CBS Didnt Do Homework on Teachers Gas Price Story

     Continuing her Eye on the Road series, CBSs Sharyn Alfonsi showcased a Washington, D.C.-area teacher who she says cant afford her commute due to rising gas prices.

     But Alfonsi didnt do her homework. Her featured teacher is a retired Navy lawyer who said in 2003 that she could only afford working as a Catholic school teacher because of her military pension. What Alfonsi didnt say was that teacher Bonnie McGann made a conscious choice to earn less so she could give back to her church.

     This was the area where I could afford a home, McGann informed Alfonsis viewers on the May 4 Evening News. The CBS correspondent added that McGanns problem was the cost of the commute. Its a burden for me now. Its something that I am unable to absorb, McGann added.

     The picture Alfonsi painted was incomplete. McGann is a retired Navy Judge Advocate who says she went into teaching in Catholic schools for the emotional and spiritual reward of the experience. She could find higher pay in a law career or public school teaching. McGann, an alumna of Rowan University also holds a JD from from Cal Western, and a Masters of Education from Marymount University.

     I was only able to consider teaching in Catholic schools because I had a military retirement income, McGann, then the incoming principal at a Winchester, Va. Catholic school, was quoted in the December 2003 MUToday, a Marymount University publication in December 2003. MUToday added that even coupling her teachers salary with her retirement pay did not match her Navy income but that McGann cited a desire to give back to the Church and felt that the Holy Spirit guided her into teaching rather than a civilian law practice.

     While Alfonsi claimed in her report that McGann cant afford $1,000 more per year in gas costs, in 2003 the then-school principal donated $1,600 to 2004 perennial third-party presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche in two-month time span in 2003, according to CampaignMoney.com.