40% of Colorado Teachers May Quit, Union Demands More Money

The Colorado Education Association (CEA) surveyed 5,000 of its members in December and found that 40% of K-12 and college teachers say they are considering leaving their jobs after the disastrous year of online and so-called “hybrid” teaching forced upon them by the government’s reaction to the novel coronavirus.

Predictably, the CEA president Amie Baca-Oehlert blamed the money: “The member survey reinforced what we’ve known for far too long: Colorado needs to make the financial commitment to ensure all of our students and educators have the resources they need,” she said.  

Some teachers report being afraid of the coronavirus, apparently not believing science that has demonstrated how low the risk is of children spreading the virus, or the fact that other sectors of the economy have been back at work full-time for almost a year.

Others simply report the difficulty of working within the crazy framework of online school and behind plastic shields and masks while in-person.

Some teachers have revealed that they would seemingly be fine with all the coronavirus hassle as long as they got more money and “respect.” Durango High School teacher Teri Kopack admitted: “We need to be respected and treated as professionals that we are, which means appropriate wages. It means appropriate funding for schools. It means people who are not educators not trying to tell us how to do a job that we are trained and have practice doing. It’s pretty sad when so many teachers have children and they tell children not to go into education because of lack of respect and lack of pay.” Kopack apparently isn’t aware of the bevy of other professions looking for educated employees, nor the gold-plated defined-benefit retirement plan she currently has access to. She has also apparently missed how often those in other professions are talked down to by customers.

The CEA, like many other teacher’s unions around the country, is all too happy to use the educational struggles of families during the crazy COVID lockdowns to push for more money, demanding a higher price for a substandard product. Behind their “we’re in it for the kids” mantra, the union continues to blame a lack of funding for their troubles, using the lack of education being provided for Colorado’s schoolchildren as a hostage to leverage their power.