I find this anti-teacher rhetoric baffling considering that most Americans (and Alaskans) believe that teachers are under-compensated for the work that they do. There is a tremendous disconnect between these elected officials and their constituents, and yet teachers seem to keep taking the brunt of the assault. I would say that there was a conspiracy at work here, but this is much more public (and effective) than a mere conspiracy.
The truth is that teachers' salaries have not been keeping up with the slow wage increase that all other professions have gained in the past several decades. Few jobs are keeping up with inflation (there are exceptions), but teachers are lagging behind even that rate. The divide between a teacher's salary and the salary of someone with the same level of education has increased significantly. Meanwhile, the divide between a teacher's salary and the yearly pay of someone with less than a bachelor's degree has decreased by a surprising rate.
This has not followed standard economic trends. In fact, there is a national teacher shortage. Normally, in the case of a labor shortage, wages increase. However, in this case teachers' wages and benefits have come under attack. Instead of putting more money into education, cuts have been made that put even more students under each teacher's care. Basically, teachers have to do more work for less compensation, and are then blamed for an undereducated population (which is a fallacy, but that topic deserves its own post).
Considering that the backbone of a democratic government is the education of its citizens, I truly believe that those who argue to cut education are unpatriotic at best. I am furious that they believe that our children deserve underpaid and overworked educators as well as reduced opportunities and services. These are people who serve themselves, not our nation, our state, or its citizens.