Every day they are shaping the minds of our future leaders and business people. They are underpaid.
They are in front of your kids for 8 hours a day, pushing them in ways video games can't.
Now daily, they must also worry about their safety.
One idea or one imaginative thought can spark the next Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos.
But what have we been doing in Kentucky once again?
Cutting their resources, their benefits and taking away their incentives.
Some Kentucky school systems are one step away from insolvency.
Of course, that's what we do to teachers in this state and have for the entire time I’ve been alive.
The bad state budget, deficit too high, pension needs reform?
Whack those teachers.
Cut the budgets for UK, U of L and Western, and OH kids with dreams to attend college, well, we're going to raise your tuition every year, while raiding your funds.
Talk a good game, say I'm the education governor, then let those lawmakers rip out money for classrooms so they can pave more roads in their counties and get reelected.
Stand side by side with the mayors of Lexington and Louisville and plead with young engineers to stay in Kentucky, but tell the super smart teachers needed to teach engineering, we can't pay you enough.
You'll get a 1.5 percent raise if that.
You may mold millionaires, but we're going to make it tough for you to retire.
Need more reasons to stay in public service?
I love teachers. I can name several from my days in JCPS. I know you can do the same. They made a difference in my life and probably yours.
I'm sick and tired of the general assembly telling our teachers, keep those test scores high, you better not let our kids flunk, but we're going to keep your classrooms in the 20th century.
Where are we showing our teachers we have faith in them?
Why do we always cut the educators first?
What new business wants to move here with this abysmal record?
What 22-year-old would want to make a living as a teacher in Kentucky?
We need to say NO more. No more to treating Kentucky education like the sewage treatment bill you tried to hide it in last week.
►Contact reporter Doug Proffitt at dproffitt@whas11.com. Follow him on Twitter (@WHAS11Doug) and Facebook.