As a past state employee myself, I recognize that it can be difficult to fire people in the public sector - even though sometimes they deserve it. But the bad ones give a bad name to the good ones.

My daughter (a HS teacher) has a teacher on their team who takes everything and contributes nothing. They have been directed to coordinate curriculum so that kids are getting the same info regardless of which teacher they get - he skips meetings and fails to even outline the sections he was assigned - doing nothing to help, but then takes all the curriculum the others have worked on all summer. Including his sections that they've done for him because he's been skipping.

She's pretty frustrated that he's getting paid the same that she is and there are all kinds of other examples of how he basically coasts through life on half of the work the others are doing.

I don't share that to denigrate teachers as a whole - just to say that I recognize how some teachers give the rest a bad name. And it's unfortunate - but it exists in every industry.

(Bad lawyers give lawyers a bad name, bad electricians give electricians a bad name, bad plumbers give plumbers a bad name, bad politicians give politicians a bad name...etc.)

Actually - that last one might be more accurate to say politicians give politicians a bad name. 😉