America has a fun new hobby: blaming teachers for everything while paying them like they're doing community service.
The profession is bleeding workers at rates that would trigger a federal emergency if it happened at a hedge fund, but since it's just classrooms full of children, we're all supposed to shrug and move on.
A teacher in Oklahoma went viral last month for selling plasma to cover classroom supplies.
Literally selling her blood to buy dry-erase markers.
The internet responded with a heartwarming mix of "thoughts and prayers" and "well, maybe she should've picked a real career." Roughly 300,000 public school teachers have walked away since 2020, per federal data.
The reasons are the usual suspects: pay that hasn't kept up with inflation, class sizes that resemble a Black Friday crowd, and parents who treat every graded assignment like a personal attack on their child's future.
Somewhere along the way, teachers became the scapegoats for a society that wants free childcare, elite test scores, and zero funding increases all at once.
We clap for teachers on social media in May, then vote down school levies in November.
We demand they close pandemic learning gaps with crayons and vibes.
We ask them to be therapists, security guards, and snack distributors, but lose our minds if they mention the word "union." Meanwhile, states are "solving" the shortage by lowering certification requirements.
Translation: your kid's new math teacher might be a guy named Chad who passed a background check and watched three YouTube tutorials.
And before the comments section lights up with "but teachers get summers off," let's address that tired talking point.
Most teachers work summer jobs or attend unpaid training.
The "three months off" myth is doing more heavy lifting than a substitute teacher covering six periods.
Teachers who quit consistently cite the same thing, and it's not the kids.
The district politics, the hostile parents, the administrators who'd rather bury a complaint than back a teacher.
We've built a system that treats educators as disposable, then acts shocked when they dispose of themselves.
If you want good teachers, stop expecting them to subsidize your kid's education with their own plasma.
Final Thoughts
Or keep doing what you're doing and enjoy the Chad era.