I shouldn't pick on David Brooks for making this point, because pretty much every critic of the Chicago teachers' union has made it:
The Chicago school system is a classic case of a bloated, inefficient ... organization. The average Chicago teacher makes $76,000 a year in a city where the average worker makes $47,000 a year.What's maddening about this argument is that if you said to David Brooks, "So you don't think education is particularly important," he'd say, "Oh, no -- I think it's vitally important." And yet his argument -- and the argument of everyone else who flings these numbers at you -- is that half the jobs in Chicago are more important to society than teaching. Educating our children is only of middling importance; half the jobs in existence contribute more to society's well-being, and thus should be remunerated better.
I assume that David Brooks, as a conservative, believes that the marketplace provides a reasonably accurate assessment of every job's worth to society. Should society value teaching highly? Brooks says no.
