What does it take to be a Michigan legislator?

[MichiganVote]

QUESTION: What are the qualifications, training and requirements for being a legislator in the State of Michigan?

ANSWER: Be at least 18 years old and be elected. No high school diploma, college education, training or certification is required. Just be 18 and get elected.

To be a teacher in Michigan requires a Bachelors degree with major in Education; semester student teaching; Michigan's advanced teaching certificate requires completion of 18 semester hours in a planned course of study after the issuance of the Provisional certificate, completion of Michigan's reading requirement (6 semester hours of teaching reading for elementary teachers or 3 semester hours for secondary teachers and 3 years of successful teaching experience, and you need to be highly qualified by federal standards.
http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-6530_5683_14795-17063--,00.html

QUESTION: What salary does a first year, novice inexperienced House legislator get paid as a starting salary?
ANSWER: $71,685 and a no receipts or questions asked expense account of $10,800

Michigan's new teachers make an average starting salary of $35,557...no expense accounts. In 2009 the MI legislators graciously voted a 10% pay cut. But..."Cutting governmental salaries by 10 percent is a largely symbolic act, saving less than $1.5 million in a $9 billion general fund discretionary budget that funds those salaries."Legislative salaries of $79,650 have dropped to $71,685. The $12,000 automatic expense allowance lawmakers receive - $1,000 a month, no receipts or questions asked - would fall in value to $10,800.
http://blog.mlive.com/peterluke/2009/03/michigan_senate_approves_pay_c.html

Legislators' salaries State to state comparison
http://www.empirecenter.org/html/legislative_salaries.cfm

They say teachers have a lot of time off? Consider that; "There is no minimum or maximum number of days for which a session of the legislature must meet each year. Although there is no universal definition as to what constitutes a full-time legislature, the Michigan Legislature is one of only eleven full-time state legislatures in the nation. Michigan's legislators receive a base salary of $79,650 per year which makes them the second-highest paid legislators in the nation, after California."
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Michigan_State_Legislature

What do Michigan teachers make in salary by comparison?
http://teacherportal.com/salary/Michigan-teacher-salary
Michigan's new teachers make an average starting salary of $35,557 and an average overall salary of $54,739 (after decades of service, Masters degrees and post MA courses)

[PassingFair]

1. Let me guess, you're a teacher?

What is your point?

[MichiganVote]

2. Actually, no I am not a teacher. As to the point?

Go back to school and learn to speak respectfully to someone and maybe we'll have something to say to one another. But I doubt it. Your attitude smells.

[PassingFair]

3. Why did you post the OP?

Are you trying to say that legislators earn too much money?

Or that legislators should have degrees?

Or that legislators should be teachers?

:shrug: