ain't that the truth...
Posted on 06/18/2012 1:33:16 PM PDT by Sopater
It takes a lot of nerve to ask for a 30 percent pay raise. You’d better be sure you had a banner year. Yet in Chicago, where just 15 percent of fourth graders are proficient in reading (and just 56 percent of students graduate), the teachers union is set to strike if the district does not agree to a 30 percent increase in teachers’ salaries.
The average teacher in Chicago Public Schools—a district facing a $700 million deficit—makes $71,000 per year before benefits are included. If the district meets union demands and rewards teachers with the requested salary increase, education employees will receive compensation north of $92,000 per year.
According to the Illinois Policy Institute, the average annual income of a family in Chicago is $47,000 per year. If implemented, the 30 percent raise will mean that in nine months, a single teacher in the Chicago Public School system will take home nearly double what the average family in the city earns in a year.
According to the union, 91 percent of its members voted for the ability to strike. That vote gives the union the ability to walk out of public school classrooms as children return to school this fall.
The union argues that Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) wants to extend the school day, and that the requested salary increase would compensate them for extending the school day from 5.5 hours—among the nation’s shortest school days—to 7.5 hours. Chicago Public Schools states that under the extended school day:
On average teachers will provide 5.5 hours of instruction (an increase of 54 minutes), receive a 45-minute duty-free lunch and 60-minute prep period and supervise the passing period. They will also be required to be on-site for 10 minutes before and after school.
While the union bemoans the longer school day and is demanding a hefty pay raise as a result, taxpayers will be left holding the bill for a 30 percent salary increase and wondering whether $92,000 is appropriate compensation for public school employees.
As Heritage’s Jason Richwine notes, public school teachers should be compensated no better or worse than their similarly skilled private-sector counterparts.
…the teaching profession is not actually underpaid, nor is it an unpopular career choice among college graduates. In fact, total compensation for the average public school teacher is considerably higher than what his or her skills would merit in the private sector.
Creating a teacher compensation system that rewards the best teachers in a fiscally responsible manner is a broadly shared goal. To that end, policymakers should avoid across-the-board pay increases, focusing instead on performance pay by easing restrictions on entering the teaching profession, and basing tenure decisions on performance in the classroom.
As a former Clevelander, I can’t for the life of me understand why you’d want to work in that system.
Your life isn’t worth the risk.
Aren’t there many other options?
I was out of work and didn't have any prospects. But, you're right . . . I didn't really want to work in that kind of a stinking cesspool, but a job's a job until I might get another one.
Fortunately, the private school I was teaching at part-time, hired me full time. So, all's well that ends well.
Understand. Glad things worked out.
My Dad (RIP) graduated from East Tech in 1932.
Obviously it was a much different world then.
For teaching high school, I would dispense with "Ed" degrees, and require a degree in the subject being taught. The whole "Ed" degree system is a scam to put the education system under the control of a small group of education professors.
I would also use the military as a pool of instructors for some subjects. Military NCOs and officers spend much of their time teaching complex tasks to teenagers.
I think some illegal aliens granted amnesty should take their jobs..maybe then the unions would get fired up
Rahm is being “triangulated” by his own peeps...love it.
ain't that the truth...
The only appropriate response to such an absurd demand...should be ROFLMAO
The CTU has no contract with the CBOE.The Air Traffic Controllers had a signed contract and a group of them decided to strike.They were fired as they should have been.
Yes,there may be a percentage within every career that has no business being there.This is what happened when the government entered into the workplace and education.You were told whom to hire.
My 2 youngest grandchildren are graduates of the CBOE schools.They are on academic scholarships.One is in New Orleans and the other in Urbana.The one, at the UofI, is in Honors Chemistry.They are good girls and do well in their studies.The chemistry major has been an intern at Wrigley Company since she was sixteen(3yrs).
A politician in Springfield wanted a CBOE teacher to give her daughter grades that the child did not deserve.When she didn’t get her way,she went to Arne Duncan. He called the school and told them to do what this mother wanted.He is with Obama and runs the Education Department.
Hats off to the the 96% of the teachers that do an excellent job with our children day in and day out.
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