Nov 8, 2007 8:39 am US/Eastern
Who Should Get The Millions: Athletes Or Teachers?
by Jon Keller
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
There was joy in Red Sox Nation after Curt Schilling signed a new one year contract to pitch for the Sox that could earn him up to $14 million, but in an angry email, one local woman says she's had it with millions going to ballplayers while teachers struggle to make a decent wage.
And it seems many people agree with her. Everyone, including my correspondent, understands the laws of supply and demand, and no one is calling for teachers to get millions while star pitchers earn $20 an hour.
But judging from the avalanche of e-mail I've received since making her story public Wednesday morning, one Medford woman's complaint seems to have touched a nerve.
"If we all had to play for free and you could play anywhere you wanted to, this is the place I would pick. Add on top of that the fact that I can make $14 million doing it, it makes it a nice place to play," said Schilling as he joked with the media.
"That is when I snapped and wanted to jump out of my skin," explains Clair Semler of Medford.
She's a veteran pre-school teacher earning about $30,000 a year. Semler sat down and wrote WBZ a scathing e-mail expressing her "bewilderment and anger" over a salary disparity between teachers like her and athletes like Schilling that she calls "a disgrace."
"What happens to the regular day to day people who are really the heroes to families' lives and children and caring for them?... If he would like to do it for free, then I would be glad to find ways to spend at least half of that $14 million in a very different way."
Do others share her disdain for the gap between the millionaires who entertain us and the working classes who do the heavy lifting?
"If she can go out and pitch and get that kind of money then pay her $14 million… (Schilling's) worth every penny of it," said on Red Sox fan who thinks Schilling is getting what he deserves.
"I think teachers are grossly underpaid," said another resident who agrees with Semler. "You're right, she can't pitch but she does a lot more that he can't do."
"She doesn't bring in TV revenue, but what she is doing is far more important in the long run -- raising the next generation of our children."
Oh yes, the next generation. Forty years from now, Schilling's pitching heroics will be a warm but distant memory. But Claire Semler's students will be all grown up and running our country. Maybe then we'll wonder if our culture had it's priorities in proper order.
Interactive: So what do you think? What other jobs do you think are overpaid, or underpaid? Email Jon your comments and feedback.
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