Clay Thomas: Pick on politicians, not teachers

Re “Pension liabilities pinch teachers, schools alike” (Page B1, July 29): Well, there you go again. Every couple years The Bee publishes a story on the topic of “Let’s raise public ire at those darned overpaid teachers.” And I have to ask, why you do this? All I can come up with are these two:

1. Inflame the public, to increase interest and thus readership;

2. OK, only the first one makes sense.

In these particular twin articles, Nan Austin tosses in the outrageous superintendent compensation packages statewide. But that seems to be your basic red herring, perhaps to soften the blow of what you knew would be inflammatory.

You make teacher pensions look like a rape of the public coffers and compare it to Social Security, which was never designed to be the end-all public retirement wage. That was to be supplemental in nature. Then there’s the “his last two years” phrase which implies spiking the retirement calculation. Spiking (cheating the system) was eliminated some 15 years ago.

Instead of again using teachers as fuel for the fires of social unrest, why don’t you pick on politicians’ compensation vs. days worked, just for a change? Or cops? Or yours! Perhaps focus on social worth. Just a suggestion.

This story was originally published August 3, 2015 at 12:46 PM with the headline "Clay Thomas: Pick on politicians, not teachers."