[Belteshazzar]

Time for the Dems to throw more money at a failing enterprise. After all it worked so very well with GM and Solyndra.

[Polyxene]

From the pictures I have seen of the teachers who are on strike, it is no wonder the kids can’t read. The teachers themselves probably can’t read, write or think. I wouldn’t let those miscreants near a child of mine.

[OB1kNOb]

U.S. Department of Education: 79% of Chicago 8th Graders Not Proficient in Reading

And even worse....... 105% of Chicago 8th Graders Are Not Proficient in Mathematics

[NEMDF]

Some TV ad caught my ear over the weekend. I don’t know whether it was by NEA or some other union group, or Dems in general. But the gist of it was, that the way to fix education, is to pay for more education for the teachers (which will then result in them getting those fixed raises you get with each new credit hour toward the next degree).

IMHO it was insulting as to the implications. Pay more for the teachers to learn more so we can pay the teachers more. I did not see how that would result in more proficient students coming out of the schools.

[ConservativeInPA]

Oh the poor children in Chicago.

It is time that people get really pissed off about the money we spend on our education system. If you are like me, you probably do not live in a liberal hell hole like Chicago. But do you realize that your tax dollars pay for schools in cities like Chicago? City schools typically receive significant portions of their budgets from state and federal tax dollars. We have no say in the union contracts or how the money will be wasted since we do not live in those school districts.

If Republicans had any guts they would cut cities off the state and federal tax gravy train. Then standby and watch them commit self-genocide. It is not our culture's problem. These city folks, by a majority, self identify as some hyphenated culture. That culture does not include education as a priority. Fortunately, their culture includes the liberal use of guns.

[ransomnote]

So the Chicago teachers go on strike at a sensitive moment for Obama and he has no comment.
Then the MSM ‘helpfully’ releases a report the same day the strike is announced indicating that Chicago’s students are not well educated (I understand there are other driving factors and it’s not 100% teachers) which might appear to undermine the position of the strikers in the eyes of the voting public.
So the MSM helps tamp down the strike while Obama remains silent approaching the election. If it were Bush and bad for his campaign to have Chicago teachers striking, the MSM would be videotaping heart rending stories of hardship and woe - a parade of emotional educators demanding that children receive the education needed and a lament that Bush doesn’t want minorities to have an education. There would expose type reporting and ambush interviews. Reporters shouting at press conferences “Mr. President -send America’s children back to school...”

[thouworm]

Arne Duncan’s Chicago “success” -— promoted by Obama to United States Secretary of Education.

December 16, 2008

(CNSNews.com) – In 2007, only 17 percent of eighth graders tested at or above grade level in reading in Chicago Public Schools – the school system administered by Arne Duncan since 2001.

President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday tapped Duncan to become secretary of education in the upcoming administration.

Duncan, hailed by Obama as a reformer, said he would like to take the lessons he learned in Chicago with him when he moves to Washington.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/only-17-8th-graders-schools-overseen-obama-education-secretary-designee-can-read-grade

[PapaBear3625]

One quick fix: immediately have the teachers themselves take the tests that their students are expected to take. Any teacher who does not score high-school-proficient in reading, writing, math, and science should be immediately terminated.

Of course, you may lose half the Chicago teaching staff, and most of the school administrators, but you might then have a fighting chance of having the school system do better.

[bert]

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink

You can send a Chicago kid to school, but you can’t make him think.

[aruanan]

Here's how their scam goes:

The schools are in crisis. Crisis. Crisis. Crisis. Johnny can't read. The teachers need more money. They get more money. More money. More money. More money.

The schools are in crisis. Now it's Juanito who can't read. The teachers need more money. Money. Money. Money.

Almost 80% of Chicago 8th graders are "not proficient" in "reading" (this doesn't mean they have a tough time reading a novel. This means they can barely stumble, if that, through any text at all). Almost half of Chicago high school students don't graduate.

This shows the schools are in crisis and that the homeowners haven't done enough in forking over enough property tax money. And the other reason is that all the good, smart kids have been put into private schools or have moved to the suburbs or are in charter schools, leaving the stupid, bad kids in the city's public schools. So teachers are faced with a serious problem that, of course, requires more and more money.

Also, the fact that folks start private schools in really bad areas and use a fraction of the money on kids who went to public schools to produce literate kids doesn't mean the public school is doing something wrong, it just means that the parents of the stupid, bad kids aren't providing a "supportive environment" for learning and making everything the public school teachers do collapse into dust and ruin. Which, of course, requires more money to "address" the "fundamental causes" of the problem, something along the line of a 30% pay increase. Yeah, that's it.

And those who oppose this are against the children and their poor working parents (who are also the stupid kids and slacker parents when another excuse is needed).