Arkansas R.F.D.

From the Ft. Smith Times Record comes a story of one Jim Warnock.  Jim is a past recipient of the AEA's Principal of the year and is now being recognized by the U.S. Dept. of Ed. as a National Distinguished Principal.  You know it takes a special kind of person to be a good educator.  I suppose it takes an amazing kind of person to be like Principal Warnock.  There are so many Mr. Warnocks out there in our Arkansas Schools.  I wish there were a way to better recognize the contribution they make to our children and to our communities.  I have always respected the Arkansas Times Education Awards Edition that they put out each spring.  The Times should be applauded for their efforts.  Maybe its our culture, I don't know, but in so many other countries around the world, educators are held in as high a regard as doctors or as lawyers.  As an example, read the Times Dispatch article below where Mrs. Weeless was repeatedly asked for her autograph while in Japan on a Fulbright exchange program. 
For now, I'm glad that the state and the federal government bring our most dedicated educational professionals to Little Rock and Washington once a year to put them up in a Hotel and feed them a rubber-chicken dinner (that is unless the Gov is there and then they'll have to settle for a salad).  I only wish we could do more as a culture to honor these amazing human beings.  Unfortunately, I believe that respect will only ever come in the form of a bigger paycheck.  If we paid educators more, that would then translate into more respect.  They should start out at about $50k.  Shocking?  That's not even equivalent to the salary of a doctor or a lawyer. 
Doing right by our children is expensive.  Overcoming being 49th in everything will be expensive.  Having what we say are our values and what we actually value, be the same: is expensive.  The good news is that having a more highly educated population and a higher earning capacity as a state are tied together, as are a number of other indicators.