The United States will spend $857 *Billion* on the military for FY 2023
The first 5 years my best friend was a teacher, she qualified for food stamps…and she still had to buy her own supplies. 🧵
The Senate Armed Services Committee voted to add $45 billion to Biden's initial $813 for national military spending
There are 3.2M public school teachers in the US
Just the added military budget amount could give teachers a raise of $14,000 each.
The average teaching payment rate is at least 3.1% lower than the rest of the US jobs
When compared to the rest of the world, the situation for United States teachers is dire
Even modest-paying Finland is leaps and bounds above the United States in regards to pay
In fact, most of the world not only pays teachers more than the US, but teachers are payed close to, or above, what they would make in other fields with a similar educational background
But it’s not just money that is creating a teacher shortage
Teachers face unprecedented scrutiny from far right groups. From Covid deniers to parent groups screaming about the CRT phantom, communities have made an already stressful career into something unbearable.
Far right action groups have infiltrated school boards making CRT, which is not currently taught in K-12 schools, a point of contention
“The Dishonest and Harmful Right-Wing Attack on American School Boards”
The conservative movement has politicized teaching in a way that is literally targets teachers as an adversary
Right wing groups take aim at diversity and inclusion labeling them as “agenda” and use that to pressure educators to resign
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/critical-race-theory-battles-are-driving-frustrated-exhausted-educators-out-n1273595
After years of attacking teachers and public schools, the right wing has a payoff of sorts
The teacher shortage leaves a vacuum. Fascists want to fill that vacuum with the military industrial complex
States like Florida are looking to use unqualified veterans to teach children. Literally grooming kids to a life of military service.
Very few people saw starship troopers, so I’m going to leave that reference be
According to a survey from the American Psychological Association, 40% of administrators and 33% of teachers reported being threatened with violence by parents last school year.
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2022/03/school-staff-violence-pandemic
In 2019, the last time my kids were in brick and mortar school, during the first week of school my son's teacher and a parent got in a fist fight outside of the school during morning drop off.
This is one of the things I love about virtual school. No school violence.
Also, because there's no building infrastructure to support the teachers get paid more, and they're generally happier and more pleasant to deal with.
