I know the pandemic is so 2020 and school shut downs are a distant memory but try to remember.
Try to remember those first days and weeks of the pandemic’s arrival, when for half a second it seemed everyone in this country was on the same page about doing what was best for each other. Especially the children.
Recall that realization you had when you found yourself at home with your child trying to keep them safe while at the same time trying to keep them current in their studies at home. So many of you expressed new found respect and admiration for the jobs teachers do.
The praise and calls for raises were near ubiquitous.
(Then burnout set in. And Stress. And work-life realities came knocking and we demanded teachers get back to the classroom so the children wouldn’t suffer, teachers’ needs be damned)
According to the state of California, the average salary for a beginning teacher at the elementary school level is $47,000. In Chula Vista’s elementary school district the starting salary is about $54,000.
In Chula Vista, the starting annual salary for a cop is almost $84,000.
Those figures are important to keep in mind as we consider a response to gun violence and school shootings.
The GOP and Second Amendment zealots are loathe to entertain reasonable gun laws that make it harder for ill people to purchase guns or assault rifles. Instead they advocate—as they have recently after the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas— for more “armed good guys,” including teachers, on campus.
So the question becomes how much are Republicans and gun advocates willing to pay an already overworked and under compensated professional for taking on even more potentially life-saving responsibility?
Would they be willing to pay for annual training and certification and weapon and ammunition and liability and life insurance per teacher per classroom?
Or do they want to continue getting by, paying cheaply with lip service and thoughts and prayers?
Somewhere between the beginning salary of a teacher and a cop there must be an answer they’d be happy to fund.
How low do gun advocates want to go?
