<HTML>Shalom, Shalom. (I can't be the first person to have done that, but I had
to get it out of my system. I'm okay now.)
While I've always been a fan of good pay for Jewish educators, I think
this thread is promoting a very shallow vision of the problem by focusing
on money.
First-of-all, let's define what we mean by "good pay": I mean a living
wage, as can be expected by programmers, bookkeepers, graphic artists,
etc.. Doctors and lawyers are not representative, and their pay scales are
quirks of society (or freaks of nature, depending on whether you've had
recent recourse to them) and have nothing to do with value. Now, if we as
a community can't ante up a bookkeeper's wage (pro-rated for the immense
vacation time and relative job security) for a teacher, then yes, we've
isolated our problem -- or at least *a* problem that needs immediate
attention.
If, as I suspect, one can maintain a modest middle-class standard of
living on a teacher's salary, then I propose we start looking elsewhere
for the cause of our problem.</HTML>
