My wife and I are from families of teachers. Her mom and sister are teachers; my mom is a former teacher; I have two aunts who are teachers. Family conversation usually revolves around education, unless of course I throw in a political jab or two to stir things up.

On most Sundays, my family gets together at the nursing home where my grandpa is. We sit around and share life together - talking about what we've done, where we've been, and the like. This time of year, the topic of snow pervades the conversation, and the three teachers in the room - my aunt, my wife and I - endure the ribbing of the rest of the crowd because they don't get snow days, or they don't get Christmas vacations.

We've all heard the arguments about teachers having an easy job - summers off, working 8 to 3, snow days . . . and the topic usually comes up because someone thinks we're overpaid. I've passed this notion off for a few years, and I'll continue to ignore it as I fight for increased teacher salaries - especially considering our district ranks 331st of the 524 in the state. Unfortunately, there are people out there who are fighting against us, as demonstrated in a recent opinion article in the Wall Street Journal:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009612

In the article, Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters state that the average public school teachers make $34.06 an hour. They compare this "statistic" to other occupations by saying that teachers make "36% more than the hourly wage of the average white-collar worker and 11% more than the average professional specialty or technical worker." The footnote to the article states that "Mr. Greene holds the endowed chair of education reform at the University of Arkansas and is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, where Mr. Winters is a senior research associate."

My contract says I will work 185 days. I am required to be at school from 7:45 AM until 3:15 PM. I have been teaching 6 years and have 15 hours of graduate credit. This year, if I work only the hours I am required, I will make $21.08 an hour - far less than the $47.28 that Greene and Winters site as the average pay in Detroit, the $45.79 in New York, or the $44.03 in Los Angeles. Of course, rural Missouri has a much lower cost of living, and incomes of most people around here don't compare with incomes of people from those areas.

I have plenty of problems with this "report," as I'm sure any public school teacher would. Of the eleven reader responses posted on the website, only two even remotely hint at supporting the opinion that teachers are overpaid:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/responses.html?article_id=110009612

I think Michael McKain, from Seaford, Delaware, summed it up best in his response: "While I think this piece makes valid points regarding the fact that new reforms are needed beyond "throwing money at the problem," the fact remains that many do not go into teaching, particularly in needed areas such as science and math where America lags behind, because more money can be made in other sectors. This is a problem that needs to be remedied; articles such as this are counterproductive to that end."

Nothing gets my blood boiling more than reading someone's opinion slandering my profession and life mission. My question is . . . if teachers are so well paid, why aren't more of those white-collar workers and specialty or trade workers not taking advantage of some of these new alternative certification tricks and becoming teachers? If the job is so easy, and the pay so wonderful, why is there still a shortage of teachers - especially in the areas where those allegedly lower-paid workers currently are?