You do get what you pay for, Middletown teacher contends

I am a Middletown teacher. I have been for over 17 years. I have received two Middletown Education Foundation grants in the last three years. I have 20 credits past my bachelor’s degree as I currently work toward my master’s degree. Middletown residents .... would you consider me the average teacher in Middletown, who, according to the Board of Education, makes $56,000 a year? Apparently not, as my salary is more than $7,000 below average.

If I am that far below the average salary, what a wealth of experience and education must Middletown have in its teachers. "You get what you pay for" is a well known truism in almost every aspect of our lives. Just how important is the education of your children? In this country, we pay actors and athletes hundreds of millions of dollars to entertain us. How much of an impact on your child’s future do those dollars get you?

As a single person with a mortgage to pay, the immediate financial impact of a strike is devastating to me, as it was in the last one, where any salary increase I saw was swallowed up by the money lost in docked pay. Why do I support it? Because I do care for your children and do not want the educational system to go down the sewer anymore than it already has. A revolving door of superintendents, principals, and staff is now the norm, instead of committed professionals with long, strong ties to the community. You do get what you pay for. Continue to lower your standards and it will be your children who pay the price.

Rose-Marie Turley

Freehold