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Chicago teachers are striking

Deadbolt said:
I feel awful for the kids stuck in the middle.
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Same. This is why teacher's unions, specifically, irk me. Putting general objections to public sector unions aside, the children--the most important party, imo--don't have any equal and opposite advocacy group to the unions. They generally get screwed in all this.
 
Can someone provide a quick summary of the issues involved?
 
I don't know much, but I think that it is generally about how teachers are evaluated. Teachers say the evaluations don't take in factors from outside of school such as poverty, violence, and drugs which the students experience at home.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
 
I think it is mainly 3 major things

1. Compensation, raises that equate to 16% over 4 years, which I think was agreed up, but now its more so healthcare contributions and benefits
2. Job security, because of budgets they are closing multiple schools with no plan for the teachers involved at those schools
3. The evaluation system in which the teachers are evaluated heavily on testing scores, which don't take into account a variety of factors, essentially black and white at the moment where here are the scores of your students compared to the scores of other students not reflecting the students past scores or backgrounds.
 
ThinkingWithMyDeac said:
I think it is mainly 3 major things

1. Compensation, raises that equate to 16% over 4 years, which I think was agreed up, but now its more so healthcare contributions and benefits
2. Job security, because of budgets they are closing multiple schools with no plan for the teachers involved at those schools
3. The evaluation system in which the teachers are evaluated heavily on testing scores, which don't take into account a variety of factors, essentially black and white at the moment where here are the scores of your students compared to the scores of other students not reflecting the students past scores or backgrounds.
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It seems number three is the big sticking point. The evaluation/merit based pay initiative looks good on paper, but in practice it's tough because standardized test scores are a terrible evaluation tool.

However, like Texas said, this hurts the kids more than anyone, and they've had plenty of time to get this worked out. Some people need to put on their big boy pants and get it done yesterday.
 
ThinkingWithMyDeac said:
I think it is mainly 3 major things

1. Compensation, raises that equate to 16% over 4 years, which I think was agreed up, but now its more so healthcare contributions and benefits
2. Job security, because of budgets they are closing multiple schools with no plan for the teachers involved at those schools
3. The evaluation system in which the teachers are evaluated heavily on testing scores, which don't take into account a variety of factors, essentially black and white at the moment where here are the scores of your students compared to the scores of other students not reflecting the students past scores or backgrounds.
Click to expand...

I'm sympathetic to #3. You teach in a poor urban or rural jurisdiction, and kids just aren't going to test like they do in Fairfax Co VA or Montgomery Co MD. Much less sympathetic about #s 1&2. We're slowly coming out of a recession, and it's called shared pain. I think Cville city employees got a 1-2% raise, and it's the 1st raise they'd had in like 4 years. WTF is a city or county supposed to do when it experiences a decline in revenue from real estate taxes, and the cost of health insurance spirals up every year? Without knowing more, I'm guessing this teachers union ain't gonna come out of this smelling like a rose.
 
Of major U.S. cities their take home pay is either first or second in the country depending on if you believe the school board or the union. Regardless, it is a long way north of what teachers in Dallas, Miami and other cities take home.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/06/12/how-much-do-chicago-public-school-teachers-make/

For that high pay wage the performance of Chicago public school students is, of course, a model to the rest of the nation.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/us-department-education-79-chicago-8th-graders-not-proficient-reading
 
Rahm should have put this down ‘til after the election. Last thing Obama needs is for some brain dead voters to make a connection between labor action / bad for kids / pampered, entitled government employees and the Democratic Party philosophical underpinnings.
 
What's the average earnings of a person with at least ten years experience, a college and some post grad in Chicago?
 
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