inferno521

Every few years teachers either strike or are locked out because of pay. Don't teachers know the exact dollar amount that they will be paid before studying for education degrees? Why complain about pay after the fact? To me is its like moving to Minnesota and complaining about cold and snow.

I'm not anti-teacher, I can just never understand public sector wage negotiations. As a private sector IT employee if a job because undesirable for me I simply look for another one in the industry. Obviously moves within the industry are much tougher(I guess private schools are an option).

Last question about wages/negotiation I promise. Some unions(police fire, since 1980 I believe) cannot legally strike, because it would seriously harm the public or for civil unrest reasons. Teacher strikes, from my perspective(single male, with no children), seem like they are using the students as a human shield. I've seen on the news, students pickets for higher pay for teachers, which I think is wrong due to the influence(of teachers) and their young age(A 10 year picketing is a bit unseemly to me. Do you believe that its morally right to threaten to strike during a negotiation impasse?

So are the hours that teachers are expected to work shocking to some teachers, who then want additional compensation during contract negotiation time?

This is something that I can never understand. Why go into teaching when you'll never make that much money, only to complain about how much money you make during negotiation time?

Is merit pay even possible in your opinion? I can't think of a single fair metric with which to grade a teacher. Some students might not care, which could force down scores of a teacher, if the merit metric is just standardized testing performance

Are there any fair metrics for judging a teacher's performance in your opinion?