I will never forget what the late Jeanne Lucas, teacher, administrator, and state senator, said at a teacher rally I attended in Raleigh in the 70's. She said of our teachers, "Politicians want Tiffany crystal at K-Mart prices." Those words have never been truer than they are today for overworked and underpaid teachers. Just take a look at teacher salaries.

According to the National Education Association's Research Department, the most recent data show that teacher salaries increased about 30 percent from a decade ago. When you factor in inflation, that increase plummets to 3.4 percent. Really, that is the value of teachers for the last 10 years! That is distressing, and for me, it is just plain sad. I will tell you why that's the case.

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