If an organization is as dysfunctional as the Chicago school system is reported to be, the only way to change it is by force from the outside. You can't change it from within, as these teachers are plainly showing. Throwing more money at it won't work.

It's like a crappy military unit. You can try to change the culture, make them team players, but it's not really until you've rotated most of the problem people away, especially the leadership, that there's any progress.

The South couldn't change its culture of racism until Washington stepped in. That took the Civil Rights Movement and troops to take effect, a hundred years after the Civil War.

The Chicago major is tying to bring big changes to the school system. Of course they're going to resist. They can't do anything else. It's human nature. They don't even see they're part of the problem.

workers should have any right to bargain over the terms of their employment.

of course the WORKERS can....course first you have to become one......therein lies the problem...........:)

azindy===I'm glad you like this and I wish they would tax the people who believe in this more. This strike should concern you and millions of others like you. In the middle of a recession we see striking teachers? We have millions upon millions of people with no job, no benefits, those that have lost their family homes and you think these teachers are right. I guess you don't live in the area that will have to pay for all of this.

azindy,

The only terms that teachers in Illinois are legally allowed to negotiate is pay. All other negotiations are illegal under laws passed in Illinois by the Democratic House, Senate and Governor.

don't you mean OWS people take notice. negotiationis the way to go.

Tea partiers used the system and got voted into office.

now, public unions demanding pay that will come out of someone else's pocket without that person having a say is a real problem.

Question. when was the last time Karen Lewis was in a classroom?

Maybe she should suck it up and go in and help out instead of complaining.

Sorry. Bad idea. My bad.

B

Negotiation def. is the way to go. But always keep one thing in mind. No one can simultaneously be pro-public union and support lower taxes. The two are mutually exclusive and have to meet in the middle, but you cannot support both at once. The goal of a union is to get the most pay and benefit for its members. The cost of that pay and benefit come directly from taxes, so you cannot support both at once. Supporting the negotiation is a good place to be IMHO, but as for pubic union and low taxes, sorry, a side must be picked.

I guess Teapublicans don't believe workers should have any right to bargain over the terms of their employment.

How do you explain Jimmy Carter and a democratic Congress taking collective bargaining away from federal union employees in 1978?

Hypocrite, much?

You mean, it WASN'T Jimmy Carter and a democratic congress that passed CSRA in '78?

Just ask where Rahm's kids or the children of the school board members go to school.

Negotiation, yes. Blackmail, no. This group is using schoolchildren as pawns in this game.

In public sector, the only negotiations should be between the worker and voters. No backroom deals.

"Hope and Change" in Chicago just became "Pack and Move".

Yep, I really like the sign which say "striking so your kids have a better future".

Suggestion for the "teacher ???" holding the sign: CHECK Chicago's school district's student progress/scores and then tell the World what your strike for more pay, less class sizes, more vacation time, NO evaluation reports, and tenure assignments will do to help the "kids" futures.

Time for you to RETIRE permanently.

How is this even happening. The news Friday was that Deadfish and Ms Lewis had a deal. Let me tell you straight, Deadfish and Obama intend to kill this Union, slit its throat, and the Nation will applaud.

Obama has death lock on Illinois come election time, he knows that Scott Walker's popularity went up by fighting Unions. He wants swing votes in critical states. Obama and Deadfish have had this in their sights for a while and they will crush the Union.

When this happens, ask and I well tell you what is next. It will scare your pants off!!!

i like the sign "striking for your childrens future" bit... what a f'ing joke. they already stated its ALL ABOUT THEM... too late in my book.

not to mention, being wisconsin also has teachers on strike, they chose not to walk out on the kids to make a point. chicago teachers are thugs. even union drools in my union place of employment can not have a comeback, when it comes to salary/working hours/performance... they just clam up when you bring it into the conversation and walk away. they do admit they have big nads making such demands on the taxpayers dime. they will also be paid for this strike time (salary) and because public non union schools took up the slack, kids will not have an exstended school year.

drools, thugs, terrorists.

so the teachers union holds americas children as hostages to force a pay increase and undercut accountability through evaluations. and we are supposed to support them; not! the answer is to abolish the teacher unions and nationalize school voucher system to give the power to the parents to send their children to a school where they see it will educate their children as they see fit, not the state or unions. public education system is a failure. govt. of the people, by the people. these teachers should be ashamed of themselves 3 mos. over the summer to negotiate, but they wait to use the children? fire them all, only the best should teach; those who put children above themselves. just like any other career if you don't perform you are fired, period.

"striking so your kids have a better future"

What a load of BS. Remove them all and let them start their tenures over if they can get rehired or try to get a real job. At least we know what happened to Jabba the Hutt.

Mission Accomplished.

I'm amazed that Wisconsin teachers have not gone on strike. They have Walker working in secrecy and then springing a collective barganing law that strips them of rights AND for most of the 1990s they had Tommy Thompson's QEO to contend with that made sure they would get less than the private sector during a strong economic period.

I'm not sure where people got the idea that teachers were worthy of such attack, but it is very sad when you look at the history of teachers and the sacrifices they make compared to other professionals with similar amounts of training. Some politicians have sure done a great job of demonizing a hard working and dedicated group. Trouble is, there are just too many people who have bought the brainwashing and now, in the midst of a recession, they are happy to have a scape goat.

You do realize that they also probably got paid during the entire strike. Here in Washington, and probably there, there is a set number of days that the students have to go to school. Here it is 180. So if they go on strike, it does not matter, they will continue to get their paycheck because once they come back off of being on strike, they will still work for the 180 days, so their pay does not change at all. It is more expensive for the district to stop and start all their pay, so they just continue to pay them while on strike.

What other union gets paid while they are on strike?

Unions give money to Democrats. Is it a surprise that only Republicans are tough on unions?

Anywhere else it would be ruled a conflict of interest. Could you imaging you a non-public sector union giving the management of a company hundreds of thousands of dollars to the management of a company right before they negotiate with that company? It would be called a bribe right away. Not only that, could you imagine that if a union had a lot of pull as to who was the CEO of a company, and then sat down to negotiate with the company. Do you think the CEO would want to be favorable to the union that could very well cause him to lose his job if they did not support him?

That is why public sector unions are not a good thing.

They also have a monopoly. If some company goes on strike, or raises costs by their contracts, I can choose to go elsewhere with my money. If a public sector union goes on strike or raises my taxes by their contracts, then where do I go? Not like I can choose not to pay more in taxes like I could choose not to buy some product that becomes too expensive.

"Unions give money to Democrats"

And the Koch brothers et al. give money to Republicans who will serve their intersts. Are you really arguing that this is different? I do not buy that for one second.

Azindy: I am a conservative, not a Teapublican or any other name you may have for someone who disagrees with you. For starters grow up and have an adult conversation or debate with out the name-calling.

I don’t have a problem with negotiation for pay and benefits. This is done between my employer and myself and it is based on what talents / education I bring to the table and what it is worth to the organization. My raises are based on my performance. My performance is measured and documented monthly leading up to an annual review / evaluation. If I have substandard performance I might as well forget about a raise. If performance doesn’t improve guess what? I will not have a job to be evaluated on. So if that is some how out of line to your way of thinking and you think I am over the top I am okay with that.

Is it really that unfair to try to take the side of fiscal responsibility as the mayor has and trust me I am no fan of his? If these teachers were making minimum wage or a salary one couldn’t live on that would be a different story. Is it too much to ask that a teacher’s job performance be evaluated? Why can’t a teacher be fired for substandard performance, what sets them apart from the rest of the workforce? Just showing up for work shouldn’t guarantee anyone a paycheck let alone a raise.

There are some good teachers out there who do well with a tough job and they should be fairly compensated. Hopefully we can at least agree if that were the case job security wouldn’t be an issue. So although we obviously disagree I would encourage you to be logical and at a minimum respect the opinions. You don’t have the market cornered on the name-calling, it come from many people and from both sides of the house, liberal and conservative, it makes no sense to take sides simply because of your political party.

There are some good teachers out there who do well with a tough job and they should be fairly compensated. Hopefully we can at least agree if that were the case job security wouldn’t be an issue. So although we obviously disagree I would encourage you to be logical and at a minimum respect the opinions. You don’t have the market cornered on the name-calling, it come from many people and from both sides of the house, liberal and conservative, it makes no sense to take sides simply because of your political party.

IXLR8; is that really what Romney said “F the Middle class” we both know that is a lie. He said something to the effect that Obama already had 46 or 47% of the vote wrapped up because they stand to lose some government benefit that they aren’t willing to give up. That is a far cry from F the middle class.

Now with that out of the way what is the problem with his comment? I don’t know the percentage of people currently receiving some government benefit but what Romney said was true. With our current economy people are petrified to lose anything they currently have and I understand that, I don’t agree with the mentality but I understand the thought process.

If Romney wins the election there is no doubt he will make some tough calls that will force many of us to change our ways but if he doesn’t do it now, gradually over time we are all in trouble when reality hits and our country is broke. So you have your opinion and I have mine but stop with the lies.

Its all just a show. They went back so obama gets his voter block without looking like he steped in to make any kind of deal. And after the election if he wins he will PISS on THEM,and not care about the evaulations not being acceptable to them ,And Rahm will appear to have gotten his way. Axelrod told them fall in line , first things first, No obama no union. Get your boy elected and we will worry about the other stuff later. Then like i said UNDER THE BUS THEY GO, Everyone lays down for obama. and obama lays down for no one, but Michelle. And i dont care what anyone says here i believe that is the fact. As a native born Cook County Hospital , Chicagoan, and life time resident.

• The CTU wants a three year contract, which guarantees a 3 percent increase the first year and a 2 percent increase for both the second and third year. It also includes the option to extend the contract for a fourth year with a 3 percent raise;
• CPS will move away from merit pay;
• The board will hire more than 600 additional "special" teachers in art, music, physical education, world languages and other classes;
• One half of all CPS hires must be displaced members;
• CPS will evaluate teachers based on 70 percent "teacher practice" and 30 percent "student growth." Additionally, the first year of implementation will not harm tenured teachers and there is a right to appeal the evaluations.

The teachers' union apparently won. Too bad the losers are the children. Congrats on winning the fight to give children a worse education, Chicago Teachers' Union!

Kudos to the teachers for standing their ground, but also compromising from their "ideal position". They were forced into a corner and made to look like the bad guys, but the reality is they helped us all by showing that united we stand and divided we fall.

Next stop...Wisconsin.

They added an hour to one of the shortest school days in the nation...not to mention they are the third highest paid teachers in the nation on top of the 3% raise. They are getting more than their fair share already.

The thing about pay is that it is relative depending upon where you live. Where I live, yeah, 70,000 is a lot, but in more expensive places not as much. When looking into grad schools, the assitantship pay for California schools was >$8000 more than the Midwestern schools I looked at, but only because it costs more to live there-so although I would have made more, I still would have had the same quality of living or even slightly worse than I do now.

That being said, I have no idea what the cost of living in the Chicagoland area is. It would be helpful to know what other professions in the city make, so that there is some basis of comparison to see if the teachers' salary is reasonable or not.

In truth the money has been thrown in to hide the fact that the teachers are really objecting to being held accountable to do their jobs. The money is just a smoke screen.

Alright!

The $88,000.00 they are being offered is more than DOUBLE the average wage in their area! That represents a 12% increase not the 3% some would have you believe is the offer! They were asking for a 16% increase, even as their students are experiencing a decrease in their scolastic standing!

"School boards are notorious for getting Lawyers to use shiffty language..." Horse pucky! it simply acknowledges that these teachers(?) have only a somewhat larger amount of intelligence than those they would proport to teach(?)! Like Bill Clinton, they struggle with the meaning if two letter words such as "is" !

@ mccainisacrankyoldguy

They are not working increased hours, just teaching increased hours. The hours in which these teachers are contracted to be at the school is staying the same through the hiring of additional staff. Why should they get a raise if the time in which they are already contracted isn't changing?

rightwingscrewball,

That would normally work, but the CTU requires that in order to be a teacher, they must reside in the Chicago Public School district.

The teachers union is nortorious for protecting inept teachers. Obama is nortorious for protecting unions. Get the drift.

Ted- fair enough, although I don't see the $88,000 anywhere within the printed article. (It's not that I don't believe you, I just don't see it written in this particular article.)

At this rate, the ones who are really losing are the children. They've been out of school for at least a week-who knows how long it will be until they iron this out. Good luck making up for that missed class time.

The students won't miss any class time. The are mandated by the state of Illinois to have 180 days of instruction (if memories serves form a previous story). The missing time can be made up by shortening Christmas and Easter breaks adding on days at the end of the year. Schools across the country do this when they have more snow days than are built into the school calendar.

Only in communism is merit based pay a failure.

Think before you post.

@albright & mccainisa......: Obviously neither of you are bright. The $88,000.00 comes from 3% 1st yr, 2% 2nd, 2% 3rd yr and the option of 4th yr which more than likely they will take in another 3 % so when you x 71,000.00 x 3% = x 2% = x 2% = x 3% you will get $78,367.00 So he was rounding alittle high. With the rest of the benefits that about what it is worth. OMG can you people not add?

Merit pay has been tried for almost 100 years and failed each time -

I assume you are talking about "merit pay" for teachers/union workers? Because the rest of us that work in that "other economy" that you don't participate in, it goes like this. No merit No raise, No merit No JOB!

2Cents2,

That being said, I'm curious. Will this new contract benefit the children? Will test scores improve via lowering the standards, (dumbing down the tests), will anything improve other than something to benefit the current teachers and past fired ones? I did see something about class size and I did see something about language but I still question the net gain for the kids. I must be jaded by past strikes, past gains for the teachers, and the resulting lack of improvements for the kids. If I missed improvements in our kids via the government schools I would love to hear about the improvements. Special Rights for Gay, African American, Hispanic, Handicapped, Muslim, or other "Parts" of the whole are not gains for all but unrelated gains for some. What has the Whole System gained in the past?

Great, now replace all of their tired, self-serving asses and hire some people who want to teach, not count their frickin' money!! They should be ashamed and fired!!

Why don't all of the teachers children go to the better future school that they teach in.How many jobs are in the works for art,music,physical education,world languages and what else while watering down tests in math and english.what about trade schools.

according to the article, this is the same contract they refused earlier.. so what is new in this contract the media isnt telling us?

"Great, now replace all of their tired, self-serving asses and hire some people who want to teach, not count their frickin' money!! They should be ashamed and fired!!"

Pretty sure the state can't do that. It's in the contract. In fact, it's even stated in the contract that the state has to re-hire some of the teachers that lost their jobs specifically, rather than the teachers that state might want to hire instead that might be more qualified. Oh well.

"Joe - you don't know what communism is, apparently. Merit pay has been tried for almost 100 years and failed each time - in the U.S., even. Communism, indeed."

I wasn't aware that merit pay had failed anywhere. I'm not even sure how it COULD fail. Paying more money for better work, a bad idea? And I assume you're implying that paying everyone the same, regardless of their ability, is a better system? How is that, exactly?

NaughtyMossy

according to the article, this is the same contract they refused earlier.. so what is new in this contract the media isnt telling us?

Who knows, this is exactly what I expected though. A token "compromise" so both sides can claim victory while the taxpayers continue to get screwed. Thanks for nothing, libtards.

"according to the article, this is the same contract they refused earlier.. so what is new in this contract the media isnt telling us?"

Well, they didn't say the contract changed, nor that they accepted it. Just that the strike ended. The unions were probably concerned that the strike would be judged as illegal if they pushed it too far.

I agree with SF accountant. If this strike had continued, and it was "picked apart" there would be aspects of it that might have been found to be not legal... maybe more than a few. I was watching other news this evening about the filming of Mitt Romney at the private fundraiser. If that brief bit of footage causes an uproar in the public, what are the public employee unions expecting across the nation in comments concerning this teachers strike?

Romney's comments were about 47% who don't pay federal income tax. While one may or may not question those statistics, if you are a property owner, you have a property tax bill and those property taxes go to schools and education of children. This teachers strike showed the money is still going to education, but that very little of the money spent was achieving an educated high school graduate in Chicago, as the property taxpayer was expecting. If you start looking at regional sales taxes and what those funds are to pay for in municipalities, then the issues of taxes aren't Federal Tax burdens, but regional tax burdens... and there's the issue, federal bailouts of regional spending gone bad. A prime example of this is demonstrated by this teacher's strike in Chicago, but it could just as easily be Detroit, Philadelphia, New York City, or San Francisco.

Ted, you should get your "facts" straight, none of the class room teachers get anywhere close to 88k a year, reality is that most of them are closer to 45k. They also work three to four hours daily outside of the class room and also work at home another three or four hours. They also have 18 to 20% of their pay withheld during the school year so they can get paid during the summer months when they will be setting up class room agendas that have to be approved by the school board before the school year commences. Add the time they spend teaching summer classes,and you get an underpaid teacher for the commitment they have to dedicate to their chosen profession.

You post indicate an ignorance of the situation so you should lmit your comments to what you know and not what you erroneously suppose.

The teachers were not out of line the 3% pay raise barely keeps up with inflation. And their other demands were mostly for the students. They may be the highest paid in th US but Chicago probably isn't cheap to live there. I have seen alot anti-union people on this post since the strike started. All i can say is shame on you people 3% pay raise is nothing. So what are you people bitching about. No i don't want know.

......................

Hey 2cents - first of all the $71,000 is ALSO a fabricated number you are using, since it is not an average. Secondly, you are assuming something that has not happened 4 years down the road.

So yes, it is fabricated in two different ways. How do you define bright?

MRZ - we aren't talking about your job. We are talking about one you appear to have no knowledge of.

NaughtyMossy - they didn't refuse the contact earlier. They wanted to discuss it before rubber stamping something they hadn't been able to read. The negotiations team represents the membership but the members get to vote before ratification.

SF Accountant - Merit pay has been tried in education time and again and it has failed because of the number of variables involved. Even if you use the same class, material, school and teacher, the kids are different. The same kids can be give the same test two class periods in a row and score differently. Standardized tests are NOT important to many school kids - nor are grades.

Then you have to try and find an evaluation instrument and procedure for all teachers at all levels in all subject areas for all demographics. Good luck. As soon as you have that and can do it fairly and objectively (and can find someone who is qualified to evaluate every subject area and level), you are a billionaire as every school wants something like this and has for many years.

Secondly, SF, Paying everyone the same is not how things work. Seniority is heavily valued in education because experience is more important than just about any other factor in teacher preparation. You hear SINGULAR stories about the young "teacher of the year" being laid off and people use that as an indictment of the entire system. But the reality is that experience matters a great deal for a good teacher. Experience matters in many other fields, too - we just don't talk about those because it is convenient to ignore them.

In any case it is over now, so all the haters can go back to complaining about how Obama is a socialist.

Just find Mitt's taxes while you're at it. :)

A huge "win" for Rahm, this should embolden him to go on further with his reforms!

mccainisacrankyoldguy... I disagree with you about experience, and I'm an old guy. When I was in middle school, ( Junior High it was called then ) I had classes in both algebra and Euclidian Geometry. With euclidian geometry you could go out in the school yard, measure the length of the shadow of the phone pole, and calculate the phone pole's height, by measuring the shadow of a known object's height, like a yard stick. Can I still do that, yes. Is there much application for that knowledge today, when all the kids have cell phones, and utility lines aren't used as they once were.

Euclidian geometry is just the same, and you can teach it as it was classically taught with lines drawn in the sand with sticks. Tell a kid he can master much of math with a piece of string and a stick, and a piece of any old paper to fold for a straight edge, he'll look at you strangely, but more importantly you've eliminated the need for classrooms and your experienced teachers, and their salary demands. Today's children are to be educated to use and apply ancient concepts ( like geometry ) with modern technology. Remember, they put a man on the moon with engineers using slide rules, and for those who don't know what a slide rule is, it predates the common pocket calculator, the calculator you have on your cell phone, which used to be not a cell phone, but a land line phone, that had poles that held the wires off the ground, that you figured the height of by the length of the shadow cast... in 8th grade.

Creative teachers are far more desirable than experienced teachers. The thing that you are politically confusing anyway is 'EXPERIENCED" and "TENURED". Experience implies you learned over your years, and are therefore knowledgeable. Tenured means you floated by long enough that you didn't get fired, whether you learned anything or not. I have met plenty of stupid tenured people, and more than a few experienced people who's experience was so limited in scope as to make them close to worthless.

These teachers are among the brst paid DAY CARE providers in the country. I heard some cheering about students grtting books on thr 1st. day of school. What good will this do. Maybe the teachers will get audio tapes a week or so earlier. This way they wii know what is in the text book they want job security. I am okay with this.You teach a subject, the students lear and pass a test on that subject at the end of the year, you have a job the next year. If these teacher are doing so good and working sooo hardexplain wh almost half of them send their kids to private school. Whar happened to the Obama plan for National Standardized for students and Teachers? Many saw this proposal threating their welfare system.

which means teachers will be paying more for their health care and retirement

mccainisacrankyoldguy - That's one way to say it. Another would be... Taxpayers should be paying a higher percentage of the teachers health care and retirement.

omg.. just listen to yourselves. Your like a pack of wolves that want a big fat piece of meat. Teachers are doing everything they can to teach your kids. If your child won't do his/her homework, wont listen in class, wont contribute in class, won't take the initiative to do some extra credit work, that isn't your teachers fault. Your kids don't act like kids use to. Authority means little to nothing to kids in school and for the most part out of school. How can you think that by evaluating the teacher that it will automatically boost your kids IQ? If you cannot spend the time to make sure your kid is behaving and doing his/her work at school and at home then stop blaming the teachers.

Voiceinmyhead

Ted, you should get your "facts" straight, none of the class room teachers get anywhere close to 88k a year, reality is that most of them are closer to 45k. They also work three to four hours daily outside of the class room and also work at home another three or four hours. They also have 18 to 20% of their pay withheld during the school year so they can get paid during the summer months when they will be setting up class room agendas that have to be approved by the school board before the school year commences. Add the time they spend teaching summer classes,and you get an underpaid teacher for the commitment they have to dedicate to their chosen profession.

You post indicate an ignorance of the situation so you should lmit your comments to what you know and not what you erroneously suppose.

You win!!!! The absolute most hilarious post I have ever read! Thank you for the laugh!

Your exaggerations are quite amusing.

According to multiple sources, the average salary of a Chicago teacher is anywhere from $67,000 to $76,000, depending on who you talk to.

The Chicago Public Schools are the ones who say it is $74,839, average. The AP says it's $69,000, The Washington Post says it's $72,000. You get the picture.

You say the average is $45,000, which is ludicrous. The STARTING pay for Chicago teachers is $50,577, and the top end is $94,887. And this is information from 2010, so it may have gone up since then.

Your argument about part of their pay being withheld to pay them in the summer, makes no sense. They still make the same either way, what's your point? You could withhold all of my pay for the whole year and give it to me in one lump sum, and its still the same amount of money. (Just think about it for a second)

Let me first preface these next statements by saying that I know several teachers - good friends and close relatives, who are public school teachers.

You said that teachers: "also work three to four hours daily outside of the class room and also work at home another three or four hours".

Seriously? Do you do math before you post things? This would mean that outside the normal 6-7 hours they spend in the classroom, they spend another 6-8 hours outside of class and at home, which puts their daily total to 12-15 hours worked. Anyone with a brain knows this is not true. None of the teachers that I know personally, who are all great teachers btw, even come close to this total. Please stop the BS!

You also basically suggest that teachers spend their entire summers working hard on classroom agendas. Again, not true. It's just not true. If you include Christmas Break, Thanksgiving break, Fall Break, Spring Break, and Summer Vacation, teachers get around 13-16 weeks off a year, depending on the state. Most people I know in the private sector get 2, maybe 3 weeks off.

Teachers also only teach 180 days a year. That's less than half the days in the year. So if you were to pick a day at random on the calendar, there is a better chance that they are off work that day, then at work. This is compared to the average American full-time worker who works around 250 days a year.

Also, if they do teach summer classes, they most definitely get paid extra for that. Several of my friends have done it for extra money, so I know they get paid. Do you actually think the teachers union would allow otherwise?

It should be noted that the Chicago Public School district has a $700 million deficit!

It should also be noted that the average household income in Chicago is $47,000/year. That's not the average individual income, that's the average HOUSEHOLD income! So for 9 months of work (Their contract actually lists 39 weeks as their total work time, this includes the 36 weeks of school, and another 3 weeks added for in-services, meetings, parent-teacher conferences, etc... 39 weeks is exactly 9 months...13 weeks to a quarter) they will earn, on average, almost twice as much as the average household in their city. And they want MORE?????

Btw, most of the teachers I know, teach in states that pay their teachers in the 30k's and 40k's. They would LOVE to make as much as the Chicago teachers.

I love good discussion and debate, but it gets ruined when people like you spout insane nonsense.

Let's see.........2+2=4 if the teacher gets paid $100,000/yr or $5.00/hr.

If they get a 50% increase, are they going to work 50% harder?

$10,000 is hardly "rounding a little high" (there are no rules of rounding that would ever round 78,000 up to 88,000. Highest you could round up to would be to 80,000). I read the earlier comment and interpreted it as saying the teachers are starting from $88,000, and then the 3%, 2%, etc is on top of that, which is why I asked where the 88,000 came from.

If you think about a teacher's job as it would be listed in help wanted ads, it would read:

HELP WANTED

Receive twice the regional income! Work weekdays 7:30 to 4. No night, weekends, holidays or any days around a holiday. 3 months off each summer. Benefits include health insurance, dental insurance, disability. Numerous week-long holidays each year. No accountability for the quality of work done. Apply at the Chicago School Board.