AMEN brother!! And don't forget about all the other federal holidays. Around where I live their benefit packages are outstanding, too. Most put in their 30 years and retire in their early to mid 50s with a pension that pays about 100% of what they were making ($50k +) when they got out. They get that until the day they die and it will never be lost in bankruptcy court. AT MOST, the district just starts reducing the benefit package offered to new hires.

Sorry to go off, but my old neighbors and pretty much everyone in my wife's family are teachers so I get tired of hearing the underpaid/overworked propaganda. My aunt was a teacher and used to b**** about it constantly and decided to hang it up so she join the ranks of the adequately paid office workers. Yeah.....that lasted about a year and a half and she ran back to teaching. Didn't hear too many complaints about it after that. I think that since so many of them have never done anything outside of education they forget how much time they really have off. They graduate from high school and college then immediately start working. They take for granted that not everyone has the entire summer and every holiday in the book off and goes home at 4pm everyday without even asking for it.