As regular Radical readers probably know, I’m generally disgusted by the negative attacks on educators launched by the hard-core conservatives recently elected to state houses all over the country.

The general theme seems to be the same wherever you live:

• Teachers make too much money.
• Teachers have it easy.
• Teachers aren’t worth what we pay them.
• Teachers have it easy.
• Let’s break the backs of the unions that protect bad teachers who are making too much money.

Here in North Carolina, recent conversations are pretty darn similar.

We’ve got a Republican legislature that has refused to extend a 1 CENT sales tax designed to shore up education funding that is set to expire even though over 70 PERCENT of surveyed North Carolinians support it. 

Their reasoning goes something like this:  “We were elected to cut big government spending.  The people want the government reined in.  It’s time someone stood up to schools and their unions and told them enough is enough.”

That’s why the actions of Republican House Leader Thom Tillis caught my eye this morning. 

You see, while the fiscal superhero Tillis just COULDN’T imagine extending a 1 cent sales tax in order to protect education, he DID find the cash to give his own employees raises between $12,000 and $30,000.

Let me put that into perspective for y’all:  The TOP of the North Carolina pay scale for a teacher with a master’s degree is $64,000

And that’s after 33 YEARS of work in our state’s classrooms. 

That means IF the legislature ever decides to restore increases in teacher salaries here in North Carolina—something that hasn’t happened in 3 years now—a teacher would have to work for 15 YEARS to earn the raise that Tillis gave JUST to his general counsel THIS year.

#lunacy

#twofaced

What does this mean for you? 

Pay attention to what your elected officials are doing and saying because the very people screaming the loudest about cutting government spending just might be lining their own pockets in the process.

#yuck