Letter writer: Teachers shouldn’t be charity cases

Graphic by Lori Deaton

How sad it is that we are building housing projects for our teachers! The solution to abysmally low teacher pay in North Carolina is to build them pity apartments near their school instead of, oh I don’t know, increasing their salary!

While I applaud Buncombe County Schools, Eblen Charities, and State Employees Credit Union for their efforts to make life a little easier for hardworking teachers, it is a shame that they had to make it happen in the first place. Our teachers should make enough money to afford a decent place to live on their own and shouldn’t be charity cases reliant upon nonprofits to make ends meet.

This is also reflective of our regional issue of lack of affordable housing, but the bigger problem is the lack of prioritization our state gives to funding these essential, hardworking public personnel at a humane and competitive level. “You can live in the projects!” is a poor incentive package. What a sorry state.

— Kenny Armstrong
Asheville

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12 thoughts on “Letter writer: Teachers shouldn’t be charity cases

  1. Lulz

    Teachers shouldn’t accept a job if the pay isn’t adequate. And maybe they should educate themselves about their field and wages before going to college to become one.

    • hauntedheadnc

      What a fine idea. Nobody should bother going into teaching, and I’ll go farther and say the teachers here should go to states where they’re appreciated. I’d really like to see what would happen if public education utterly collapsed in this state. Wouldn’t you? We could be a test case for the GOP’s ultimate goal and see how well it works out.

      My guess is not well, though, especially in the face of international competition.

      • Lulz

        LOL, you don’t suppose the over abundance of teachers graduating from college as a soft major has anything to do with it lulz?

        Public schools are a dinosaur. They are failures and need to be replaced. And this is not placing blaming teachers but the system. Why is it that the country spends more per a capita on students that anyone in the world and produces 3rd rate results LOL? People need to either realize that either money is not a determining factor or resources are being abused lulz.

    • The Real World

      @Kenny – Understand your frustration. When I’ve stepped back to get a view of the overall forest — what I’ve seen for a long, long time is that education is not valued in Bible-belt states. That statement is not even a stretch and is easily documented. WNC is one little nook within that region but the mindset spans many states.

      For most natives of BB states — life is about church, family, male hierarchy, control and obedience. If you suggest there is more to life than that, you will be summarily ignored.

      But, I’m not a native so I like your style of calling a spade, a spade.

  2. OneWhoKnows

    Doubt you saw this on state wide media this morning, HH, so read this and see how even AVL City School Board members LIE about teachers departing. The AVL city screwl board should be ASHAMED of Matt Buys for writing this trash…

    http://ladyliberty1885.com/2015/11/03/i-apparently-live-rent-free-in-gerrick-brenners-head-ncpol-nced/

    And, WHEN in the hell are we going to consolidate the City and County screwls ‘for the children’ ??? NO ONE will address THAT issue, will they ? N O. It’s CLEARLY a money mongering issue. Get YOUR children OUT of government screwls as FAST as you CAN !!!

    • Lulz

      LOL, not just the schools but redundancy in all levels needs to be addressed. lulz. But that would also mean all the years of stacking government full of people that can’t thrive outside of affirmative action will be unemployed LOL.

    • Lulz

      Lulz is a offshoot of the abbreviation of LOL, Might as well be cheery lulz. Especially around this joint LOL.

    • The Real World

      @c — I know, it’s rather annoying. I looked it up myself. Helpful note: this website is really useful for learning what modern words or acronyms mean. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=lulz

      Hey lulz – I value reading your insight comments but all the LOL’s and lulz’s diminish your credibility. Makes you seem like a goofy teenager.

      • Lulz

        LOL, thanks for the compliment.

        Why so serious?!?!?! LOL, I’m not here to prove anything to anyone. Nor am I out there making promises I can’t keep, fluffing the sheep, or going beep beep lulz. You need to hold people that work for you to terms of credibility. That includes teachers, politicians, and even the garbage man LOL. Not an anonymous person on the internet.

        • The Real World

          Lulz – Yes, I was complimenting you. Now, if you’re going to be an honest Indian, you’ll admit that this is not true: “I’m not here to prove anything to anyone.” (Perhaps you don’t see it but, clearly you are.)

          Which is okay be me b/c your points are good. So, why not just write in a way that doesn’t needlessly confuse anyone or cause them to miss your relevant points b/c all the ‘lulzing’ looks childish?

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