Connecticut blogger and political consultant Jonathan Pelto points out that teachers are first responders.

He commends teachers for their daily dedication.

But he puts his reflections in the recent plague of teacher-bashing, which was in vogue until December 14. Pelto writes:

“….we’ve seen a growing trend in which politicians have used teachers as pawns or even scapegoats in a terrible game of political pandering and maneuvering. Unfair, inappropriate and mean-spirited verbal attacks on teachers and their unions have become commonplace.

“It wasn’t long ago that a Democratic state legislator in Rhode Island called teachers, “pigs at the public trough” during a hearing on public employee pension reform, despite the fact that it is federal law that requires that states have public teacher pension programs, and it is federal law that prohibits teachers from participating in social security, meaning those mandated state pensions are their only direct mechanism for retirement payments.

“Meanwhile, Republican Governor Chris Christie’s mean-spirited attacks on New Jersey’s teachers have become legendary.

“Sadly, earlier this year, as a way to build support for his education reform proposal, even our own Governor, Dannel Malloy, claimed that all a teacher need do is “show up for four years” to be given tenure, when nothing could be further from the truth.

“Malloy’s comment was not unlike the one made by Republican wing-nut, Governor Bobby Jindal, who said – during the very same month, when Jindal introduced his own education reform bill – that getting tenure was nothing more than a “reward” for a teacher based on “the length of time they have been breathing.”

Pelto goes on to write about he heroic teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School, who worked very hard for their pay. They were not paid for breathing r for showing up.

It makes you wonder whether Sandy Hook will put an end to this era of low and disgraceful attacks on educators. Will elected officials feel ashamed now to say such insulting things about teachers just like Vicki Soto, Anne Marie Murphy, Dawn Hochsprung, Lauren Rousseau, Rachel D’Avino, Mary Sherlach, and the thousands and millions of educators like them?