Photo courtesy of Mandy McLauren
Dear Kentucky Legislators,
Our educators deserve better.
Our educators deserve better pay. “Overworked and underpaid” is a phrase often used to describe teachers, and it is sadly accurate. As the daughter of two educators, and a future educator myself, I know that the pay educators receive is not always enough to live off of. No one can say that teachers are in it for the money– teachers are there with their students, day in and day out, because they care about Kentucky’s future. It is not a glamorous profession in the slightest. Teaching is hard work; a teacher is not only an educator, but also a counselor, a food bank, a shoulder to cry on, and so much more.
Our educators deserve more respect. It seems that, in these debates and negotiations for a solution to the pension crisis, you all have forgotten that you are dealing with people’s lives. By not funding the pension and passing the sewage-pension bill, you have left thousands of teachers in financial unsurety. You have broken the promise made to them, the inviolable contract between state employees and state government that guaranteed they would have a solid retirement. Tacking pension reform onto a bill about sewage is inappropriate, and completely disrespectful to our state workers. Sadly, however, it’s not too shocking, as the governor has called our educators “unsophisticated”, “ignorant” people who have a “thug-like mentality”.
Lastly, our educators deserve better representation. We, as Kentuckians, deserve better representation. We deserve people who are going to fight for us, to do what is in our best interest, and to fix the problems, even if they didn’t create the problems themselves. We deserve representatives who are going to put Kentuckians first. We deserve representatives who listen to their constituents instead of voting however they want.
Kentuckians deserve better. Our educators and other state employees deserve better.
And you can bet that we will keep that in mind when we head to the polls in May and November.
Sincerely,
A Proud Kentuckian