The New York Times ran a nice piece on how the teacher bashing around the country has mushroomed:

The jabs Erin Parker has heard about her job have stunned her. ‘Oh you pathetic teachers,’ read the online comments and placards of counterdemonstrators. ‘You are glorified baby sitters who leave work at 3 p.m. You deserve minimum wage.’

‘I love teaching, but I have $26,000 of student debt,’ she said. ‘I’m 30 years old, and I can’t save up enough for a down payment for a house.’ Nor does she own a car. She is making plans to move to Colorado, where she could afford to keep teaching by living with her parents.

Around the country, many teachers see demands to cut their income, benefits and say in how schools are run through collective bargaining as attacks not just on their livelihoods, but on their value to society.

Even in a country that is of two minds about teachers – Americans glowingly recall the ones who changed their lives, but think the job with its summers off is cushy – education experts say teachers have rarely been the targets of such scorn from politicians and voters.

Read more.