Teacher-bashing is rampant in America today. It typically disguises as "keeping teachers accountable," "improving our schools," "getting our children ready for the 21st century," etc. The problem, as many of us know, is that these half-truths belie the darker reality of the harsh treatment that todays' teachers are forced to endure. And teachers, as well as students and society in general, are suffering as a result. How can we help to swing the momentum back in favor of teachers and in favor of education? Listing facts is a good step, but we have to remember that the Right is highly allergic to facts that they don't like. So I can't produce an exhaustive list of answer to that question, but I can start with the following:
1. Ask a teacher-basher how much PreK-12 teaching experience he or she has. If that answer is zero, then their teacher-bashing opinions are automatically disqualified. People should not assume the privilege of bashing teachers if they do not understand what all goes into teaching--all the emotional and physical toil, all the paperwork, all the pressure, all the bullying (yes, teachers are bullied all the time), and all the other intolerable conditions that schoolteachers choose to endure.
EDIT: Some people are missing the point of this one. This does not, I repeat, does NOT imply that non-teachers are not allowed to have informed opinions about education. Just like non-scientists are perfectly capable of having informed opinions about scientific matters, those who are not doctors are capable of having informed opinions about health care, etc. But a rational person would give more deference to the opinions of these experts than to their own.
2. Teacher-bashers support a form of big government. You want more regulations? More controls? More "accountability"? More government intrusion? Then by most Right-Wing definitions, you support "big government." Just don't say I didn't warn you about the swift and inevitable backlash!
3. Know what the Founders had to say about education. Because if the Right Wing is going to deify the Founders, they don't get to pick and choose their favorite quotes from their least favorite quotes. We called them out on that bullshit with Bible quotes, and we can do it with the Founders' quotes.