Dr. Michael Flanagan: A Rebuttal to Donny Jr. - Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:

A Rebuttal to Donny Jr.

by Dr. Michael Flanagan, BAT Director and NY Teacher

Okay, in honor of D-bag Jr. I will make all the anti-teacher arguments here in one post:

1. "Teachers have tenure so they can't be fired". Wrong, teachers have due process, which means we are entitled to be able to defend ourselves, which allows us to speak out on issues affecting all of our kids.

2. "Teachers get summers off with pay" Wrong, we actually lend money to the cities and states, and let them pay us on an annual basis, rather than pay us our entire salary up front. Therefore the municipalities make a profit on the interest they gain from withholding that pay. 

3. "Teachers can retire at 55" More like be forced out by 55. Age discrimination is rampant, and there are teacher shortages throughout the country, because younger is cheaper, and of course, cheaper is better for our children. 

4. "Unions only care about protecting bad teachers and money". No, unions are the one thing that keeps wages up, and everyone benefits from that. Right to Work Laws have devastated our economy. Trump wants to "Make America Great Again", as always it depends on who you ask when America was great, but I think he means when this country had a high standard of living, and that would be when unions raised the middle class. 

5. Teachers are the reason the schools are "failing". Yeah, has nothing to do with poverty and inequality. Funny how failing schools are aligned to the zip codes of the poorest communities. 

Okay, not sure of the rest of the stupid arguments against teachers, but those are the good old standards that the ignorant always roll out. Just figured I would put all the nastiness in one place, save us time on moving from thread to thread defending our chosen profession. God help this country.