My sympathy for public school teachers is severely limited by their past policy preferences and actions, and their mendacity exposed through flagrant union tactics to avoid accountability for bad/incompetent teachers.

My mother was a teacher, my aunt was a teacher (and later a school administrator), my grandmother was a teacher, and my wife has been to teaching college. When I handled my mother's estate, I received NEA policy agenda letters in the mail to her (since she had been a union rep for her school) and it was eye-opening what goals the union had for students and parents.

So I've heard these wails and cries from teachers this year - but at the same time, the teachers are now harvesting the fruits of their policy goals from the last 30+ years.

If teachers want some sympathy, maybe they should start delivering some results, and maybe they could start with getting rid of incompetent teachers, and to do that, they'd start with getting rid of their unions. It's the same deal as with bad or corrupt cops: want improvement in many states/cities? Then we have to get rid of the unions.