The Chicago Teachers Union has collectively decided that a sixteen percent pay raise in an economy where 23 million people are looking for work isn’t enough. Public school teachers in Chicago are currently among the highest paid in the nation, with an average annual pay of $71,000, before benefits.
Seriously -- Chicago teachers walked away from a sixteen percent pay raise, because it wasn’t enough. Sixteen percent!
At the same time, Chicago public school students are among the most undereducated in the country. Which leads to the question: What are these teachers being paid for? This week, apparently they’re being paid to shop for red shirts and to not teach.
The teachers just want things to be fair. I’m not sure how ignoring your students to strike in the street to protest a measly sixteen percent pay raise while not improving your job performance is fair, but whatever.
Karen Lewis, the president of the union, has called Mayor Rahm Emanuel a bully and a liar for calling for accountability for the teachers and a 41-minute longer school day. As many as 6,000 teachers may lose their jobs if they are evaluated based on performance, which is apparently a bad thing in Chicago. In the real world, you get fired if you do a crappy job, but in Illinois you go on strike because your raise wasn’t big enough.
The Chicago Teachers Union is giving great teachers a bad name. No one goes into teaching for the money … it’s a difficult, time-consuming, mostly underappreciated job. The hope is that teachers go into teaching because they love kids and want to help shape their future. Not so they can protest a massive pay raise in a down economy as not enough.
Maybe it would be different if Chicago schools were flourishing. You get what you pay for, and all that jazz. If they teachers were being underpaid, that would be another matter as well. That was the original intention of unions, after all, to make sure that the working class was not being oppressed or taken advantage of. But Chicago teachers make over twice the average local income of just over $30,000 a year.
Chicago teachers are already overpaid, Chicago students are underperforming, and the Chicago Teachers Union’s demands are unreasonable. This is not about the students and what’s best for them, this is about a teachers’ union demanding more than its fair share.
Image via firedoglakedotcom/Wikimedia Commons
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Comments 122
*So they come to school tired.
And amen, a teacher and EvaSamuel!!!
And yes, you are making excuses. If you were worth what you are being paid you'd be offering solutions instead of whining about your challenges.
And yes, you are making excuses. If you were worth what you are being paid you'd be offering solutions instead of whining about your challenges.
I believe I offered a solution that involved a third party evaluating many of the factors that contribute to a child's education, including the performance of the teacher. I can offer some more solutions...some that might actually shock you...How about education programs change their requirements? Some college programs only require a 2.5 GPA. To me, this is unacceptable. If teachers are to be highly qualified, they need to graduate with at least a 3.3 GPA. Here's another solution...how about the State butts out and let the teachers do their jobs? You said students did fine before, and in part, that's because they were allowed to be critical thinkers. They weren't "taught to the test." Teachers want children to be critical thinkers. (However, looking at recent test scores isn't entirely fair, as this whole obsession with standardized testing in schools is a newer concept.) Believe it or not, teachers know what's important. We want to teach students to become productive members of society but the pressures of standardized testing have forced us to eliminate lessons that would teach those things, such as social studies.
And don't say that teachers should make time; in my state, there is a mandated 90 minute reading block and a mandated 90 minute math block. Every single day, five days a week. Factor in lunch, recess, potty breaks, specials...there's very little time left for science and social studies and teaching students how to be contributing members of society... And eliminating specials is a BAD idea, because children need to be exposed to art, music, etc. They need to have that outlet.
And speaking of assuming, why do you assume I live in a large home and have two incomes? In fact, I'm a fairly new teacher so my income is probably a LOT less than yours. And I don't even have a home... I rent a small 2 bedroom apartment. My fiance and I only live off of my income because he's going through pharmacy school.
Thank you storkneedsgps. These people thinking that 33K is a good salary to properly support a family on are ridiculous. With 2500 a month, a morgage is about a third of that, then add all the other utilities, food, stuff for the kids, then most teachers don't live in the same county they teach so gas is going to be astronomical. And on top of all that, teachers have to fund most of the materials their students use out of their own pocket.