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Tired of Being a Sucker

By Laura Reasoner Jones

“There’s a sucker born every minute,” and I am that sucker.

Though normally a calm, peace-loving and conflict-avoiding woman, I have been angry for four solid months. After more than 34 years of teaching, I have come to realize that I am a sucker—and I am very unhappy.

I have spent my whole teaching life giving and giving and giving—in the guise of being a “professional”—and I just may have reached my limit. The budget-cut roulette wheel ball has landed on my position as an easy one to play with, and the powers that be have suggested that tech teachers (School-Based Technology Specialists) need to take $7000 pay cuts for the upcoming school year. This cut, lumped on no pay raise for the previous two years, makes...