I definitely need a job interview with this 49% of Sioux Falls voters!
New font of public opinion data Nielson Brothers Polling releases the results of a survey on public teacher pay. The results:
- 49% of Sioux Falls registered voters say public school teachers' salaries are too low.
- 43% said teacher pay is about right.
- 8% said we pay teachers too much.
Keep in mind, these answers are coming from Sioux Falls, which offers the best teacher pay in the state.
Alas, there is a partisan split on this question. 69% of Democrats said teacher pay is too low. Among Republicans, many of whom have to defend the ugly status quo of their statewide single-party stinginess, only 34% acknowledged that we don't pay teachers enough.
Age similarly split the results. 56% of folks under 65 said teacher pay is too low. These are the folks with kids, the folks busting their chops to find and keep jobs that pay the bills themselves. 37% of folks 65 and over agree that teachers don't get paid enough. These are the folks with kids out of the nest, guaranteed retirement income, and affordable government-funded health care.
But notice: even among Republicans and retirees, we don't hear a much screaming that those darn teachers are paid too much. Only 9% of both groups picked "too high" as their answer. At least those groups suffer only partial detachment from financial reality.