- #49 in funding education
- #5 in teachers’ salaries

And CTU unwilling to concede to a longer school day, recess, etc.
Love teachers. Hate their union.

The US pays the highest rate per student in the world & is pulling 27 out of 30 in achievement in the industrialized world. Teacher salaries set by seniority are a major disincentive to quality performance. Gym teachers with seniority paid more than math teachers. Principals with no education experience managing schools.

The average teacher’s salary in the City of Chicago is $75K. That’s a decent amount of money for 3/4ths year of work plus a pension that is unheard of in the private sector.

A poor quality product being delivered at a high price — not something that gives taxpayers warm fuzzy feelings for teacher unions or teachers that complain about money problems.

Feels like Detroit. Competition is the only remedy. Charter schools & vouchers. Elimination of seniority based pay in favor of performance based pay. Incentives to attract the top 10% of graduates into teaching, not the bottom 10%.

I sort of agree that the CTU needs to make some kind of concessions regarding the 4% increases that were negotiated in better economic times. My worry is that NEXT year, when we repeat this whole scenario AGAIN, that the city will come back to us teachers AGAIN, asking for more concessions. This is a scary precedent for us. My other concern is if workers are asked to lower pay or freeze pay in bad times, will there be extra pay in good times? Do we really need pretty flower boxes downtown or do we need teacher assistants in overcrowded classrooms?

In terms of actual numbers, I added this up. For me, my pay as a teacher with a graduate degree on step 5 (I actually have 15 years in the field, but Chicago, like all districts, does not let teachers carry in all of their years of experience from other school districts) would be around 65K. A 4% raise would be about $2500. The way I see it is this. I spend THAT much money every year on items like paper clips, ink for the printer, books, educational games, laminating, copies, etc…..If the state and city will pay for every single thing I need in my classroom every year, I have no problem giving up my raise. But it is awfully hard to say they can have it back when I have to purchase that all on my own. When my classroom ceiling leaks for several years and I have to have all the desks clustered around the leak so kids don’t get dripped on. When my school wants me to pitch in to have the teacher parking lot plowed in the winter because its “not in the budget”. Seriously?
I will happily give back my raise when, instead of my principal asking teachers to do after school clubs, on a volunteer basis, if I can earn my hourly rate.
Oh, and Huberman and his ‘” administrators”….some of them have expense accounts. For WHAT? I open my own damn wallet to pay for things I need for my job, so can he! That needs to go. The company car needs to go. He can drive his own car like the rest of us.

Somehow per pupil spending in the United States is the highest in the world, the school day is the shortest (180 days) in comparison to 200 days in Europe & 225 in India. Here in Chicago we have the shortest day in the country. Chicago school teachers have consistently voted in their schools to not extend the school day so most students have little — 15 minutes of recess per day. In academics the results show that we’re dead last in the US or very nearly there in comparison to the top 30 industrialized countries. The other big issue is making better use of the resources that we have to achieve better results.