Google is hard

I read this comment yesterday on the official blog for the faculty senate president at my institution:

No doubt you have often wondered, as have I, how it has come to be that P-16 educators are paid so little in our country. The main reason, I believe, has something to do with how career educators are attracted to the human-improvement project; in love with both the ideas and with the people likewise attracted to the project. Now, if food, clothes, shelter and books were just not so darn pricey.

He ends with a smiley face, just to let us know that he's not all that serious.

I'll grant that this is a small point, and a common one that people bring up:  teachers aren't paid enough.  One doesn't get into education to get rich, etc.  Fair enough.  But here's the thing:  on an official forum from an elected faculty official, hosted on the university website, might one make sure one's pronouncements are accurate? 

I googled for salary figures. It took all of two minutes to find the following from a government site:

national mean salary:  $38,330
national mean salary for educators:  $50,440

$12,000 more than the national mean for all professions.  Plus (if you are in a public institution) high job security, far better than average benefits, a relatively kind work schedule (i.e., not working the night shift, etc.).  To make a point like the one above, especially in a region of the country where unemployment and poverty is particularly high (and in light of a recent plant closing one county over)--well, I think perhaps he might better have just kept that little thought to himself.

I mean, don't we expect a bit more from tenured university professors?