A lot of other school districts have been laying off teachers. If the Chicago teachers are so unhappy, let them quit and make room for the laid off teachers. I'm certain that they'll be quite happy to accept the terms being offered.
I taught for five years in a public high school. Having 180 students per day, teaching 6 periods per day, preparing for 3 different subjects per day, monitoring the cafeteria, and chaperoning dances, basketball games, and football games, the job was anything but easy. Did I mention correcting papers and scoring tests into the late hours of the evening? Currently, I have a business which requires far fewer hours, is far less stressful, and pays three times what I would be earning as a teacher with 30 years of experience. By the way, most corporations have only one CEO running companies with sales that are often in the billions of dollars each year. There is no comparison between a CEO and teachers.
Wisconsin teachers and public service unions found out the hard way that they could not trust Obama. When push came to shove, Obama was no where to be found.
Wisconsin teachers were left Twisting In The Wind while Obama flew Air Force One around the country and partied with his fat cat buddies in $40,000 a plate fundraisers all over the country.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBKSsP72R7U
Imagine the pain of being left waiting for his assistance after Obama had made you such a SPECIFIC PROMISE! Waiting for assistance that NEVER CAME.
On at least one occasion, Obama flew directly over Wisconsin to neighboring Minnesota, where as Wisconsin Teachers struggled in the trenches, Obama partied the night away with millionaire campaign contributors. Might give you as little insight into exactly what Obama REALLY thinks of union members. They are mere pawns to be used for HIS purposes.
Now Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel is persecuting teachers in Chicago. And Obama sits idly by and does nothing to help teachers.
And now we discover that Obama confidant and ally Andy Stern is facing criticism from dissidents within his own union that he sold out union workers. Stern has also taken an unpaid position on the board of directors of the Broad Center, which critics allege is hostile to teachers' unions. (Along with Stern, the center's board also includes former Obama economic advisor Larry Summers, former Democratic Congressman turned bank lobbyist Harold Ford Jr., and former Louisiana state Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek, who is infamous for using the devastation from Hurricane Katrina as a means of converting public schools to charter schools and pushing voucher programs.)
The Broad Foundation also sponsored the notorious anti-teachers'-union movie, Waiting for Superman. After the election of Barack Obama and the appointment of teachers-union foe Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education, Broad told the Wall Street Journal that his vision of education reform was possible because "the unions no longer control the education agenda of the Democratic Party."
Who will dare report on the Democrat's WAR ON TEACHERS?
"The city's public school teachers make an average of $71,000 a year. Both sides said they were close to an agreement on wages. What apparently remains are issues involving teacher performance and accountability, which the union saw as a threat to job security."-- 71 grand a year on average for a school teacher and they don't want to be held accountable? You've got to be kidding! Fire the whole damn bunch. I can't believe that the taxpayers are ready to foot the bill for an increase. The Illinois governor should follow the example set by Wisconsin.
The Mayor needs to put the blame squarely on the heads of the republican state legislature. When the state lotto was passed years ago the revenue was promised to the school system. Instead the g.o.p. downstate pols have repeatedly robbed our children. WHERE IS THE MONEY YOU CROOKS.
Did the lotto money come exclusively from city residents? I doubt it. So why should it all go to the city school system? Sounds to me like the state legislature did the right thing.
by retmw1 September 10, 2012 10:25 PM EDT That being the case then every public employee needs to be reviewed and tested in job performance. --- First we should ask if we even need this job done, then look for the most efficient and economical way of doing it. Government is a tool. Nothing more. When it becomes more than that things start flying apart.
The problem with America today is that its system of public education is failing. It should not be about job security for anyone, its first priority should be academic achievement for all of the students.
All too often, students suffer academically because some poorly trained teacher can't be terminated. That teacher's cycle of damage to students simply goes on for years completely unchecked.
All of these teachers need to be reviewed as well as retested and required to pass a minimum score on predesignated standardized tests. If they fail to meet the minimum requirements, out the door they go. Unions serve good purposes, but the last thing they should do is serve to shield poorly trained and qualified teachers from poor job performance that they are quick to blame on "poverty."
Many a poor man has risen from such poverty to become great!
Unfortunately, robots do not teach students, people do. And people want job security, no matter what profession. Its easy to be high and mighty and say it should be about the kids. But it is not fair to ask teachers to take less than other professional level professions get. if you don't offer some kind carrot, who is going to want to teach? Not our best. Teaching will end up being a barely above minimum wage job done by the mediocre if things keep going the way they are.
On one hand people would like teachers to be held accountable for student scores on standardized tests while on the other hand these same people want teachers to stop teaching to the test. Evaluating teachers is far more complex than it seems.
If teacher's pay/job were based solely on student test scores you could expect salaries to actually increase because districts would have to increase pay to attract teachers to districts with historically low scoring students.
Also, there are many cultures that teachers have to "fight". These cultures see teachers( and policemen ) as the "bad guys" and don't value education. They see school as a hoop to jump through. Our local church, for example, had a speaker this last Sunday preaching that students should not take science classes and should not pursue post secondary science education.
It's complex and I haven't heard a good solution yet. The answer, as always, lies somewhere in the middle. It's just a matter of finding it.
Ugacrew: I agree. The problem with government in general is that they have become unionized. The consequence is a constant deterioration of services. Job performance and unionization are inversely proportional. Get rid of the unions and performance will increase.
What happens if you are a good teacher and have poor performing students. Does that mean you should be fired? Remember teachers aren't allowed to discpline kids anymore for acting up and disrupting class. --- If you are a good teacher and have poor performing students why should you get a raise? The whole system is a failure. Why keep supporting a failing system. Why spend more on something that isn't working. Maybe it is just time to realize that X% of students aren't worth the time and money and focus on those that are. As for what yu would do with those other X% your guess is as good as mine, but letting them destroy our educational system for some unworkable sense of fairness won't get us anywhere. (And hint to parents that don't want the responsibility - stop breeding) I'd support free strilization for any that want it. Children aren't toys or income sources.
So you are punishing the teacher for underperforming students? Teachers don't get to pick and choose what students they get in they're classes. You get a poor teacher that gets the A and B students in they're class and they get rewarded with a pay raise, even though they aren't as good as the teacher with poor students. So how are you going to evaluate the teacher fairly.
Why should I reward them Ret? And not just the teachers but the admins and all the rest in the system? Chicago alredy has the 3d highest paid teachers. Do you think making them the highest paid will help the students? The only thing that seems fair to both the teachers and the students is to get rid of the ones who won't teach and those who won't learn. Either take our gift of an education seriously, or get out. And good luck.
Republicons have declared War on the Unions (since Reagan) and a War on the Middle Class. Is there any wonder that America has gone downhill? When everyone does better, everyone does better. When a few greedy jerks like Mitt Robbed Me does good, everyone suffers.
Ah, then why haven't the CEO's priced themselves out of the market. Compare what the CEO of say Toyota makes to what the CEO of GM makes. You compare the difference of what CEO's from foreign companies make to they're counterparts here in the U.S. big difference for doing the same job.
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Wisconsin teachers were left Twisting In The Wind while Obama flew Air Force One around the country and partied with his fat cat buddies in $40,000 a plate fundraisers all over the country.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBKSsP72R7U
Imagine the pain of being left waiting for his assistance after Obama had made you such a SPECIFIC PROMISE! Waiting for assistance that NEVER CAME.
On at least one occasion, Obama flew directly over Wisconsin to neighboring Minnesota, where as Wisconsin Teachers struggled in the trenches, Obama partied the night away with millionaire campaign contributors. Might give you as little insight into exactly what Obama REALLY thinks of union members. They are mere pawns to be used for HIS purposes.
Now Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel is persecuting teachers in Chicago. And Obama sits idly by and does nothing to help teachers.
And now we discover that Obama confidant and ally Andy Stern is facing criticism from dissidents within his own union that he sold out union workers. Stern has also taken an unpaid position on the board of directors of the Broad Center, which critics allege is hostile to teachers' unions. (Along with Stern, the center's board also includes former Obama economic advisor Larry Summers, former Democratic Congressman turned bank lobbyist Harold Ford Jr., and former Louisiana state Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek, who is
infamous for using the devastation from Hurricane Katrina as a means of converting public schools to charter schools and pushing voucher programs.)
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/13608/is_andy_stern_selling_out_by_working_for_school_reform_group_private_equity
The Broad Foundation also sponsored the notorious anti-teachers'-union movie, Waiting for Superman. After the election of Barack Obama and the appointment of teachers-union foe Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education, Broad told the Wall Street Journal that his vision of education reform was possible because "the unions no longer control the education agenda of the Democratic Party."
Who will dare report on the Democrat's WAR ON TEACHERS?
71 grand a year on average for a school teacher and they don't want to be held accountable? You've got to be kidding! Fire the whole damn bunch. I can't believe that the taxpayers are ready to foot the bill for an increase. The Illinois governor should follow the example set by Wisconsin.
---
First we should ask if we even need this job done, then look for the most efficient and economical way of doing it. Government is a tool. Nothing more. When it becomes more than that things start flying apart.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/316395/chicago-bled-dry-striking-teachers-unions-john-fund#
All too often, students suffer academically because some poorly trained teacher can't be terminated. That teacher's cycle of damage to students simply goes on for years completely unchecked.
All of these teachers need to be reviewed as well as retested and required to pass a minimum score on predesignated standardized tests. If they fail to meet the minimum requirements, out the door they go. Unions serve good purposes, but the last thing they should do is serve to shield poorly trained and qualified teachers from poor job performance that they are quick to blame on "poverty."
Many a poor man has risen from such poverty to become great!
If teacher's pay/job were based solely on student test scores you could expect salaries to actually increase because districts would have to increase pay to attract teachers to districts with historically low scoring students.
Also, there are many cultures that teachers have to "fight". These cultures see teachers( and policemen ) as the "bad guys" and don't value education. They see school as a hoop to jump through. Our local church, for example, had a speaker this last Sunday preaching that students should not take science classes and should not pursue post secondary science education.
It's complex and I haven't heard a good solution yet. The answer, as always, lies somewhere in the middle. It's just a matter of finding it.
What happens if you are a good teacher and have poor performing students. Does that mean you should be fired? Remember teachers aren't allowed to discpline kids anymore for acting up and disrupting class.
---
If you are a good teacher and have poor performing students why should you get a raise? The whole system is a failure. Why keep supporting a failing system. Why spend more on something that isn't working. Maybe it is just time to realize that X% of students aren't worth the time and money and focus on those that are. As for what yu would do with those other X% your guess is as good as mine, but letting them destroy our educational system for some unworkable sense of fairness won't get us anywhere. (And hint to parents that don't want the responsibility - stop breeding) I'd support free strilization for any that want it. Children aren't toys or income sources.
Ah, then why haven't the CEO's priced themselves out of the market. Compare what the CEO of say Toyota makes to what the CEO of GM makes. You compare the difference of what CEO's from foreign companies make to they're counterparts here in the U.S. big difference for doing the same job.