid too much. I don't believe they do--teachers are generally over-educated and hard-working. Sure, I want the burned out teachers to leave. But the millage vote will not affect their decisions. Why shouldn't a teacher make what an engineer makes? They have about the same amount of education.

Teacher health insurance is too good. I might argue instead that other people's insurance is too crummy. But even if I were to agree, it's not something I can control. It's a very clumsy tool to think that voting "no" on a millage will mean that teachers have to pay more for health insurance.

I'm suffering, you should suffer too. Well, of course, if you need to--if you are suffering--vote your pocketbook. But remember, it's not about the administrators suffering. It's about whether the kids need to suffer. So if you are not personally suffering, don't rely on this for your agrument. And since as the schools go, so go property values, it's likely that school cuts mean we will suffer even more. Schools are major economic engines, and employ thousands of people who live in our county.

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