Local and state government finances are in a tailspin. Indiana's unemployment rate jumped to 8.2 percent in December, from 7.1 percent in November. The state lost 35,300 jobs in December alone.

Chances are strong that either you are unemployed or you know someone who is. Or maybe you or someone you know has lost a home to foreclosure. In any case, you know how frightening the economy is.

So what is your government doing to help? In most cases, it's certainly not planning a show of solidarity.

There are isolated cases of pay freezes in the public sector, from White House salaries above $100,000 to Indiana state employees to town employees in Dyer, Chesterton and Dune Acres. But those are exceptions, not the rule.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels called on all public employees this year to skip their pay raises to take the pressure off their government employers and to show solidarity with their peers in the private sector.

That display of compassion would add up. Every 1 percent increase in the salaries of Indiana public employees is equal to $100 million, according to Daniels spokeswoman Jane Jankowski.

It's disappointing that so many municipalities in Porter County and elsewhere are giving their employees standard 3 percent raises, which will drive up the taxes that battered employees and their employers must pay.

But it's absolutely disgusting to see the attitudes some of those public servants display.

Duneland Teachers Association Co-president Michele Bartels is an example. Her recent response to the governor's call for wage freezes:

"I don't think we can afford to do that with the children of Indiana."

Say what?

Here's her logic: If schools can't attract and keep quality teachers, "we're not taking care of our children," she said.

In this economy, what jobs would those quality teachers find elsewhere?

It is amusing to watch teachers argue that forgoing pay raises would harm the children of Indiana. Nonsense. What it would do is show solidarity with state employees whose pay is frozen and with private citizens suffering job losses or reduced hours because of the poor economy.

Public servants, whether they are teachers or municipal employees, who fail to show solidarity with their neighbors in the private sector have a lot to learn about compassion.