Quote :

"The Chicago Teachers Union, whose members average an annual salary of $76,000, rejected a 16 percent raise over four years. They had initially asked for 30 percent over two years"

http://www.heraldonline.com/2012/09/10/4251134/chicago-teacher-strike-highlights.html

I agree with the standards being faulty to judge performance, but the Union has been pretty unrealistic in wanting to increase salary and other benefits. I think Chicago Public Schools are more than 1.2 billion in the hole or so. The public education system is definitely broken... and with the economy and all the deficits, it does not make anything any easier.

9/16/2012 6:26:27 PM

I'm going to repost this, since it will be lost on the last page, and this page has begun with the assertion that our schools are broken:

Our education system is a pretty good one. When you account for poverty rates, the fact that we test a higher percentage of our students than other countries, and that the difference between 1st and nth on international test rankings is often within the margin of error, our children do pretty well. And they've never been doing better.

If you're interested in not repeating falsehoods about our schools, read part 3 of this study:

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/newsletters/0216_brown_education_loveless.pdf

This is a pretty good overview/opinion:

http://ajr.org/Article.asp?id=5280



[Edited on September 16, 2012 at 6:36 PM. Reason : ]

9/16/2012 6:34:15 PM

Quote :

"A salary of $76,000 in Chicago, Illinois could decrease to $73,541 in Raleigh, North Carolina"

Damn, that's a lot for a teacher. Hell, I bet that's more than most entry level salaries for tech jobs in Raleigh.

I actually would have no problems paying the teachers this amount or the requested raise as long as they could be hired and fired at will.


[Edited on September 16, 2012 at 10:24 PM. Reason : .]

9/16/2012 10:17:02 PM

I know it's been said, but it bears repeating. They are only talking about salary in the strike because legally it has to be what they're striking over. The strike has been about a lot of issues, with money and benefits being pretty low on the totem pole.

9/16/2012 11:38:14 PM

Quote :

"Teachers in Chicago, the nation's third-largest school system, are among the highest paid in the country. The strike has drawn national attention as the teachers negotiate over the length of the school day, object to their evaluations being tied to performance and fret about job loss from school closings."

9/17/2012 6:34:41 AM

Quote :

"Trenton NJ and Chicago are like 800 miles from one another. If you're willing to declare that 7 degrees is a large difference, then I'm sure you'd be willing to understand that 800 miles is an even larger difference. "The weather in Chicago isn't that bad! I should know, I used to vacation in Oklahoma City!""

Holy fuck, I didn't bring up NJ somebody else did. If you carefully reread my posts you would see that. And if anything NJ's climate is warmer than Chicago's which only solidified my point.

But whatever this was just a trivia point in the first place...

9/17/2012 12:05:22 PM

My original post sounded too mean.

I'm just saying...you don't exactly contribute a lot of stuff so it's kinda weird to be asking people to carefully read your posts. I wish you would contribute more.

^^^^^Yes. Unfortunately, the myth that our public education system has "failed" has become so entrenched and widespread that it's very difficult to convince people of the truth.

A random, short, easy to read article about education reform: http://www.epi.org/blog/reformers-playbook-failing-schools-facts/

Unfortunately, this CTU thing just looks bad. And I don't think it's going to do much to help the larger movement against scrapping public education as we know it. There is actually so much I want to post, but the things people believe and say about public education are just so wrong-headed and mean, I don't even know where to begin...how do you overcome a disdain that actually starts in childhood and gets openly/proudly/emotionally reinforced over and over and over in adulthood?

[Edited on September 17, 2012 at 9:43 PM. Reason : ]

9/17/2012 9:26:30 PM

Quote :

"Kris: Artificially inflating their salaries will just result in more unions and a lot of teachers out of work in the long term, just like it did for the American auto industry."

Who are you and what the fuck have you done with Kris?

9/20/2012 9:32:54 PM

This is a classroom example of unions gone wrong. Seriously, as far as the problems of unions go, this is the best example of an argument against them. This should be Chinese iPhone workers striking, not cushy overpaid government employees that get paid more than most of America and only work 9 months.

9/21/2012 12:11:19 AM

Yes, this is an example of how awful unions are. Unfortunately, what you've got here is exactly what unions strive for. Minimum work, maximum pay, no accountability, and a monopoly on a particular regional labor market.

9/21/2012 9:27:27 AM

Quote :

"But here is one issue Obama is almost certainly going to be worse: Bail outs of states. States will start seeking Federal bailouts, probably initially in the form of Federal guarantees of their pension obligations, in the next 4 years. I had thought that Obama would be particularly susceptible if California is the first to come begging. But imagine how fast he will whip out our money if it is Illinois at the trough first? I had not paid much attention to the Chicago teacher's strike, except to note that the City basically caved to the unions. The average teacher salary in Chicago, even without benefits, will soon rise to nearly $100,000 a year for just 9 months work. But I am amazed at the statement that no one even bothered to challenge the union on pensions despite the fact that the system is essentially bankrupt. Illinois really seems to be banking on their favorite son bailing them out with our money."

http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2012/09/a-good-reason-to-get-obama-out-of-office.html

9/26/2012 10:58:31 AM

Yeah, I don't know where you got that 100k number.

But you know, Chicago can always do what the NFL is doing with their refs, and just get scab employees to replace them. That seems to be working out well.



Yes, I know the NFL refs are private. Spare me. All this shows is that unions (and labor), as a bloc, are under attack from all angles.

[Edited on September 26, 2012 at 12:27 PM. Reason : ]

9/26/2012 12:05:49 PM

^^That "article" is awful.

9/28/2012 10:14:19 AM

What's wrong with it, aside from a slightly snarky opening paragraph? Unfunded public sector pensions are a huge financial liability.

9/28/2012 11:45:05 AM

Well its based on the false assumption that a Republican president would not bailout states and that goes against what has been seen so far. There is no reason to assume that's true.

9/28/2012 12:28:23 PM