I didn't think teachers could strike

[naynay]

/thread

[Forever_frost]

Remember when teachers didn't do their jobs and have assisted in our education levels being so far down on the ladder it's sickening? Remember when almost 25% of high school graduates can't read or write? Remember that these 'teachers' are paid the highest in the nation yet almost half of their students can't read or write either? Remember when the budgets they have to draw from are broke and no longer have the tax base to support these benefits packages?

Yeah, pass THAT on. You can't get blood out of a rock. They're turning down a 16% increase of their pay in a city that is broke.

[bobs94formula]

The voucher system is the best way to offset the education system. Currently, when you choose to move your child to private education you must still pay the tax as if your child was enrolled. This enables the government system to become even further corrupted and inefficient as you're paying them for a service they do not provide. The only way to increase government efficiency is to cut it's budget. By using vouchers you remove this tax from the education system, so they have a net loss of revenue - and it forces them to compete with private education. It would strengthen private education as their income stream would increase further.

.

CJ for Pres.!! I have my kids in private schools and I hate having to pay for the public schools around here, which suck to high heaven! Actually to be totally honest, one of my kids has free tuition because my wife does the early drop off and late pick up program at the school. My kids go to private school not because of public school teachers, but because of public school students. I grew up in DISD and saw good teachers having to deal with 35-40 assholes in a class. Once we moved to a 2A highschool, where we had about 20-25 kids that were there to learn, I really felt sorry for the DISD teachers!

[Kimmypie]

And teachers enlist. They sign the contract to work x time for x pay. Or am I wrong? You are working with people who don't want to do what you want them to. Congrats, we did too. We have to cover down when soldiers and the group we're training doesn't want to be there, doesn't have teh skills to be there and shouldn't be there. Sounds like it's pretty damned close to me. You are also missing the last part of my little rant. Teachers should be able to rid themselves of those who have no interest in learning. Send them to trade school, teach them to sack groceries and dig ditches. School should be for those who want to be there.

Sure, teachers enlist. The fucking students don't, moron. That was my point. We can't just get rid of the little bastards who don't want to be there & don't want to learn. I wish I could kick them out, but I can't.

Trade schools should definitely come back. Holy fuck, I just agreed with you. I need a god-damned drink.

[Kimmypie]

It's a rock-and-a-hard-place issue. If you have 15 kids to teach, a smart teacher can make them all pass tests all day long but then the district comes along and adds 15 more and the same scores are expected. Good-effing-luck. It's an impossible task.

Districts want more children, more minority children, more special ed children, winning football teams...anything to grab more cash from the feds. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

My wife was expected to begin teaching 32 (!!!) 3-year old pre-k students how to read. She was happy to go a day without one of them crapping on the floor. Spent 100% of the day disciplining the babies. All because a school district needed more cash to fund a new school and renovations....common theme I'm starting to see here.

Bless her soul for teaching the babies. I would lose my shit & try to kill one whose ass & nose I had to wipe. I'd rather the sass & BS I get with teenagers.

[Broncojohnny]

/thread

I remember when they pissed and moaned about making $76K a year. A salary that most teachers in this country would love. That was this morning. Pass it on.

[Forever_frost]

Sure, teachers enlist. The fucking students don't, moron. That was my point. We can't just get rid of the little bastards who don't want to be there & don't want to learn. I wish I could kick them out, but I can't.

Trade schools should definitely come back. Holy fuck, I just agreed with you. I need a god-damned drink.

See? My views aren't that bad when you stop to think about them. Why should good (emphasis on good) teachers have to teach little fuckheads who don't want to be there? Teach them a trade and kick them out. Reduced class size. Then you dump the bad teachers and cut the admins down to almost nothing.

I just reformed our education system. I'll accept letters of adoration and a write in on the ballot now

[Forever_frost]

I remember when they pissed and moaned about making $76K a year. A salary that most teachers in this country would love. That was this morning. Pass it on.

And a 16% increase.

[CJ]

naynay you trollin fool.

[slow99]

I'm still lmfao at the tic tac toe playing chicken reference.

[GhostTX]

I remember when they pissed and moaned about making $76K a year. A salary that most teachers in this country would love. That was this morning. Pass it on.

$76K without benefits. And outside of Chicago, the pay is less. $20K less.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/09/11/how-much-do-chicago-teachers-make/

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/06/12/how-much-do-chicago-public-school-teachers-make/

And a 16% increase.

Meanwhile the median average income in Chicago is $41-46K...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Chicago

http://zipatlas.com/us/il/chicago/zip-code-comparison/median-household-income.htm

https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dcd/supp_info/area_median_incomeamichart.html

[Forever_frost]

$76K without benefits. And outside of Chicago, the pay is less. $20K less.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/09/11/how-much-do-chicago-teachers-make/

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/06/12/how-much-do-chicago-public-school-teachers-make/

Meanwhile the median average income in Chicago is $41-46K...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Chicago

http://zipatlas.com/us/il/chicago/zip-code-comparison/median-household-income.htm

https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/e...eamichart.html

Exactly my point. They're demanding more, more, more when they're supported by tax dollars, are making 50% more than the community paying for them AND health and retirement benefits. And they turned down a 16% raise. Fuck them. Fire them all (they're no longer under contract) and hire right to work teachers at a wage that the community can afford

[Treasure Chest]

This made me lol

[Forever_frost]

Evidently, striking is illegal, at least why they're striking

With the Chicago teacher’s strike entering its third day, both sides appear determined to settle matters behind closed doors and not in a courtroom, even though the city has authority to take the fight there – though at significant political risk, legal experts say.

Although untested in the courts, a provision added to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act last year could prohibit teachers from striking on all matters except compensation involving pay and benefits. The walkout, which started Monday, appears to be about a broad range of issues, many of which have little to do with wages.

Chicago Teachers Union representatives have acknowledged that their gripes with the city are not necessarily financial. "What I would say about the economics of this thing is that that isn’t the main issue,” Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey told reporters late Sunday.

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Indeed, Chicago teachers are paid more than any others in the state, according to a 2012 report by Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. The average public teacher salary in Chicago is $74,236, compared with a state average of $64,978. As of Sunday, the Chicago Public Schools district offered teachers a 16 percent raise over four years. On Sunday, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said the offer was “not far apart” from what the union was seeking.

So if the strike is not strictly about compensation, it may be an illegal action according to state law, which even the union recognizes. “While new Illinois law prohibits us from striking over the recall of laid-off teachers and compensation for a longer school year, we do not intend to sign an agreement until these matters are addressed,” the union said in a statement released Sunday.

Representatives from the Chicago Teachers Union would not return requests for comment Wednesday.

Another tool that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a Democrat, has at his ready is a provision in state law that says if a teacher strike “is or has become a clear and present danger to the health or safety of the public,” the mayor can seek a court injunction to stop it. However, this option seems unlikely, because the provision does not cover public welfare, which would be more germane for the strike, says Martin Malin, director of the Institute for Law and the Workplace at the Illinois Institute of Chicago.

So far, the city is not pursuing the possible illegality of the strike, but instead is taking its case to the public, describing the union as conducting a “strike of choice.” Sarah Hamilton, communications director for Mayor Emanuel, says his administration’s “focus is getting kids back in the classroom learning from their teachers, and we believe this is best resolved at the negotiating table, not in front of a judge.”

On Tuesday, Emanuel said the two primary issues in the negotiations – teacher evaluations and teacher rehiring – are legally “non-strikeable.”

Emanuel’s comments “may be setting things up, particularly if the strike is lengthy, for him to appeal to the Legislature to further restrict [the union’s] right to strike, perhaps by requiring additional third-party intervention or restricting the subject over which a union may strike,” says Mr. Malin.

It is not uncommon for public-sector workers who defy state rules on strike actions to face the risk of prison time or large fines. More than 200 teachers in Middletown, N.J., were jailed in December 2001 for defying a judge’s back-to-work order after breaking state law. More recently, a transit-workers strike in New York City in December 2005 resulted in a $2.5 million fine for the Transport Workers Union Local 100 and a 10-day jail sentence for its president.

If the teacher strike in Chicago hits the two-week mark, it is likely Emanuel will turn to the courts for a resolution, says Randolph McLaughlin, a labor attorney and professor at Pace University Law School in White Plains, N.Y.

“This can become very serious. The city, to its credit, isn’t pulling that trigger yet. They realize that once you start jailing teachers, battle lines are drawn and there will be no compromise,” Mr. McLaughlin says. However, the longer the strike endures and tests the patience of parents, Emanuel will likely feel emboldened to seek guidance from the courts.

“If this continues for two weeks, the city will ratchet it up to the next level, because pressure from parents will become so severe. That’s the critical issue,” he says.

Unlike strikes in the private sector, public-sector strikes have an added political dimension, which is why both sides are presenting dueling narratives to explain to the public what is at stake.

For Emanuel, the two central issues are teacher evaluations that include measures of student achievement and the authority of principals to hire the teachers they want. The unions are presenting a more complex set of issues: increasing class size, deteriorating school buildings, and job security. They worry that factors like neighborhood violence and family discord will drive down student performance, unfairly penalize teachers, and result in some 6,000 teacher layoffs. They also say teachers who lose their jobs as a result of school closings should be priority hires when open positions are available.

The jockeying for public support, particularly from parents, is common in public-sector labor battles, says William Powell Jones, an associate professor of history specializing in labor issues at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

“They’re emphasizing things that are more important to each other but are also issues that are seen in the public as sympathetic. The reality is all of these issues are at stake here and it’s complicated by the fact that Rahm Emanuel is a national figure,” Mr. Jones says.

Moreover, it's difficult for the public to grasp what's at issue in the standoff, because the talks are sequestered behind closed doors.

“The problem is that, since this matter is in the midst of a collective bargaining process, both sides spin the story to their advantage. Without access to the actual proposals and responses it is difficult to say what the real issues are,” says McLaughlin, the labor attorney.

What is known is that the strike is being seen in a much broader context about the purpose of public unions and the effectiveness of the reforms levied against them in recent years by legislative majority leaders, particularly Republicans, in neighboring states like Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio.

“It’s about the legitimacy of public-sector unions,” says Jones. “These are issues that go far beyond Chicago, and that’s why people are paying attention this strike.”

http://news.yahoo.com/chicago-teachers-strike-illegal-under-illinois-law-222851216.html