E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSAs Chicago teachers enter day two of their massive strike, parents and students are struggling with unexpected days off. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports.
CHICAGO – Felicia O’Connor, a young mother with a child in tow, approached the picket line. She asked the picketing teachers if they “know how long this thing will be going on?”
She leaves for work each day before the sun comes up and said she was unaware of the late night Sunday decision by the Chicago teachers’ union to hit the bricks.
Now she is stuck with trying to sort out childcare for her 6- year-old daughter, Michaela. She didn’t get an answer to her question from the teachers.
“They don’t know anything. I don’t know anything. We’re just out here blank and I have to go to work,” O’Connor said.
She wound up leaving her daughter in good hands at a local Boys and Girls Club for a few hours while she went out, in vain, in search of a day care. She’s already missed one day of work and hopes her employers will show some understanding.
“Education is important. If my child is not in school, getting the education she needs, you know what… I don’t know, it is just irritating right now," she said.
Parents in Chicago, like Felicia O'Connor seen above, scrambled to find accommodations for their kids after 26,000 teachers and support staff walked out in the nation's third-largest school district. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports.
Picking sides
Two days into this work stoppage by the city’s third largest school district, and one finds folks starting to choose sides.
Chicago teachers strike day two: Talks stuck on evaluations
“I haven’t had a raise in seven years,” said one middle-aged woman who walked past me as I stood watching teachers march outside the headquarters of the Chicago School Board. “They’re already making more money than I am.”
“I support the teachers because I support my kids,” said a young mother who stood and watched teachers march for a few minutes. “My daughter was in a class with more than 35 kids last year; this year it is up to 41.”
About 26,000 teachers and support staff launched a strike on Monday morning – all dressed in bright red t-shirts and carrying placards – demanding a new contract between the teacher’s union and the city’s school district.
Other parents complained about a lack of school supplies or decent air conditioning for their kids on sweltering Chicago days.
One can likely assume the longer this thing drags on, the more entrenched each side is going to get. “Day One” of the strike came with a bit of a party atmosphere. By “Day Two” on Tuesday, teachers had already started fingering the mayor and chanting, “Hey Hey Ho Ho Rahm Emanuel has got to go.”
NBC Chicago's LIVE Blog: Chicago Teachers Strike
In Chicago, 26,000 teachers and support staff walked out in the nation's third-largest school district after a weekend of unsuccessful eleventh-hour contract negotiations between the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago's public schools. NBC's Rehema Ellis reports.
Bigger city issues
Parents also have other concerns that are more a reflection of the city we live in. This has been a particularly deadly year on the streets of Chicago, with the homicide rate up about 30 percent from what it was a year ago. The overwhelming majority of the dead are young minorities. To give kids a "safe haven" during the strike, several churches have opened their doors.
“There's so much violence skyrocketing in the city of Chicago. We want our kids to be in a safe place,” said Sergio Ramirez, who runs a “safe haven” in the city’s Pilsen neighborhood.
Some 80 percent of kids in Chicago’s schools are provided with breakfast and lunch at school because they come from impoverished backgrounds. The job of teaching here, and administering an education system, has many more challenges than just ensuring kids are learning the 3Rs.
More content from NBCNews.com:
- US marks 11th anniversary of Sept. 11 attacks
- Jailbird ex-cops talk about Drew Peterson's fate in prison
- Video: New footage released of Sikh temple shooting
- Cops: Woman kills husband, mistaking him for intruder
Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
You didn't get a raise in the last 7 years?....join the private sector, they not only didn't get a raise they lost their jobs!
Wonder if the unions had anything to do with this?
Sheeeesh, and the "teachers" won't agree to a 14% increase in pay and are "concerned" about their EVALUATIONS while 80 % of the kids have to eat AT SCHOOL instead of home.
How is that "It is all for the kids" working out for you.....TEACHER'S UNION(S) ? Oh, that is right....could care less.
Take attendance
Each semester, a teacher reporting absences in their classroom should have community support.
Schools with low graduation numbers can't just throw up their hands and claim it is impossible to teach., then accept the fact that these students need MORE ATTENTION...and HIGHER STANDARDS.
25% of the evaluation is weighted in the teacher's favor.... so allowing this pattern of FAILURE to continue is WRONG.
Try this system
If it doesn't work after a few years, try something else.
Teachers who are ready to give up on kids in September are curiously self-centered...and NOT Kid-centered.
If you are serving food to impoverished kids
Fire them! get them out today and stop playing games with "professionals"!
Well now we see its clear "Those who cant do Teach."
Union rules state if out on strike for 2 weeks then they can be fired and replacements employed. im sure there are lots of young people out there that dont have jobs that would be willing to do the job for even half the amount they are getting. And if they are demanding such a pay raise, Why are they so SCARED OF BEING EVALUATED. 75k a year and you dont want evaluation, are you that stupid that the UNION will save your job regardless of how dumb you are. and the complaint of i have too many kids in my class, is BS. when i was in grade school the average class size was 35 to 40 kids and i went to puplic school on the south side of chicago. now the average is 12 to 15 ,75 k and they cant handle the job. FIRE THOSE ARROGENT FAT SLOBS ,most of which dont even speek propper english "THEY BE ASKIN THEY MOMA. FIRE THEM! Just like Reagan did with the faa, and that was much more crucial to our safety then some SELFISH teachers.
The woman who said she hadn't had a raise in 7 years did work for the public sector. She was walking by the picket line and was commenting tht she hadn't had a raise. They didn't need a raise.
Ahhhhh, beautiful Chicago...the land of Obama and Rahm and unions. Forget the kids...we want our money, honey! What a mess of a city and a state and there are idiots who want this guy to run down the country 4 more years?
the parents have the right to know how long their children will be without schooling.
.....why the union did this at the start of the school year is unclear
They care becuase it's free baby sitting for them.
The reason teachers unions strike at the beginning of the school year is simple: they are holding the school district's feet to the fire! If the district doesn't agree to their demands, the parents get irritated. Irritated parents get all over the school board (and the mayor). The school board usually caves to some extent just to get the kids back into school and the parents off the board's back. Everybody is happy until December when most jurisdictions send out the property tax bills.
Perhaps they want to point out the fact that Rahm Emanuel is an incompetent mayor? And they're doing a damn good job of it.
not to worry...they still get all those free meals that the school hands out
yummy
and the best part...now you can trade those pesky food stamps for other things - like dope
it's so easy to talk smack on the internet you...........
everytime the chicago teachers have gone on or threatened to strike is at the start of the year. then parents got no babysitter, cuz they dam sure dont teach anything except to the test. They do not teach kids how to learn.
It is the free enterprise system. They're maximizing their bargaining position. Any capitalist would do the same. Romney would be proud.
They are striking to show the relevance of public employee unions, ( or lack of ). The garbage collectors will strike when it is hot out and the garbage smells the worst. Public works will strike when the weather conditions make the roads the most difficult to repair, and etc. There are computer based lessons that are available such as the Kahn Academy, designed for those who don't have access to large school systems, which are quite adequate for instructing kids in the basics, public employee union or not. Once people find out there are other, often times more enriching educational opportunities than those offered by the union teachers, they cease to care how long the strike will go on. Let it go on for 6 months. Employers aren't finding that many qualified graduates in their system in the first place. The unions are close to worthless agents for their own membership now, let alone those who are supposed to be served by them.
This is a strike to show the importance of the unions in the elections. And this just shows how stupid the union leadership is, as there are now as many if not more people voting as independent as there are voting Democratic or voting Republican, so the is a 3 way split. Union leaders show just how stupid the Democrats can be, just as the Religious Conservatives show how stupid the Republicans can be. Neither are relevant in this day and age. Their leadership is comprised of old fat people greedy for the dollar, but who don't want responsibility, nor accountability. Vote for the best candidate, don't vote for the party.
It's time that teachers had a reality check. They've been put on a pedastal for so long that they think they deserve above and beyond what the normal working class gets. Yes they have an important job but if they aren't performing they should not have the right to keep their jobs. There are teachers out there that can not get a job because of the tenor system. I say get rid of the ones on strike advertise across the country and see how many teachers are willing to work.
This is not about the kids, if it was about the kids the teachers would be striking for longer days to teach the material the kids needed to learn, better teaching material. Better educated teachers, firing teachers that did not live up to the best teaching standards, representation for the students. I don't see that in any of the proposals from the teachers, this has NOTHING to do about the students.
Honestly, If you're only option is to have your kid in school then you probably shouldn't be having kids. I chose not to have children because it's such a huge responsibilty and a life changer. However, right now if I had a child and this was happening I would have plenty of options. I could leave them with my mother, I could take vacation time, I have the money to put them into daycare. I hear so many stories of parents with no options which tells me school is more 'daycare' to them than anything else - a place they need to put their child while they go to work. It's a scary thought they they have no options with their children if school should shut down like this. I know it's not like this for everyone but that's a scary situation to be at the mercy of the school system.
Mike -- I actually somewhat agree with much of that. Parents have started looking at schools as "free day care" for a number of years now.
I don't live in Chicago, but even when they change our school calender by ONE DAY, to give the teachers time to do report cards, etc., parents scream bloody murder that they have to find ANOTHER way to take care of their kids! God help them if they actually schedule the high school and elementary school to be off on separate days, then the high school kids can't baby sit!
And they learn this MONTHS in advance!
When parents start expecting teachers to be day care workers, I can understand why teachers have difficulty.
Mike,
That statement is just too full of a black and white view that's not even close to being mired in reality. No offense, but there are many factors as to why parents do not have alternative means to take care of kids not in school. That doesn't make the school babysitters, since by law thay have to be there. Here's a few things that come to the top of my head. How many parent's today have to work, just to make ends meet. Or what if the parents are divorced. What if they do not have any family that can care for children. You can have money when you have children and due to the economics of today that money is no longer there. Also the days of the father/husband that went to work and the mother stayed home are in days long past. I don't say this angrily, but since you chose not to have children, you don't really have any idea what a parent or parents have to go through to raise children.
All I hear from Karen Lewis is only what they have demanded, not any concessions, if any, that they have made. Some of the teachers that I have had contact with, both for myself and my kids, that have been tenured, would barely be fit to be a day care worker. I myself had some very good teachers growing up all over the midwest, all in public schools, but there were also quite a few that were there only punching a clock and could care less. The union is only there to protect the teacher and to keep as many dues paying members as possible. Leverage or not, if the union truly cared about students then they could have kept negotiating while school was in session.
It isn't the job of the state to raise your kids.
Point taken - there are always extenuating circumstances. I get it. I guess the main topic of my post was my last sentence "I know it's not like this for everyone but that's a scary situation to be at the mercy of the school system."
That's true and the kid's are left in the middle to sit and suffer for it.
@ Ryan in Texas,
Who says the school or state is supposed to watch your kids? Your children are required by law to go to school up to a certain age. You build your life around certain schedules. Almost all parents work their schedules to accomodate children who are in school at certain times. Not all employers are forgiving when this changes. My kids go to school to learn the basics, matth, science, history, etc. Morality, religion, social interaction is taught at home. I don't need a teacher or the government or a church telling my wife and I how to raise a family. Unless they do things differently in Texas.
then quit forcing people to send their children there, make home-schooling more flexible!!!! YOU PEOPLE HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS BUT AREN'T DOING A DAMN THING BUT VENTING ON THE INTERNET!!
Both parents have to work to pay the huge taxes being charged by school districts, and you can't pay both! Pay the teachers a living wage and get it over with! What does it say about our society when Football players and rock stars make so much money and our teachers aren't even paid a living wage? It should be the other way around!
Melba-First you complain about high taxes and you seem to think the way to fix that is to give the teachers a raise. That makes no sense. That would only make taxes go higher. If the teachers really are making an average of $76,000 a year (and I don't know if they are or not, just going by what I've seen elsewhere), that seems like a living wage to me. They would be better off not getting raises and hiring a few extra teachers to make the class size smaller.
Because the teachers strike after a school year starts I would not give in to them. I would look for replacements. Teachers have options. Work or quit. It is not ethical to hold Students Education hostage. I would be an irate parent.
The strike will go on until the parents say, "Hey teachers you work for us, get back to work or go find another job and you are not getting paid until you do, and if you do not we will hire someone else out of the unemployment line". This attitude needs to be taken with all OUR public employees up to and including Obama.
So more union strong arming, and in the end the children lose??
Way to go union!!
Unions served a purpose at one time in this country when we were a global leader in manufacturing, but now they serve absolutely no purpose except overpaying lazy people.
I was listening to Majik 104.9 on 9/11/12 between 8:00am - 9:am and a famous radio personality said, "those teachers in chicago are trippin." That host needs to trade places with those teachers and then say those words.
Shouldn't it read "Chicago parents AKS?"
LMAO
Greedy
Just fire them all like Reagon fired the air traffic controllers. 'Now accepting teacher application' union members need not apply. They obviously don't care about the kids. How about report cards for the teachers?? Shut these stupid unions down!
Couldn't agree more.
There must be A LOT of young educators that graduated college the past couple of years looking for work...here ya' go!
Our teachers don't care about the kids? How shocking.
There are not 26,000 teachers available and willing to work in the City of Chicago.
It may be easy to say "fire them," but the reality is that teachers, unlike factory workers, are very educated, most usually have continuing education and many have advanced degrees.
The real question is, how do you evaluate teachers who work in conditions where much of what they do is affected by factors not in the teachers control. To a certain extent, holding the teachers to account for students test results is like holding a tractor driver on a corn farm responsible for the yield per acre and the moisture content of grain.
Since they are so educated then they should be able to get the job done. Those evaluations are only part of their overall performance evaluations. The teachers in Chicado should be able to at least demonstrate some compentency in teaching, just like teachers in other states are required to. Since the city of Chicago is paying "top dollar" wages to these people then they should expect a good return on their money. The teacher's union is being unreasonable in their demands.
$76k/yr average salary + benefits + summers off + 16% raise over 4 years (at a time when the private sector happens to be dying) and they're still striking and putting the city through hell because they don't want the school system to put in place an Obama-recommended evaluation system that takes into account test scores to allow for the replacing of the worst-performing teachers. Even as a lifelong Democrat I say fire them all... they're crossing the line here.
Jeff: I don't know what other business evaluates and terminates employees on factors they have no control over. The system of teacher evaluation (and possible termination) would give principals the authority to evaluate the teachers based in a large part (40%) on standardized tests. This is like evaluating the McDonald's fry cook based on the total number of burgers sold. Yes, it is an actual measure of what the person is doing, but whether they are doing their job well is not necessarily measured by the results.
All over the country you hear complaints that teachers are just teaching to the test. Students no longer have the ability to learn, they only learn what is needed for the maximum score on the test. Critical thinking skills are no longer learned or taught.
I think most of you are missing the other points of the strike. It is NOT only about money. These teachers are working in terrible conditions- rooms that are made for 25 students and have to hold 35. Rooms with no air conditioning even on days that are above 100 degrees. Schools that do not have nurses, counselors or other support staff. As a teacher (but not in Chicago or even Illinois) I support their cause not only as a teacher, but also as a parent. I would be upset if the schools where I live didn't have nurses or counselors because those are just as important as the teachers themselves.
It is really easy to judge someone from the outside, but as the saying goes "walk a mile in their shoes" and then see how you feel.
123
You said it, "These teachers are working"! How many Americans can not say that, 23 million+? YOU are missing the point! And THEY should be walking the line with the other 23 million, literally.
"no counselors"
But I thought teachers claimed to be social workers as well, what happened?
I agree with you, the teachers should be allowed to strike for better wages, benefits, job security or anything else they want because they are part of a bargaining unit that is available to them when it is needed. All of you people who are complaining about them, get a life and the strike could either be in their favor or against, it's their decision.
Chicago parents are again being attacked by a public employee union supported by the corrupt Democrats of Illinois. Illinois needs Wisconsin's Walker to come in and rid the state of corrupt labor unions and corrupt Democrats! What's Obama going to do? Support the union which is against his education plan or support the children? Obama will keep quiet and allow the children to be screwed - he's never sent his girls to a public school - the Teachers suck!
Of course he'll stay quiet, he wouldn't dare touch Chicago politics nowadays!
Our schools dont have nurses, counselors are shared by several schools and there are times that the class sizes get really large here too. We had to cut short a Choral and Orchestra performance because the AC in the Gym doesn't work and it was well over 100 in North Carolina. And our teachers don't make half that amount. If you are a teacher it is a calling. If you are out on strike rather than teaching children, Shame on You!
This has nothing to do with salary, they are protesting the mayors actions.
ummm ... the question I would be asking the teachers is not how long the strike would go on so my kid would be outta my hair, BUT why is there only a 65% graduation rate??? How about only 15% at the 4th grade level actually being able to read. These people make be SICK!!! Replace them all... Oh, wait, we can't, right? No matter what, they cannot be replaced or actually managed. You people SUCK!
Calm down, haven't you heard of a GED?
Just because someone doesn't graduate from public school doesn't mean that they're never going to achieve the equivalent.
I got a GED in 1973. I earned my Master's in 1994. If I had relied on Public High School I would be getting Welfare, Food Stamps, and Obamacare. Wait....I think I just figured something out.....
I graduated with a teaching degree and never stepped foot into a class room. NOT because I didn't want to teach, but because of the parents. There is no way in hell I could put up with the crap that teachers put up with. My husband and many family members are teachers. OH the stories they come home with about parents. I don't care what any of your say, you couldn't pay me enough to be a teacher. I had a coworker tell me one time, "It is up to the teachers to help raise our kids" BULL S?@T! Parents need to raise their kids. 41 children to 1 teacher and no aid. There is a lot of teaching going on in that class room (JOKING!).
Exactly, it's the parents choice.
Either let the state raise your kids or take some responsibility and home school them.
Ryan...that is plain stupid. Most parents have neither the time not the skills to educate their children, when are they suppose to reach them??? yeah, sure, we all know that after the husband gets home from work maybe, and what about their mother, you think she is a qualified teacher well versed on all the subjects?, I can see it now, some poor woman who maybe did not even finish high school herself, has to take time off her job at McDonald's to go home and instill the knowledge...let's say in...economic geography, maybe algebra. If you were to teach your own kids (do you even have any?) would they be prepared to go out and get advanced education at the college? Maybe you are a whiz kid and your (hypothetical) children will excel, maybe you will train them to dig a few ditches or something similar? How about the single parents out there...I can see it now..."Kids, we are moving to a tent city down by the river because I had to quit my job in order to be able to home school you, only problem is that we have now lost our home because I had to quit my job...because my mean old boss just doesn't understand why I can not be at work at the same time I am suppose to be teaching you math, and science, and geography, and let's not forget proper English grammar."
It would be, in my opinion, best if the teachers went back to the classroom while the issues they confront are being negotiated, there has to be a willingness by both parties involved to resolve the issues. While you are castigating the President, think about firing all those dead beat republicans in congress who have been on strike for nearly four years, and they make $175,000.00 each year plus some pretty lucrative benefits. Have any answers that did not come out of a cracker jack box Ryan?
Here's a thought! Instead of whining,the Parents should get up off their butts,go out there on the picket lines with the teachers and DEMAND to give these teachers what they want, so these kids can get back to school
It's these parents taxes paying these teachers salaries.Bottom line they're all in it Together.
Yeah, who else is going to supervise their kids?
Ok Ryan we get it calm down.
Asking you once more Ryan...Do you even have any children of your own?, if not, then shut up.
Somewhere, maybe that was the plan. Start this up right at the beginning of school, inconvenience a whole lot of working parents who do not have day care in place. At some point the union is hoping that these same parents will push the issue on giving them what they want no matter the cost or lack of actual improvement to their children's education. Kind of looks like clever manipulation to me..
I'm wondering how long it will take before some angry parent who has had their life turned upside down shows up on the picket line with a gun and starts firing away.
People have been killed for a lot less.
The parents can only blame themselves.
I can understand that people do no like 41:1 student teacher ratios, but there are ways of solving and compromising without the chaos of a strike.
Honestly, the kids would be better off if they just closed the whole thing down and give the parents the equivalent cash and let them send the kids to a charter school, or home school them. The results they would get more likely than not would far exceed what they are getting from this group of union leeches in Chicago and many other systems across this country.
Talk about double taxation,............how about the many families across this country that are making hard choices and sacrifice to subsidize this nonsense while sending their kids to quality private schools to avoid this non-educational experience. Talk about wealth redistribution and in essence double taxation to support this farse know as public education. Time that the unions be shown the door and the parents take back the educational system.
Public Education (in many areas of the country, not all) = No education............what a paradox.
That is baloney ...Charter schools are mostly "for profit" organizations...and you know those pesky republicans, won't lift a finger unless there is a profit in it.
My feelings on this are truly mixed, which is rare....I tend to see issues in black and white but this kind of question defies that thinking.
On the one hand, teachers unions are kind of out of control. No, I don't buy that many teachers make $75,000 a year, but these unions continue to defend teachers who get poor results every year for ten years or who are placed into a rubber room because they might be a threat to children. In some ways, I think they are too strong and have lost sight of some of their standards.
That said, nuetering them completely is not the answer either! Some of their demands, like having classes of 25 instead of classes of 40 are 1. FOR THE KIDS' BENEFIT and 2. absolutely justified. And without unions, watch the class size get to 50!! Conditions are bad in inner city schools; this is not a fiction of the teacher's unions! And no, I don't buy for a second that bad teachers are the sole cause of this! Huge class sizes, crumbling buildings and lack of supplies play a role as well.
So honestly, until we look for a middle ground on this, we are just cheating our children. Here's hoping we find one!!
As long as Emanuel will not stand up against the unions{votes for his body} a long time. Common Mr. Obama show them you care for our children.
Most of these parents aren't qualified to home school. They expect the schools to raise their children, but if teacher's get too much in the discipline mode, parents go to board meetings and complain. An art teacher in Chicago has 50 - fifty - kids in one class. Who can teach that many kids? Many kids have crappy attitudes, do not show respect to the teacher. I work in a school - administrative. I hear kids telling our teachers to f-off, to leave them alone, or see them sleeping in classrooms because they were out late or up late. I would never want to be evaluated on the performance of kids whose parents don't care enough to raise them properly.
tc-that is precisely why teachers have issues with the evaluation process. I don't think any of them mind being evaluated, but leaving it in the hands of children who don't care to learn is not an effective way of evaluating teacher perfromance.
Earn
The
Pay
Evaluate the kids and aim for improvements.