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
And 41 minutes may not seem like a lot, but multiply that by 180 days, which is approximately how many days are in a school year. Then divide that by 60. That's 123 hours over the course of the school year. I don't know anyone who's stupid enough to agree to work an extra 123 hours without some kind of pay raise. Plus, adding 41 minutes to the school day would put the teachers at over 8 hours a day. Do you want to work overtime without getting paid for it?
Thank you liberal union teacher commenter's for making me that much more secure in my decision to send my son to private school. You are all disgusting and it makes me sick that this is who is educating our children. No wonder the last ten years have been nothing but graduating int-titlist teenagers. Who cares if you have a Master's Degree if you can't teach. Funny before the government took over education we were first in the wold and now we are no where close. We own our own business and the work days you are complaining about are a joke to us. Chicago has the smallest class day and school year so it should be no problem to add more,especially since so many of the kids are failing. It is disgusting to expect to be the top earners in a public service job. Sorry teachers I think our highest paid public servants should be police and fire officer's, they are risking their life for our safety. If its such a hassle to educate our youth you should find a different job.
There are millions of Americans out of work that would love your job. Maybe that's what we should do. Let them stay on strike and hire people that actually want to work. It is disgusting that we could have an economy like this and you would stick your hands out and ask for more. Everyone is having to work longer and harder for the same or less money why should teachers get a raise when the average tax payer is struggling to pay their bills.
For all of you teachers wanting a better working environment and more pay you would think you would want to get rid of the crappy teachers. Here is Washington State we have a rubber room filled with teachers that can't teach (because of crimes and other things) but can't be fired so we continue to pay them for nothing every year throwing millions of dollars away on nothing. I would have no problem giving those millions back to the teachers or back to the class rooms but you can't have it both ways.
Wamom, I'd like to clarify a few things. First of all, the 7:30-3:30 hours that we work are what we're paid for. We spend many days in our classrooms until 5, 6, 7, even 9 or 10 if it's close to report card time or the beginning of the year/end of the year. If teachers only worked 8 hour days a day there would be no IEP/504 meetings. There would be no tutoring. There would be less after school programs. There would be no graded papers, no e-mails to parents, no online grades. There's so much behind the scenes that you don't see. And I agree with you about the government taking over education...so why are you mad at the teachers? Back when teachers were actually allowed to teach students thrived. Students are suffocated now. That's because the state demands so much. Let teachers do their jobs, believe me, most of us know what we're doing. And about that rubber room...yes, that is a real place, no that's not a place where people who can't get fired go. That is where teachers go when they've been suspended and they are waiting for an arbitration. They haven't been fired yet, but that doesn't mean that they can't be. And yes they are paid for the time they are in there. And yes, that is so, so, so, so, wrong. Teachers who are suspended should also have their pay suspended. If they get their job back, they can receive backpay. If they are fired, then there's been no loss on the district or taxpayers part.
Our teachers in Idaho get paid under 40K. Most 35ishK. This is just amazing. They need to happy they have a job at all.
With 35K per year in Idaho you are living pretty poor too.
Lilypad, I've been reading your comments with interest and appreciate your perspective and ability to offer an informed perspective. However, you lost me completely with this statement: I'd like to clarify a few things. First of all, the 7:30-3:30 hours that we work are what we're paid for. We spend many days in our classrooms until 5, 6, 7, even 9 or 10 , and here's why - nearly all professionals have to work unpaid hours in order to get the job done. My husband, at the end of every quarter, works upwards of 80 hours a week to meet deadlines, and he doesn't see a dime of compensation for that. When I was working, my salary was based on a 40 hour week, but it was rare that I ever worked less than 45 hours per week.
I don't see any reason why teachers shouldn't be obligated to invest as many hours as necessary to perform their job duties, which obviously would include grading papers, IEP/504 meetings, extra help/office hours, parent contact, etc. Do you think people in any other profession are able to just decide to not go to a meeting or a return an email because they don't have time?