Paul Kersey @ Illinois Policy Institute:
Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) said it will strike Monday for the first time in 25 years after talks with Chicago Public Schools ended without resolution. Teachers walked off the job for 19 days in October 1987. Prior to that, there had been nine strikes between 1969 and 1987.
CTU President Karen Lewis said, “We have failed to reach an agreement that will prevent a labor strike…No CTU members will be inside of our schools Monday.”
CTU walked out on more than 400,000 students at 675 schools. It’s important to note that nonunion teachers are holding classes at charter schools throughout the city, while CTU strikes. Roughly 50,000 students attend charters — about 12 percent of the city’s total student enrollment. The number of charters is expected to increase over the next five years.
Karen Lewis took a cheap shot at charters say, “Real school will not be open [Monday]. … No CTU member will be inside our schools.”
The debate is likely to be fierce as representatives of the Chicago Teachers Union and the district jockey for support from the general public. The rhetoric has aready been heated; CTU President Karen Lewis has described Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel as “a liar and a bully“.
There are certain critical facts that we believe the people of Illinois should keep in mind as they watch the conflict develop and evaluate the claims made by the two sides:
- Chicago public school teachers are already well compensated. By CTU’s own figures an average teacher earns a salary of $71,000 (CPS reports the number is $76,000 without benefits). Even if we only compare CPS teachers to others with college degrees, they still do well. According to the US Census American Community Survey, the median annual wage for persons with a college degree is $48,866 in Chicago. CPS teachers earn nearly half again as much as an average worker in Chicago with a college degree.
Note: Average teacher pay at Urban Prep Academy, the Chicago charter school that has sent 100% of its graduates to college for the third consecutive year is $71,236.
Note: CTU walked away from a $400 million package that include a 16 percent raise.
Note: CPS is currently offering a 16% pay increase.
Dispelling longer school day myth: Under the interim agreement, teachers will continue to work roughly the same hours they do now. Instead of requiring teachers to work a 20 percent longer day, the Chicago Public Schools have agreed to hire more teachers to fill the extra instruction time with such classes as art, music and physical education.
- Four out of every ten kids who start freshman year at a public high school in Chicago do not graduate. While poverty and crime certainly complicate instruction, this is not a system where anyone, including the administration, teachers or the union, can rest on their laurels.
- Chicago public schools expect to drain their cash reserves in the upcoming year and are likely facing another shortfall of as large as $1 billion the year after that. It is doubtful that the district can afford across-the-board pay raises.
Note: CPS had to return a $35 million federal grant — Teacher Incentive Fund — because CTU refused to implement merit pay. CTU called CPS’ acceptance of the grant a “fraudulent action.”
- Chicago receives almost $2 billion in funding from the state tax funds. That means almost 35 percent of Chicago’s total funding for education comes from state taxpayer funds. The entire state, not just Chicago, is paying for the failures of CPS and CTU.
- CPS has the shortest school days and year in the nation when compared to the ten largest cities in the nation.
Somewhere I heard that the City accepted a 40% pay hike OVER 4 years.
Where they differed was on TESTING these teachers to see if they have any proficiency in their fields.
They do NOT want to be tested as to fitness to teach 350,000 children!
Chicago is forcing churches and parks open near schools because all these students are going to be bused in to get their FREE Breakfasts an Lunches every day during this strike!
This way parents won’t be forced to miss work looking after their children.
When it is Rahm VS the Teachers’ Union, whose side do you root for?
I say, let then fight it out to the death.
Love to see where Obama comes down…..but he will vote PRESENT as per usual.
Some links from Drudge Report:
Turn Down $400 Million Deal, 16% Pay Raise…http://www.suntimes.com/15054902-761/chicago-teachers-strike-for-first-time-in-25-years-contingency-sites-ready-charters-remain-open.html
Have Highest Average Salary In Nation…http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/06/12/how-much-do-chicago-public-school-teachers-make/
Average $76,000 per year before benefits…http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/316395/chicago-bled-dry-striking-teachers-unions-john-fund
SOME SCHOOLS OPEN — BUT JUST TO SERVE FREE MEALS…http://cnsnews.com/news/article/chicago-teachers-strike-many-schools-opening-serve-free-meals
400,000 STUDENTS UNLEASHED…http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-teachers-union-public-schools-strike-169122726.html?dr
Cops Pour Onto Streets to Deal With ‘Unsupervised Kids’…http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-teachers-union-public-schools-strike-169122726.html?dr
GODFATHER ‘DISAPPOINTED,’ VOWS TO END STRIKE…http://apnews.myway.com/article/20120910/DA16P42G0.html
Rahm’s kids’ school open; attend elite $25,000-a-year ‘lab’…http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/chicago-mayors-kids-school-remains-open_652113.html
Romney blasts…http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/10/romney-slams-striking-chicago-teachers/
NOT PRESENT: Obama no comment…http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-wont-comment-chicago-teacher-strike_652128.html
79% of Chicago 8th Graders ‘Not Proficient in Reading’…http://cnsnews.com/news/article/us-department-education-79-chicago-8th-graders-not-proficient-reading
According to the watch dog group, FamilyTaxpayer.org in Illinois, Karen Lewis, the CTU official who took a swipe at charter schools, gets paid pretty damn well for a school district whose drop out rate was 58% in 2010. It seems Ms. Lewis pulled down $89,859 last year. But Karen isn’t unusual. Some teachers of the Chicago SD earn well past $100,000/yr, and some have even reached $135K/yr. not counting benefits like sick time, health insurance, etc.
If Ms. Lewis had agreed to the 16% increase in pay over 4 years, she would have added another $14K to her annual salary that is for a 9 month school term, not for 12 months. If she takes a nine month payout, she would have been earning approx. $11,500 per month. Her income would have been double that of any other college graduate working in Chicago with a BA.
Rahm Emanuel needs to tell those teachers they get nothing, and if they don’t return to work in the next 24 hours, everyone of them will be furloughed and he will recruite non-union teachers from all over the nation. But he won’t. In the end, he will cave to the CTU and beg Obama to pick up the tab so that all Americans in every state can share the burden put on taxpayers by greedy union members.
one of them said it’s because of the decision to re-evaluate them,
she did not like it, and said we won’t go for that
I found it rather amusing that Ms. Lewis mocked the charter private schools as not being “real schools”, at the same time that those schools are sending so many of their graduates on to colleges and universities, including Urban Prep Academy, mentioned above, that sent 100% of it’s graduates to college. For the THIRD STRAIGHT YEAR!
Intellectual dishonesty seems to be the major part of Ms. Lewis’ repertoire.
Chicago is home to such schools as “The Social Justice High School”n and the “Persepectives Leadership Academy”, both of which are very representative of the vast majority of Chicago schools in that they have double digit percentages of kids who cannot speak English, are labeled as “special needs/education” and have a tough time sending the majority of kids through to graduation IN FIVE YEARS.
Check out this link and pick any school on the map – sending a child to CPS is child abuse, plain and simple.
http://www.cps.edu/Schools/Find_a_school/Pages/SchoolLocator.aspx
Chicago teachers salary can’t be compared to national averages because the cost of living is so much higher there.
As long as I’ve been alive, politicians—both left and right—have always vied against increased teachers’ pay and disrespected their profession. Maybe that’s reason why we rank 33rd in the world. http://www.geographic.org/country_ranks/educational_score_performance_country_ranks_2009_oecd.html
@liberal1(objectivity):
Do you ever do any research before you make statements that make you look totally stupid? Chicago teachers are the highest paid in the nation. Are you saying that Chicago has the highest cost of living in the nation, because surely, you’re not that damn stupid?
So let’s take the $79,000.00 average salary of Chicago teachers and apply it to other cities to see how much more they would have to make for the same buying power they have in Chicago, shall we?
Newark, N. J. – $93,862. (you would have to earn $14,862 more in Newark to have the same buying power as the Chicago teachers on their $79,000, but you get the picture)
Boston, Ma. – $93,862.
Los Angeles – $114,423.
Washington, D.C. – $82,390.
Detroit, Mi – $80,010
New York City – $159,370.
Every one of those cities have a higher cost of living than Chicago, yet every in everyone of those cities, teachers earn less than the greedy Chicago teachers who think they deserve to make more than the parents of the kids they [do not] teach. And everyone of those cities above have a higher graduation rate and a lower dropout rate than Chicago, except for Los Angeles.
Like I told you before, you need to turn in your Obama badge because you suck at trying to defend the left wing.
@liberal1(objectivity):
And yet, teacher’s pay has always risen, and the quality of education has been worse and worse. The constant? Teacher’s unions always demanding higher pay, more benefits(most at no cost to teachers), and shorter hours. Always at the threat of a strike.
As it is, it has become nearly impossible to actually fire a teacher, for whatever reason. That kind of job security breeds complacence and a sense of entitlement. Displayed, for the country to see, in Ms. Karen Lewis’ commentary and rhetoric.
As an aside, I work, if no overtime is taken into account(much of it is voluntary), 14 days out of every 28. My job requires a high level of skill and knowledge.
A teacher works, on average, 5 days out of 7. For 9 months. That’s roughly 180 days, give or take, if spring break and Christmas break are taken into account.
Compare that to my 182 days a year, give or take. Roughly equal. However, teachers work only 8-9 hours a day. I work 12. That corresponds to 1620 hours a year for teachers, while I put in roughly 2184+ hours a year.
My yearly pay is roughly equal to the average teacher’s salary where I live and work. However, mine corresponds to a little over $31/hour. The teacher? $43/hour. And on top of that, I pay, at least partially, my own medical insurance(which has increased a lot since Obamacare was passed, even if the entirety of the law hasn’t been enacted yet), and I pay into a 401k. Myself. The teacher? Medical insurance paid for by the county, a pension paid for by the county.
And on top of all of that, they receive around 3 months off, per year.
You think teachers aren’t paid well enough? BS. They can have an off day and the students suffer for a day. I have an off day and no power gets to your home, or school, or place of business. Or something worse, and people get killed.
I have the equivalent of a nuclear engineering degree, without the piece of paper. A teacher? Most likely a liberal arts degree, with maybe a master’s in education.
The point is that teachers, most often, around the country, are paid extremely well and given generous benefits for their job of teaching our children. There should be no excuse, whatsoever, for the dismal record they have in doing so, at the same time they continue to demand higher pay and even more generous benefits. People are breaking their backs, working physically hard, and mentally tough, jobs in order to pay for the teacher’s pay and benefits. And the teacher’s unions have the teachers continually demanding that higher pay and benefits. An entitlement mentality has emerged, amongst teachers, and the unions and liberal/progressives are responsible for it. At the same time they are responsible for the failure of the schools themselves, by coddling the teachers at the expense of the students.
Of course, it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone here that your suggestion, like that of Ms. Lewis, is to throw more and more government money, taken from the people, at the problem and expect it to yield results. That’s what your political kind have thought from day one. And it never succeeds.
Some Chicago Public Schools ”spend” as much as $20,000 per year per student in their schools.
Others of the Chicago Public Schools spend as little as $10,000 for the same students.
So, there’s a shortfall being claimed by the teachers’ union.
They “need” more money (let’s just skip over the fact that they also refuse to be tested for fitness as teachers.)
How much comes from the state?
Chicago receives almost $2 billion in funding from the state tax funds every year.
That means almost 35 percent of Chicago’s total funding for education comes from state taxpayer funds.
And WHY do these ”teachers” bad as they are, ”need” so much pay?
39 percent of Chicago public school teachers send their own children to private schools.
That’s compared to a national average of 12 percent of all children who are educated privately.
They know their own schools are bad!
~~~~~
Oh, and how much comes from US Taxpayers?
Over the past four years, the Chicago public schools have churned through total revenues of approximately $20.27 billion and about $4.26 billion of that revenue—or almost 21 percent of it—has come from the federal government!!!!
According to the budgets published by the Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago schools received $1.1228 billion in federal money in fiscal 2009, $1.1604 billion in fiscal 2010, $1.1449 billion in fiscal 2011, and $827.5 million in fiscal 2012.That equals $4.2556 billion over four years.
http://www.cps.edu/About_CPS/Financial_information/Pages/Financialinformation.aspx
http://www.cps.edu/About_CPS/Financial_information/Documents/FY2011Budget.pdf
http://www.cps.edu/About_CPS/Financial_information/Documents/FY12FinalBudgetBook.pdf
http://www.cps.edu/FY13Budget/Documents/FY2013_Budget_Book.pdf
http://www.cps.edu/FY13Budget/Documents/FY2013_Budget_Book.pdf
Since Chicago Public Schools had a total enrollment of 403,770 students in 2011, according to the Illinois State Board of Education, that means that over the past four yeas the federal government has provided the Chicago Public Schools with about $10,540 in subsidies for each of its students.
YIKES!!!!
Chicago Public Schools are budgeted to receive another $937.7 million in revenue from the federal government for 2013.
http://www.cps.edu/FY13Budget/Documents/FY2013_Budget_Book.pdf
@johngalt:
Oh, it’s worse than you thought.
According to the Chicago School District schedule, school is in session for a total of 183 days, not deducting for holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Martin Luther King’s B’day, Memorial Day, etc. Each school has its own schedule (bell to bell) but the hours school is in session are are the same. For the school across the street from Rahm Emanuel’s home, Courteney, the hours are 7:45 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. That is a 7 hour day which includes lunch and recess. The estimated instruction time kids receive in the Chicago SD is five hours, 8 minutes.
So let’s say that a teacher spends the entire 7 hours at school (although I don’t know any other industry that pays an employee for their lunch hour), and they work 180 days, that comes to 1,260 hours per school term. Let’s divide those 1,260 hours into Karen Lewis’ $89,859. which comes to $71.31 an hour. For a person being paid the same, who works 40 hours week/52 weeks a year, that comes to a tony equivalant of approx. $148K/yr. For a 60% graduation rate or actually, a 40% dropout rate (which I question since the dropout rate in 2010 was 58%).
A number of blogs have reported that the CTU wanted a 16% increase in pay over the next four years. That is wrong. The CTU turned down a 16% increase in pay.
So if our resident liberals want to address greed, perhaps they should start with their support for Marxist based unions like the CTU.
@retire05:
I was addressing how my job compared to the local school district in which my son goes to. I knew, from reading articles, that the CPS teachers compare even worse(or better, I guess, depending upon one’s viewpoint).
BTW, I DO get paid for my lunch hour(actually 1/2 hour). However, during that time that I am eating lunch(or dinner, if I’m working nites), I am responsible for being available at a moment’s notice, if needed. When I am on the control room control board, I am often eating and working at the same time.
My point was that teachers, despite all the tears shed over how hard their job is, and how important their job is, that they are compensated quite well, comparatively, to other jobs.
And one other thing. Back in 2005 there was a big kerfuffle in Milwaukee over “voucher” schools, and that WI residents(mostly the moonbats) didn’t want to pay for the program. Even though, at the time, the private schools were expending half, or less, per student, than the public school systems were. And they were graduating their students at a much, much higher clip than the public school system.
For the amount of money expended per student, I’d expect their education to be of much higher quality than in other countries. Of course, the teacher’s unions prevent any sort of merit based pay, or the firing of teaching failures, and instead shake down the cities, counties, and states, for more and more jack to play around with.