Have you ever noticed that those who complain about "greedy teacher unions" rarely complain about CEO salaries and that those who complain about "greedy CEOs" rarely complain about teacher salaries?
Well, the teacher unions negotiate with school boards who have some idea about how much money the school district has. The school board members are elected in often competitive elections and serve only part-time for salaries they wouldn't accept for their real jobs.
On the other hand, CEOs often have a say in who sits on the boards of their companies. The boards are "elected" by the shareholders as a single slate chosen by the board. The board also decides on its pay, and in order to justify its six-figure salaries for showing up for five or six meetings a year, grants the CEO seven- or eight-figure compensation. Some companies even go into debt to maintain this compensation.
About the only way a "greedy teacher" can get a six-figure income for showing up five days a week is having a second job or writing a lot of books.
We used to be able to have very successful companies without six-figure boards and seven-figure executives. Would we be able to have successful companies without teachers?
