By ROY PULLAM
Hateful words have come from the governor's office toward teachers. The other day, he called teachers uninformed and selfish. I think he has spent too long in the ivory tower the taxpayers of Kentucky have paid for with their taxes. He doesn't see the real world that we live in here in Kentucky. If they take our insurance, we will be impoverished. I don't think he has ever had to buy generics, suffer from a toothache, buy eye glasses at the Walmart or shop the Goodwill stores. I know janitors, cooks and aides that I worked with who did. Most of their salary went to provide insurance for their families.
Even they had Social Security. That is not a dig at them, but it is a fact that they did not go to college six years, go into thousands of dollars of debt and have the shallow title of "professional." I do not think of myself as anything less than professional, but I was never paid or treated like a professional. The state did not provide us with that benefit. I can't even draw Social Security from my wife, though she worked and paid into the fund for forty-two years. If the governor and his cronies rape the retirement benefits we were promised/owed, teachers will be an impoverished class too old to find another vocation.
What will it do to the future of Kentucky? In universities across the commonwealth, education has declined as a major. Who would want to dedicate himself or herself to a major that costs so much to get and pays so little? When the retirement benefits are ripped away, the profession is even less palatable. So, who suffers then? Positions can't be filled, elective classes are not offered and other classes get larger. The less-qualified people will choose the field, and we won't get the Ruth and Rufus Eblens, the Glenda Guesses, the Sharon Voights, the Tommy Owens, the Nancy Browns, the Tom Fishers, the Ralph Sniders, the Janice Durhams, the Cynthia Farrises and other teachers of great character and ability (I chose to name retired teachers I worked with in order to avoid mentioning some active teachers while forgetting others.). I can assure you there are numbers of excellent instructors who are young, talented and dedicated. It is said that the legislature's action/inaction will cost us 4,000 of them this year. Is that a price we can afford to pay?
Our state motto is "United we stand; divided we fall." If in our attempt to force a Spartan budget into a puzzle of need, I assure you this state is going to fumble, stumble and go to its knees. Maybe then we can change our state motto to, "Some day we will catch you, Mississippi." So much for shooting for the top!
-- Roy Pullam is a retired teacher in Henderson and the recipient of the 2015 Kentucky State AFL-CIO's Community Service Award.