The vast majority of Americans believe teachers don’t receive the respect—or pay—they deserve, but that won’t stop the U.S. from forcing educators to work in potential COVID-19 hotspots with barebones safety protocols. Labor exploitation is anything but a new concept, and on this episode of the “Bigger Picture,” I discuss how our treatment of teachers exemplifies systemic flaws in the economy.
Show notes:
- Israel Ministry of Health COVID-19 Data Dashboard
- Israeli Data Show School Openings Were a Disaster That Wiped Out Lockdown Gains
- Amid New Surge In Virus Cases, Israel’s Top Public Health Official Resigns
- Trump urges states to reopen schools this fall amid pandemic
- Donald Trump Speech Transcript: Safely Reopening Schools Amid COVID-19 Pandemic
- How Many Teachers Are at Risk of Serious Illness If Infected with Coronavirus?
- The Changing Age Structure of U.S. Teachers
- The Teacher Burnout Epidemic
- The Largest Labor Unions in the US
- The rise of teacher unions: A look at union impact over the years
- Answering the Call: The History of NEA
- CPI Inflation Calculator
- A Brief History of Teacher Strikes in the United States
- Teacher Strikes: 4 Common Questions
- LAUSD teachers’ strike ends. Teachers to return to classrooms Wednesday
- Strikes get “silent treatment” at NEA convention, as candidates take center stage
- Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31
- Will Unions Let Schools Reopen?
- Texas Teachers Union May Strike Over COVID-19 Precautions
- Florida Teachers Sue To Block School Coronavirus Reopening Mandate
- The Rise of Neoliberalism: The Cause of Extreme Inequality?
- A Report Card on Our Nation’s Commitment to Public Schools
- Inside the Pricey, Totally Legal World of College Consultants
- Oklahoma Governor Compares Striking Teachers To ‘A Teenage Kid That Wants A Better Car’
- About one-in-six U.S. teachers work second jobs – and not just in the summer
- Billionaires are getting even richer from the pandemic. Enough is enough
- Bernie Sanders on target saying 3 richest have as much wealth as bottom half of all Americans
- Average Teacher Salary Down 4.5 percent, NEA Report Finds
- Low Teacher Salaries 101
- Exactly How Teachers Came to Be So Underpaid in America
- Sexism is at the heart of why teachers are striking
- Teachers With Student Debt: The Struggle, The Causes And What Comes Next
- The teacher pay penalty has hit a new high
- US life expectancy has been declining. Here’s why
- Coronavirus Is the Perfect Disaster for ‘Disaster Capitalism’
- Turns Out That Trillion-Dollar Bailout Was, in Fact, Real
- We’re Dying From Coronavirus. Corporations Are Getting Rich Off It.
- Billionaires’ Pandemic Wealth Gains Burst Through $700B
- Phoenix-area teachers, districts grapple with buying PPE for the classroom
- As the World Economy Grinds to a Halt, the U.S. War Machine Churns On
- Missouri Budget Slashed By $448 Million Due To Coronavirus, Education Hardest Hit
- Governor Parson Fails to Protect Communities, Taxpayers with Mandatory Minimum Bill Signing
- Wealth, Inheritance and Social Mobility
- Various articles about Zoom meetings to discuss reopening schools
- Beloved Arizona teacher dies of coronavirus, two others sharing classroom also infected
![Eyes glued to his sheet music, senior Andrew Gillies accompanies the Jazz Band as the pianist. During the annual Winter Jazz Concert, Gillies was chosen to improvise a solo during the song, “T.J. Boogie.” ¨I love concerts [because of] how the audience reacts, and just the stage lights [shining on me],¨ Gillies said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/DSC_3774-1200x801.jpg)
![In perfect shooting form and with eyes on the rim, junior Tyler Kuehl is about to shoot his next basket in the last game of the season against Marquette High School. Kuehl has been playing basketball since he was 5. “Even though I played basketball all my life, the game-winning shots can be pressure, it's confidence. If you're going into that shot and not thinking that you're gonna make it, it's obviously not going in. And if you believe, [it will]. That's the only way you can succeed,” Kuehl said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/unnamed-32-1-1200x1200.png)
![Within the U.S., the busiest shopping period of the year is Cyber Week, the time from Thanksgiving through Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This year, shoppers spent $13.3 billion on Cyber Monday, which is a 7.3% year-over-year increase from 2023. “When I was younger, I would always be out with my mom getting Christmas gifts or just shopping in general. Now, as she has gotten older, I've noticed [that almost] every day, I'll open the front door and there's three packages that my mom has ordered. Part of that is she just doesn't always have the time to go to a store for 30 minutes to an hour, but the other part is when she gets bored, she has easy access to [shopping],” junior Grace Garetson said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/DSC_0249.JPG-1200x801.jpg)
![Complex global supply chains supply the goods for everyday luxuries, such as the coffee at West High’s Blue Brew. Low tariffs enabled much of the prosperity of modern history. “Higher tariffs lead to higher costs. A tariff is a tax on an imported good, and someone has to pay for that tax, and typically that [will] end up impacting consumers,” economics teacher Rachel Money said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Flag-1.png)
![Junior TJ Polack plays his saxophone solo at halftime for the 2024 marching band show, ‘Coloring Book.’ This year, Polack was one of two soloists in the marching band. “[Polack] is very hard on himself. [His saxophone solo] sounds amazing [and] everyone [cheers] for him; [still], somehow, he thinks it’s a bad performance and he's down. What he does is not easy. It takes a lot of confidence as a person [and] a lot of musical skill to be expressive, and he's doing an amazing job,” drum major and senior Dominic Perez said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/462488499_2973926416100522_5057718068659607183_n-1200x925.jpg)
![Blending together a concoction for a science experiment, science teacher Joel Anderson scares his students by bringing excitement and thrill into his classroom for his annual Halloween show. It took about six weeks for Anderson to set up his classroom for the show. “It’s pure terror. I came up with this idea a couple decades ago to do something fun for Halloween. So I pretend to be this mad scientist [that creates] a Frankenstein-like creature [with the class], learning a little bit of science along the way and [then ending] with a laser show. It’s just for fun; entertainment value,” Anderson said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/DSC_0021.JPG_-1200x800.jpg)
![Senior Sally Peters stands in the history hallway, contemplating her choices in the 2024 United States and Missouri elections on Nov. 5. As a member of Diplomacy Club, Peters has discussed key candidates and issues in contemporary American politics. “[As students], we're starting to become adults. We're realizing how much the policies that are enforced and the laws that make it through the House and Senate are starting to affect us. [Opportunities such as] AP [U.S.Government] and Diplomacy Club [make elections feel] a lot more real,” Diplomacy Club vice president and senior Nidhisha Pejathaya said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Flag-1-1.png)
