LOL......

Missing in Action (MIA): Mayor Emanuel who is on the road campaigning for Mr. Obama to get more "Obama Bucks".

Amazing isn't it, that the Unions hold strikes for more pay, less class size, more time to "prepare" for school, and more vacation time JUST BEFORE, or right after, SCHOOL STARTS. But, they will say "It is for the children".

I think ole Rahm is finally starting to see what balancing a budget looks like and why so many folks go after the unions. Maxed out the taxes and still can't pay for it all. Look I was a teacher for six years in Virginia, so I know how hard teaching is and how crappy the pay is for teachers (believe me it is awful). But the fact is you have to balance the budget. This just highlights the fact that education cannot be run from a central office downtown, like it or not that responsibility falls on the parents.

They're protesting having the school day lengthened by somewhere between 20-25%, while getting a 2% raise. That's the part all the articles gloss over - the increased hours expected from the teachers, along with the tightened scrutiny at the same time. A 2% increase is a slap in the face. It doesn't even keep up with inflation.

To put it another way, a 25% increase in working hours with a 2% increase in wages is equivalent to a 23% pay cut.

Over and over, the general public and politicians whine about how the teachers should accept this sort of treatment because it's "for the children." When does it stop? You want people to dedicate their life and education for the betterment of society, you should pay them a decent wage. Teaching is an awful, hard job with miserable work conditions. The students don't want to learn, the parents don't want to be involved, and the teachers get the blame.

If you include the dept. of education (A big joke right there) there is almost 1 administrator and staff for every teacher actually teaching in the classroom. It is long past time to restructure our whole education system starting with the Dept. of education. Put the money back in the classroom where it belongs, not in the pockets of a bunch of overseers who do nothing. The money should be used at the local level, not national.

This is really a simple situation. The schools say how much they are willing to pay (afford to pay) and that is the end of it. Any teacher who feels like they are not being offered enough is free to do what everyone else in America is free to do, and that is to find a new job. It really is that simple. Everybody gets to protect their rights. Just try walking into McDonalds and demanding that they pay you more than what they want to pay you. They'll very kindly show you the door.

Let's face it, the schools are in the business of teaching kids. How going on strike and not teaching kids benefits the kids is beyond me. Although, with the way some schools are failing miserably in teaching the kids maybe staying home is the best place for teachers to be.

Chicago teachers, past and present have done an awful job of telling students that they shouldn't be shooting at each other. The student's futures rest with their education and their place in society, not as school dropouts and gang members. How many kids dropped out 20-25 years ago, and that dropout rate just perpetuated. That's why you old pension demanding teachers aren't worth it. You failed at your job of inspiring young people to learn and to assimilate into a national society, instead of forcing more kids into a street thug mentality. And the modern teacher, what inspirations are you providing to these young folks? And the union reps, you can't represent your own people, let alone represent education. The question to ask yourself when you go into these talks is, " How long are the street gang killings going to go on in Chicago, with the uneducated children we are producing in the Chicago School System? " It's not a local concern, it's a national concern. What we want as non Chicago residents, ( but who pay federal tax dollars which go into your systems ) is that you start producing students who graduate with literacy in science, math, history, geography, language and writing skills, technical skills, etc that are above the level of education for work in a fast food restaurant chain.

The Chicago teachers are not defining themselves as educators as a profession, they are defining themselves as regional freeloaders on the tax dole. They assume the burden of being an inspiration for a better life for the young. What they appear to be instead is an example of the health threat of two many jelly donuts, coupled with incompetence and intellectual stagnation. This whine about " It's the parents responsibility. ", is a little lame, since you clod poles were the one's who inspired their parents to drop out in the first place, due to your personal lack of talent in your chosen profession.

More money, less work! More money, less work!

Even after years of raises and plush benefits despite poor acedemic performance they're still greedy enough to threaten the education of children to get even more. Public sector "workers" are a parasite.

This is the best reason to get rid of teachers unions....they can hold the kids, parents, school boards hostage for what, more money for the union bosses...screw em, fire the whole works and theres lots of young teachers out there looking for a job....

Hwilson has a point...increase hours for only a 2% pay increase is not very fair...but then the city can not afford more because of the retirement promises. I think the compromise would be to drop their retirement for 401k and give them a bit better raise. Also let them attach their yearly performance reports with their class test results...they should be graded and payed based on how they perform...a good teacher deserves to be paid well while one just there for a check deserves a small check.

If you got paid to produce these kind of numbers at a factory you would be fired. Two percent is fair if their other benifits are not affected. The military has been getting 1.5 percent for years. These people want to raise more taxes and sell more bonds to justify their retirement programs. Waah I just want to teach, what a crock.

I am ashamed of all these teachers for putting money before the kids.

Teaching is not about money. It is about making a difference in someones life, making a difference in the community. A good teacher does not need a union, a union would only keep them down.

Good point Jerry if you apply that to everyone...libs as well I would agree with you.Can't tax everyone the same and only let one group benefit from it. :)

To Jerry, I guess you can calll me a conservative. But I don't label myself other and a military wife. I have

been to a lot of states and I can tell you that there a bunch of teachers who don't deserve pay raises. Plus

I am teaching my kids at home because the entire federal education system sucks. So believe me my kids

will never be a burden on you or your so called money. For the other teachers who actually do a good job

and don't go out and picket all the time because something isn't fair I thank you for your hard work and

time that you put in to these kids.

Jerry-1903677....

Did that....and my, and my only son's (up to a Masters), student loans are paid off and I still pay about 62% on my real estate and other taxes going to my local school district. Empty nest here.

Heck, they are building, or have built, an empire in my town. How does a $ 48,000,000 budget and a $ 55,000,000 sports complex with a city population of 20,000 sound ?

The Chicago Teachers Union will bankrupt Chicago, just like the Unions bankrupted GM and many other Municipalities with outrageous benefits and retirement packages.Many cities in the US have found out they can't afford to pay them and some cities are in banruptcy because of them.

Jerry-1903677

People, meaning conservatives (although it's debatable if they're people) who scream against teachers while wanting them to educate their children should educate their children themselves. Not that conservatives have the ability to educate, but let them do it themselves. If conservatives expect other people to tend to their brood, then they should pay bucks for it. No one's child is someone else's reponsibility unless that someone is ready and willing to dish out for it. You had them, you pay for them.

Some conservatives do try to educate their children via homeschooling but libtards will have none of it and try to make the process as difficult as possible. Also, using your own logic why should I be responsible for paying for government porkulus and welfare handouts? At least parents actually pay taxes for their child's education. You are a complete hypocrite.

Amazing isn't it, that the Unions hold strikes for more pay, less class size, more time to "prepare" for school, and more vacation time JUST BEFORE, or right after, SCHOOL STARTS. But, they will say "It is for the children

I have to agree with the teachers on this one, Rahm is demanding that they teach at least one extra hr per day and is extending the school yr by one week. All that for no additional pay raise, I warn the teachers to watch out, however. They are dealing with a liberal, who wont hesitate to crush those who are standing in his way..

Why public employees think they should always be treated better than a private sector employee floors me. Get rid of the bargaining rights of the teachers union like they did in Wisconsin, then watch them all whine and force an expensive recall election just to show them that they are not the majority and the general population does not agree with their demands. No one pays for my retirement or my health care coverage. It is time public workers started living in the real world with the rest of us. $40,000 - $75,000 per year for 9 months of work, and then retire at 55 with full benefits plus have the tax payers pay your health insurance coverage until medicare will cover you...yes the poor under paid over worked teacher...

good teachers deserve good pay with out a doubt. unions keep in the ones that suck. i cant understand why teachers dont want to go to a performance based system. are there that many bad teachers to out vote the good ones?

Teacher's Union: "It's all about THE CHILDREN!"

How do they sleep at night with that LIE!

Will these teachers:

Work harder if they get their way?

Inspire more children if they get a raise?

Improve the grades of the children?

Prevent children from joining gangs?

Stop children from taking drugs?

Let's face it.....Teaching is a job requiring "no heavy lifting" and the teacher's union is making it tough to remove dead weight.

Lets see crap raises and yearly performance reviews that if you do poorly on long enough you are out the door.

........Welcome to the real world of working.

Chicago Public School (CPS) teachers average pay: $70 thousand/year

CPS teacher starting pay: $51 thousand/year

CPS hours in a school day (elementary): 5.75

So Rham wants to increase the school day to 7 hours. Sounds reasonable since Chicago has the shortest school day compared to every other city school in the country. CPS also has the highest paid teachers in the country.

Highest pay/Shortest day = CPS teachers are taking the taxpayers for a ride...

Our education system isn’t a problem, it’s an embarrassment!

This is the result of what happens when we continue to insist that our criminal government be responsible for more and more social issues. This is the reason our Founders and Framers never included issues such as health care, safety nets or education in Article I, Section 8. However, they did include that whatever is NOT included goes to the States and the People. Federalism works, as long as we allow it to work. This is the basis of dual sovereignty which has been abused by our Federal government over and over for decades.

Our Public Education system is broken on many fronts. Since its inception over 32 years ago, the Department of Education has completely failed. Combine this with the cabal called the unions goonions and we can see the results.

We preoccupy ourselves with sending everyone to college, which is unachievable, and we ignore the basic education foundation for life that our K-12 system is responsible for. How can we expect to create the necessary education base to remain competitive in the 21^st century world if we can’t even read or write? As usual, we have allowed our education system to deteriorate into another massive bureaucratic disaster that is concerned with money, teachers and unions. When will we place the most important person in that group front and center? The student!

The bloated bureaucracy, better known as the BLOB, has become totally dysfunctional. It has become driven by how much money is available, union interventions, misguided policies such as tenure, teachers that are incompetent and programs that are more concerned with political correctness than teaching the 3 R’s. When the system fails so completely that it even creates new terms such as “Rubber Rooms” and “The Dance of the Lemons” we have a very serious problem.

The BLOB is just concerned with how much more money it can garner from the state or federal government. Now, before any of you begin the childish rant that we need to spend more on education remember, the United States spends more than any country other than Switzerland on education. We spend over $11,000 per student, yet we rank in the bottom 1/3 in reading, math and science as compared to other OECD countries.

Money is NOT a problem!

What is done with the money is a problem. As usual, government bureaucracies are top loaded with elitists whose purpose is to monitor and manage their respective systems. This is a tremendous financial strain but more importantly it removes the most important aspect of our education system, the teacher.

According to a 2006 study by the Goldwater Institute, Arizona's public schools spend 50% more per student than Arizona's private schools. The study also says that while teachers constitute 72% of the employees at private schools, they make up less than half of the staff at public schools. According to the study, if Arizona's public schools wanted to be like private schools, they would have to hire approximately 25,000 more teachers, and eliminate 21,210 administration employees.

This is the typical result of government run bureaucracies. Too many Chiefs and not enough Indians (excuse my lack of political correctness). Imagine any business with more managers than laborers and realize how long it will last based on that type of convoluted structure. We see similar results in our public works systems where one man is digging the hole and 4 “administrators” stand by watching, drinking their coffee.

In 2004, the U.S. Congress set up a voucher program for low income minority students in Washington D.C. to attend private schools. The Washington D.C. public school district spends $12,979 per student per year. The vouchers were $7,500 per student per year. The parents said their children were receiving a much better education from the private schools. In 2007, Washington D.C. non-voting delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat, said she wanted the voucher program to be eliminated, and that the public schools needed more money.

During the 2006–2007 school year, a private school in Chicago founded by Marva Collins to teach low income minority students charged $5,500 for tuition, and parents said that the school did a much better job than the Chicago public school system. However, Collins' school was forced to close in 2008 due to lack of sufficient enrollment and funding. Meanwhile, during the 2007–2008 year, Chicago public school officials claimed that their budget of $11,300 per student was not enough. I’ll wager if Ms. Collins got $2,000 more per student those children would have a better education and taxpayers would have saved $3,800 each.

Perhaps Rahm Emanuel should look up Ms. Collins rather than having temper tantrums with the unions and school systems.

The American education system is a disgrace. We keep promising to put every child through college when they are basically unprepared. Our K-12 system graduates students who read at an 8^th grade level. You don’t need any more proof of that than to read any of the articles here or on basically any other blog, newspaper or magazine. Editing, spell-checking and proofreading have gone the way of the dinosaur. Most Americans don’t know how to use—there, their or they’re--correctly in a sentence. Most people can’t calculate 30% of 430 in their head if their life depended on it.

The criminal teacher unions are just as much at fault. They create this air of invincibility, and we wonder why it gets abused. Unions, both in the private and public sectors, must become more industry supportive rather than adversarial. Especially in education, the losers in all these abuses are the children, and the taxpayers. If I’m forced to pay my hard earned money in taxes, and these are the results I get in return, I should have the ability to refuse to pay.

Teachers are some of the highest educated professionals we have. They shouldn’t need to be led around by the nose like defenseless sheep when it comes to negotiations. Wages should be fare, based on performance. Benefits should be sustainable. There are simple solutions, but when you have the union cabals heavy-handing their ideology and policy the result is what we see today.

Most teachers I had, and have met as my children went through school, were good, hard-working, motivated professionals. Most of them are parents themselves. They understand how dysfunctional our system has become. The Department of Education has been in operation for 32 years and our education is worse, something is horribly wrong. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result was brilliantly defined by Einstein. It’s time to get rid of our broken unsustainable system.

Our function as a society is to allow our children to receive the best education they are capable of achieving. To do less is not only irresponsible, it’s criminal.

ROMNEY/RYAN 2012 for real Americans

I think Chicago needs a good community organizer.

Lets send them one in January.

Romney/Ryan 2012. America for AMERICANS.

In the private sector, in order to be compensated $75,000 plus benefits you have to work over 1900 hours per year.

Teachers in chicago (and the rest of the country) work 1100 hours per year (maybe).

Adding another 180 hours per year constitutes a raise?! LMAO!!!!

Just another thought, in the real world, Merit = Raises!!

witchrunner..post 1.5

you got it. good job you may have a cookie............................:)

Well let's look at the Obama Supporters.

The Unions

The Illegals

The OWS

Let's get rid of ALL of them

Romney/Ryan - SUPPORT AMERICA

Looks like another cave in to a corrupt union that will only increase the already extremely mediocre liberal education system.

"Major credit rating agencies have downgraded the Chicago Public Schools debt rating, meaning that it will have to pay higher interest rates if it issues bonds."

Chicago and Detroit are prime examples of what happens when Unions get to elect the Democratic politicians that give them whatever they want. Golden pensions for the teachers, runaway debts and the kids get the shaft - with some of the worst educations in the country - all while the unions find someone else to blame for their failure. I guess Obama learned how to use the 'Blame Game' well from his time in Chicago.

Mayor Rahm "Never let a crisis go to waste" Emanuel was too busy at the DNC Convention to be bothered with this....His plan from the beginning was to cave in at the last minute to the Union...Taxpayers be damned, Unions claim victory and feel empowered.......He paid his homage to P.Obama in NC and will be first in line for Federal Dollars...Maybe some of the unspent Stimulus Money set aside for just such a crisis.....

You can find Rahm out begging for contributions for Team Obama....." You'll make that $10 mil, if you know what's good for you...."

Let them go to strike !!!!!!!! Zero pay

Reading a book to your own child.......PRICELESS!

teachers, even future teachers looking for a job can cross the line if the company/school can prove it is warranted to bypass the union. i think if you support in all HONESTY what your union is doing for you, and able to do for you (other than cost taxpayers more $ to see to it your demands are met by holding them hostage), such as now.

with mentality like (some) teachers, you will see chicago and cali to be the 1st to hurdle a $60.00 hr min wage in my lifetime just to cover cost of living in a unionised thuggery.

Those pesky union leaders must have heard "Don't let a crisis go to waste" somewhere before.

If the teachers want to dump Obama and elevate the Scott Walkers, Mitt Romneys and Paul Ryans of the world, now is their chance. Go ahead and turn down 2% annual raises (that would delight many Americans who pay their salaries), fight teacher evaluations and go on strike. That should do the job!

Yo bro..what does "unanimous" mean????

Agreed! Maybe they will get teachers that really care for the kids!

I like that T-shirt idea. ALthough the school system would probably be against it. They would find it politically incorrect.

Chicago also has the shortest school day. The teachers average salary is at least twice the average of the private sector's wage earner. You have private sector wage earners getting wage reduction's, working hours reduced & or no raises in sight & with lay offs looming in their futures yet the teachers want more & don't want to be graded on their performances. That is why their pay & benefits should be decided by a vote of the people & not by politician's who eat at the same trough. Fire the whole bunch

Average wage for a teacher in Chicago was $62,000 and that was from 2009 data. That is for just for 9 months of actual work. Don't tell me they get paid little, they are severely OVERPAID.

You do realize that all teachers have at least a Bachelor's degree and most (52% in Wisconsin) have a Master's and an average of 16 years experience. Take any private sector job with a Master's and 16 years experience, MBA for example, the average salary is 103K in Milwaukee (2012) PLUS benefits like Bonuses, paid vacation, tax write off's etc...

Seriously, if you compare apples to apples, teachers are paid way less than an EQUAL counterpart in the private sector. We went into teaching for the kids and co-workers and job security. Pay was not a major factor...but fair pay is.

Oh, and summers we are UNEMPLOYED, not getting paid. Many of us choose to spread our pay over 12 months taking a little less each month to cover the summer. Now in WI, we don't even have contracts in most areas. Summer is unemployment with NO guarantee of returning to work the next year.

Teachers have it so good...become one. You have no right to complain if you chose differently for some reason.

well, actually, if you compare apples to apples, and figure in that the teachers only work 2/3 of the year when you take off the summer vacation, spring break, winter vacation, every holiday imaginable, then you get paid 2/3 of what everyone else does. you want to make more? work the full year like the rest of us do. so what if you have "no guarantee returning to work" between contract years. guess what? nobody who works contract work has a guarantee. your return shoulb be based on nothing more than your performance, not your tenure, seniority, collective bargaining agreement, or any of that BS. earn a living like the rest of us.

and yes, we do have the right to complain about your overbloated salaries and benefits. we have to pay them, extorted from our tax dollars, that we earn, working harder than you do.

for someone who is educating people, you sure are unedcuated about the real world...what exactly do you teach, kindergarteners eating paste and nap time?

@WatchTheOtherHand- You have no idea what you are talking about. Most teachers where I am from are at the school from around 7 am to at least 4 pm each day. Then they go home to grade papers and plan for the next day, or to work on plans for the next week. On average, most teachers spend an additional 2-4 hours of their own time doing work for school. Please tell me how many other professions do this? That is not to mention the hours put in by teachers that also coach, so kids can play sports, direct the band, participate in after school events, or having to stay after to call parents about their children. Don't bother saying they get paid for coaching. In my area, they get paid 0.08 of their salary for a head coaching position. That's for coaching for the whole year, and not getting paid for it over the summer. (Where I live, they make about $34,000 a year before tax, so that means they get approx. $2720 extra a year for coaching.)

Pay them as if they were a babysitter. Let's say $20 a day per kid. With 30 kids, that's $600 a day, times five days equals $3,000 dollars a week, times four weeks is $12,000 a month. Then times that by the 10 months teachers work in my area. That's $120,000 a year.

Sorry BD, YOUR taxes and my taxes (yes I pay taxes too) - both go to things we don't want. This is America and we all share the burden and privileges that it has to offer. We have to pay for those privileges though. That's the difference, we are all in this boat together, yet you want to sink it. If it makes you feel better, think of all of your taxes going for something you do like...maybe corporate handouts, tax breaks for billionaires, wars, keeping those darn illegals out of our country...whatever.

I don't know what you do for a living BD, I hope it isn't public relations or any field involving people. You sound bitter and uninformed, that's a bad combination.

i am willing to bet my degrees were significantly more difficult to achieve, and that i work considerably more work hours than you do. no, we are not in the same boat. i have worked hard for what i have achieved, and am grateful for the opportunity to earn my way in the world. you, on the other hand, have taken the easy route, work an easy job, get paid off the backs of the rest of us through our tax dollars, and then have the nerve to whine about it like you are somehow entitled to more. i dont want my hard earned taxes dollars squandered away for any of that nonsense, an absolutely ridiculous and ignorant rationalization on your part, and that includes paying for the privilege that is your easy cushy government job. you are exactly whats wrong with this country...

Bob...compare apples to apples then the teachers need to work a full year, not just part of a year with massive holidays and a lot of overtime and weekends. How can you even compare that to someone in a regular job making $103k as you claim when as a teacher to them work part time.

Not to take away from a teacher but most I have talked to actually do it for the schedule and low hours and many also work other jobs during the summer as well. You my friend are comparing apples to oranges.

Bob...........based on some of the teachers my kids had I can say without question that the teaching profession has some of the least educated folks with a BS degree.

Many get their degree and it's not worth the paper it's printed on...............it's just a ticket for a free ride that others are paying for.

My father was forced (drafted) into the US Army during WW2 and he was paid less than 2 dollars a day. For 4 long years he worked 24 hours a day and 7 days a week because you never go home until the war is over.

Teachers are not DRAFTED. Will they improve the scores of children if THEY get paid more? Why don't we pay the children for THEIR HARD WORK?

Bob-2112,

You do realize that all teachers have at least a Bachelor's degree and most (52% in Wisconsin) have a Master's and an average of 16 years experience. Take any private sector job with a Master's and 16 years experience, MBA for example, the average salary is 103K in Milwaukee (2012) PLUS benefits like Bonuses, paid vacation, tax write off's etc...

Seriously, if you compare apples to apples, teachers are paid way less than an EQUAL counterpart in the private sector. We went into teaching for the kids and co-workers and job security. Pay was not a major factor...but fair pay is.

Oh, and summers we are UNEMPLOYED, not getting paid. Many of us choose to spread our pay over 12 months taking a little less each month to cover the summer. Now in WI, we don't even have contracts in most areas. Summer is unemployment with NO guarantee of returning to work the next year.

The CPS starting salary for a BS degreed teacher is $51k (salaried, 35 hours/week, 34 weeks/year). The average pay for a BS degreed teacher in the CPS is $70k/year. For apples to apples comparisons, the average starting pay for a BS mechanical engineer in the same area is at $52k/year (salaried, 40+ hours/week, 50 weeks/year).

So apples to apples comparisons, just starting wages:

CPS teacher: $42.86/hour worked

Engineer: $26.00/hour worked

Doesn't appear to me that the CPS teachers are so underpaid.

By the way, the engineering students that dropped out of the engineering program because they couldn't make the grade went to Business School or became teachers.

Teachers, in fact all Union workers should be paid like the rest of us are. If you do the work, you get to keep your job. If you do BETTER than required, you get a raise. If you don't do either, you get fired.

@DNY83 --- Bullsh-t! CPS teachers have helped create Chicago's social problems. More money is not the answer.

Labor unions is a concept of the past. I am so sick of teachers complaining about their pays while having such a relatively easy job. Voucher system must be instituted to make the school system more competitive, rather than allowing these teachers to hide behind their union and tenure system. If I am older, or not keeping up with technology, or mess up at work, I will be let go, and should the teachers.

US is known to spend the most money per student compared to the rest of the developed countries, but is at 17th in academic standing. We need to have our teachers get to work, or perhaps it is time to get the best science teachers to teach online (youtube even), and have school TA's to help out with questions.

Bob,

I was a teacher for six years. I know the pay sucks and the hours are long that you don't get paid for and the summers are the only reason a teacher stays sane (or in some cases they work to avoid bankruptcy). But the fact is the city is broke. Taxes are maxed out. Where is the money going to come from? Central control of education doesn't work. Family control of education works. I am home schooling my kids and know thousands of families here in California that also homeschool. It works only if the parents care. "But what about the parents that don't care?" I hear you saying. As a teacher, you know full well that they are the problem children there also. The bottom line is this: education must be released from the central planning mentality and there has to be responsibility on the part of the government to be financially responsible. Perhaps if parents knew they had to take responsibility for their child's education, and that Big Brother wouldn't promise to take care of everything for their vote, it would work better. I think they call that freedom where I'm from.

sounds like you went to a school of hard knocks and left. I have teachers in my area making 70k dollars a year for 9 months of work, working 8am to 2:30pm. Paid extra to coach sports.... sounds really tough to me.

You can look up teachers' salaries both currently working and retired in IL. Many teachers in the IL system who had jobs as drivers ed teachers, principals and even career guidance counselors are reaping 6 figure pensions until they die.... if they have a surviving spouse they keep riding that money wagon too. (Pay of pension average of 4 last years of service)..... so you can talk about how bad the pay is but you are just misinformed

In an ideal world, all parents would care for their children, all children would love to learn and everyone would be happy. This is the real world. Kids are hungry, parents are missing/busy working 3 jobs/undereducated or a million other excuses. Some parents are there. More power to you for being able to home school. Not everyone can do that, especially into the middle and high school subjects. Not every household is like yours. Most can't afford a private education so off to public schools. Some parents use public schools as babysitters, a place to get 2 meals a day, or as the only safe refuge in the child's life. The situation is not ideal.

Teachers did not cause the economic crisis. But yet they should bear the burden of fixing it? Right? Cities don't have money? Why? Bad economy, failing tax base, tax freezes, poor spending choices? Yes to all. An example from my district: no money = cut all technology programs = saved money = re-turf the HS football field. One more: voted to close a school to save money, class sizes grow to the 30's+, parents complain about class sizes but won't pay more in taxes to open school or hire teachers.

I agree that we need more careful spending in all areas of government, but cutting education has NEVER resulted in better test scores, happier students/teachers and an ideal school environment.

Again, look to the bailouts, handouts, corporate tax breaks for billionaires, wars, waste. Put all of those on a list and include education and have people vote where they want money to go. "I want to spend taxes on"

a. education

b. wars

c. bank bailouts

d. billionaire tax breaks

See where people think money should go and stop sending it where they think it should not.

teachers make a lot of money for the amount of work they do, the difficulty in obtaining a teaching degree, the supply and demand of people with generic college educations, and other factors determining their compensation. if you want to earn real money, specialize in science, engineering, and technology, then work a full year, compete with the rest of us in the real world, instead of extorting your existence from the rest of us in the lala lands of public academia. until then, stop eating paste...

Rick, most teachers work an 7.5-8 hour day with a whopping 25 minute lunch. Don't lie to help your case. How many of those teachers came in on the weekends and summers to prepare their classrooms, write plans, for free... ALL OF THEM - and again 70K for an experienced worker with a Master's degree is scraping the bottom in the private sector. You work a job, put in 25-30 years, take on extra responsibilities (like coaching for $2.35 an hour like I did) to help boost your retirement and get blasted for it. You knew about teaching yet chose not to go into it. Why? more money, prestige...whatever. You made your choice.

Oh, administrators are not part of the union, and their pay is higher. We even had a few 30 year "Master's plus 30 credits" teachers in Milwaukee get in to 100K range including benefits. YOU teach in Chicago or Milwaukee or Detroit for 30 years...you'll feel you've earned every penny as opposed to those sitting behind a desk shuffling numbers in an air conditioned office.

What's your degree? How many years on the job? Benefits? If you're unhappy - do something about it. Don't drag me down to your level instead of trying to raise yourself up, it's pitiful.

Rick,

Let me set you straight on a couple of things, even though I agree the pensions are the problem. Most teachers actually work 10 months a year and it is more like 7:00 to 3:00. But that is only the time they are at school (with students, talking to parents, meeting with administrators, etc.). In my six years of teaching (which were enormously successful), I worked an average of two hours a night after my boys went to bed. Plus I put in about 5 or 6 hours on the weekend grading papers. Plus teachers only get paid the months they work. I took summer jobs every year I taught in order to make ends meet. If you add in coaching, the amount they get is minscule compared to the hours they put in. Most coaches do it, because they love it.

However, I still agree that pensions are the problem, but not the teacher's pensions. When you make education a central planning bureaucracy you have dozens of other folks drawing a check for equal or more pay and banking the big pensions and teaching very little or not at all. Decentralize the education system and streamline the process. That is what freedom in education will do for you.

are you seriously sniveling about an 8 hr work day? gee, maybe if you put in a few more hours, worked 10+ like a lot of folks, you wouldnt have to come in on your excessive time off...

Again BD, contracted to work from x to y. We have to be there, by the minute for those hours. What we do after school, before school, on weekends and during the summer is NOT PAID but we do it anyway. Salaried folk understand that burden. Those working hourly love that 1.5x - 2x overtime...salaried folk don't get that.

I see what BJ is saying, there are a lot of hands in the pot when it comes to education. A more streamlined system would eliminate a lot of waste. But in all honesty, every business, private and public, has its waste. BUt realize that TEACHERS are not wasting any of it...administration, business personnel, lawyers, investors...that's where the waste lies.

@Bob- Agree 100%

@everyone else on this- If it is so easy, please go do it for half the year. Make sure you do it right too. Yes, there are some teachers who should not be teachers, but to say they have it easy just proves you know nothing about teaching, about kids, and you don't know any real teachers.

Imagine for a minute that at your job you are given the responsibility to teach all incoming employees how to do their jobs. Now imagine that 60+% don't care about what you are trying to teach them, but you can't fire them for not doing their job right. Now to make it worse, imagine that along with all of that, you find out that if those employees you are teaching don't do their job right then you will get blamed for it and could lose your job for it. If you can picture that, then you can understand an extremely small portion of what being a teacher is like.

put your lives in danger everyday?! LMAO. are you serious? that statement is an insult to all the folks who really do put their lives on the line in their profession. i'd love to hear you sell that self-serving line of BS to the police, firemen, or military personnel who actually do.

Bob, you have the same alternatives the rest of the working stiffs of the world has, that is, quit your present job and find a better paying job. Quit your bitchin'.

I keep reading statements to the effect “if it is so easy why don’t those of us who don’t teach give it a try”. I don’t necessarily think teaching would be an easy endeavor. I made my career choice and you made yours. I am certain I make more with my masters than a teacher with their masters. When I retire it will be with a retirement that I funded with investments, 401k and possibly Social Security. My father is a retired educator and when he retired he made out pretty well with a retirement package that included a decent monthly check and great medical package to boot. The option for all of us to change careers if we are that unhappy with the job, pay or benefits exist. So rather than saying those of us who don’t teach give it a try I would ask why don’t you change careers. I for one will no longer vote in favor of high taxes to support education. Most private organizations don’t have the luxury of a 9 month work year and couldn’t afford the amount of administrators, admin assistants and retirement packages that teachers have. If the cost of our education system fell on private industry rather than the government I would venture to say all of the waste and unnecessary overhead would be gone. It is much easier to spend someone else's money than your own. Teachers could do like we in the private sector do where are raises, if we get one, are based on merit and our value to the organization. It would be unthinkable to tell my CEO that if I weren’t given a better compensation package that I wasn’t coming to work until my demands were met. So with all of that said don’t look for the American public to be overly sympathetic towards the cause and for attitudes to improve in regards to public employee union, I don't that will happen any time soon.

Bob,

We are talking specifically about the CPS. The entire elementary school day was 5.75 hours. The high school school day was 7 hours. These were the shortest school days of any city school system in the country.

So you think it unreasonable to increase the day by 1/2 hour to not be alone at the bottom?

Well-said James! How many teachers are there in Chicago that are not allowed in the class room to teach due to criminal issues, non-performance, substance abuse and things of that nature that can’t be fired due to union rules? Getting rid of the teachers unions and their salaries would be an ideal place to start fixing a broken system.

That's to big of a base of Democrat voters to risk losing.

I thought DEMS were all about screw the "rich" people? The way I look at it is if you're making close to a 100K like these part time employees on MY dime I'm considering you rich and just might "Occupy" your house.

Get rid of the Union. Hire people who WANT to teach, and pay them based on their performance. The private sector has been doing it like for years, and it works out fine. We pay a portion of our health care, we pay for our retirements.

Geez, settle down! Sounds like it's time for a blankey and a nap...

That's a great idea, but a bit naive. Who's going to pay for the building, insurance, teachers, lunch/breakfast, maintenance etc... and children need a break too. I suggested a year round school year, 6 weeks on 1 off, but we ran into the same issue. Finally, while it may be be a factor by you, summers are HOT here and the classrooms are a jungle, buildings are not air conditioned, it is not the best environment for kids to learn.

and the biggest source of resistence is the teachers unions. several school districts have attempted to increase the school years only to be stiffled by the unions...

BD I agree with a lot of what you have said but I think you are wrong here. Most of what I have seen and read are parents are more against extended and year long school years. You would have kids missing weeks at a time as families take vacation and other things.

Even now I take my son out of school for a week during Thanksgiving to take him hunting every year. I let the school know in advance so they can let him try to get his work for that week done in advance if they wish ( I let them know to send it home early and I can help him do it before we leave) but they have never done that and always seem to want to make an issue out of it every year. I just let them know I let them know in advance and my vacations can't be planned around them and their schedule.

You have kids that do summer camps with boy scouts and church groups and many other groups for a week and with a year long school year all those kids would end up missing a weeks worth of school to attend those as well.

It's rather like Obama's whole perspective as well, just keep spending and don't bother with realistic budgets,

Agreed! Obama's politics is steeped in Chicago, so why should he act any differently in Washington? Chicago politics is all he has ever known.

Wazoo,

I was also floored. I worked in Norfolk, Virginia for 6 years with a bachelor's and more than 30 credits towards a Master's. My final year salary was $38,000 a year. I'd still be teaching if I made $70,000 a year, well maybe.

You nailed it on the head, parents don't care. Honestly, there is not much you can do to change that mode of thinking besides let them fail (to some degree at least) and hope they learn their lesson. Otherwise, you are proping up and enabling bad behavior.

Jon, I think you should try it out. Get your degree and go teach in inner city Chicago. Put up or shut up.

Bob, I think you need to try working in the real world, where you actually have to compete and earn a living...

Jon and Bob, you all sound like poor stupid teachers

Bob,

Some of us that work in the Private Sector for a living understand we wouldn't make great teachers. Its time for some of the teachers to realize the same thing. Just because we don't believe that ALL teachers are entitled to a raise every year, doesn't mean we want to teach. Look at what that teaches the population, no matter how good or bad you are, you get the same as everyone else. Great concept!