Here in San Antonio, there was a report on the radio yesterday talking about how Independent turned Democrat Richard ‘Kinky’ Friedman was going around to various places in the state making his candidacy for the 2010 Governors race official.  In the news bit, it was mentioned the stogie smoking humorist wants to institute a $3000 a year pay increase across the board for all Texas teachers.  I tried to go find the source of that claim on Kinky’s website and even that of the news station, however it was no where to be found.  At this point, I’m going only on what was said on the radio.

First of all, God bless the teachers.  Anyone who has the mental constitution about themselves to deal with a gaggle of kids all day deserves all of the honor, glory, and compensation they can get.

That being said let me poke a few holes in Kinky’s goals.

First of all, let’s work on the assumption that teachers work 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year.  Yes, I know they have summers off.  After you factor in all the in service hours, the preparation time, the conferences, the PTA meetings, and the fact they put in more than 40 in a given school week, it tends to average out over the year.  I would bet the average is more, but let’s keep it a 40 for now.

That’s 2080 hours a year.  Divide the $3000 pay raise by the 2080 hours, and you get and extra $1.44 an hour.

That’s a pretty bold move Kinky.

But wait.  It get’s worse.

An extra $1.44 an hour, as insignificant as it may be, is just enough annually to throw the teachers into a higher tax bracket.  Here in America where a progressive system of taxation reigns supreme, teachers with their meager raise championed by a man of the people will be forced to pay higher taxes.

Good thinking Kinky.  You give the teachers a piss-ant raise just so you can get more tax revenue out of them.