Video: Late Night host Seth Myers takes a closer look at DPS sickouts

The news of DPS teachers on the brink of a strike is front and center right now, and all too often headlines and stories fall short. The refrain of 'teacher sick-outs close schools over pay' is familiar, though the details (like the fact that this is pay for hours already worked) are unsurprisingly absent from many of the looping soundbites and video clips.  

Seth Myers, host of NBC's Late Night with Seth Myers, tackled the issues facing the district in a clip on Tuesday, May 3, and offered a succinct, thoughtful, and at times, somewhat humorous take on everything going on. Leave it to a former host of SNL's Weekend Update to give one of the most informed and insightful critiques on a complex and controversial problem.  

"This illustrates a broader problem of how we think about eduction in this country. We often expect teachers to work for less and in worse conditions than we would expect for ourselves."

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The seven-minute video discusses the DPS crisis in the context of the larger issues with American education, especially when it comes to how much teachers are paid and how politicians — and society — view the important work being done inside classrooms. (Spoiler: the video includes the clip of Chris Christie telling a New Jersey teacher that if she has a problem with how she's compensated, "you don't have to do it," meaning teach, which, ugh, is worth the watch on its own. Fuck you, Chris Christie).   

"Clearly there's something wrong with the way our society values the work teachers do, and yet when teachers object to budget cuts and ask for increases in pay, they're dismissed. And the politicians who dismiss them are often celebrated as 'straight shooters'."

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Watch the full video below, which if you're anything like us, will cause you to long for the days of Amy Poehler and Seth talking about bullshit like this and yelling what we're all thinking: REALLY!?! REALLY!?!