Parents Talk: Would You Support a Teacher Strike?
In Chicago, teachers returned to the classroom after a seven-day teachers strike. How would you feel if that happened here?
Striking Chicago public school teachers picket outside of the Jose De Diego Community Academy on September 17, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. More than 26,000 teachers and support staff walked off of their jobs on September 10 after the Chicago Teachers Union failed to reach an agreement with the city on compensation, benefits and job security. With about 350,000 students, the Chicago school district is the third largest in the United States.
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Teachers in Chicago public schools and 350,000 students returned to class on Wednesday, after a seven-day teachers strike.
On Tuesday, the union voted to call off the strike after negotiating a contract in that will secure them a double-digit salary increase over the next three years, including raises for cost of living while maintaining other increases for experience and advanced education, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The union did not get the 30 percent base raise it wanted initially, but the group was happy with some of the other results: no merit pay, stopped more stringent requirements in a new teacher evaluation system and secured a recall policy for top-performing teachers who are laid off because of school closings.
Although many community members agreed with the teachers in the Chicago area, there's no denying that the students should have been in school for those seven days.
If a similar situation happened in Minnesota, would you support the teachers or be furious that they were not doing their jobs? Tell us with a comment!
Joe
11:02 am on Thursday, September 20, 2012
"Satisfied" with a double digit raise over three years? Didn't get the 30% they wanted; and unhappy with the evaluation system?
Get a clue CTU Union. With numbers like that (on top of current salaries) teachers don't seem to care a lick about your students, just your bank account (the Union itself included).
I've had no raise in the last two of three years when the company I work for didn't make a profit. I'm evaluated on the work that I do.
These teachers are nothing but selfish. Their strike cost the city who knows how much money for extra police on the streets during this strike; all while Chicago is already strapped for cash. Parents lost money when they had to pay for child-care or miss work for kids that otherwise would have been in school.
Jason J Potter
3:12 pm on Thursday, September 20, 2012
Joe because you didn't get a raise means no one else should? Also I don't think it cost the city anymore. I'm sure there are more teachers than police and if your not paying the teachers that money would more than cover the cost of more police.
Joe
3:39 pm on Thursday, September 20, 2012
I certainly don't believe that no one should get a raise just because I didn't. My point is that times are tough and a raise might not be possible; certainly not 30% over three years.
Maybe if it were possible and both parties were willing to move money between Chicago PD and Chicago Public Schools then that would be a valid argument.
Jill
4:17 pm on Thursday, September 20, 2012
The last time teachers here were considering striking, the issue was not at all about their salaries; it was about classroom size. Their view was that the class sizes that were being proposed were too large to effectively teach. The emphasis was on quality of education, not the teachers' "selfish" desire for fair compensation.
Dixie
8:14 am on Friday, September 21, 2012
If you don't think teachers deserve what they were striking to get, try being a teacher. I don't think the words "selfish" and "teacher" can really be put together.
In order to keep good teachers teaching, I would be ok with school not being in session for a week. It would be uncomfortable, because you wouldn't know how long the strike was going to last, but I have to say I would support the teachers. What would we do without them?
Daryl Fryxell
3:05 pm on Monday, September 24, 2012
When I was in college, the main motivation for those who wanted to become teachers was to get a job with long summer vacations and union protection from "unfair" evaluation of their performance. That is just a fact.
These are the people that are teaching in today's government schools. You can see it in their behavior.
David
8:52 am on Friday, September 21, 2012
Yeah... 25 hour work weeks and 8 month years are a real grind.
Kevin Smith
9:44 am on Friday, September 21, 2012
David -
It's obvious that you have no idea what you are talking about. 25 hour work week? 8 month years? Teachers actually have more to do than just the time the kids are at school.
Teachers actually work 8-hour days (and many work more than 8 hours). Teacher duty in Roseville starts in mid-August and goes through mid-June. Then they have continuing education to do during that time in addition to other duties.
I always wonder why people feel the need to attack teachers. These are usually the same people who are the first ones to complain when they think their kids are getting a raw deal.
Maybe you should learn about what teachers do, and all they have to put up with, before you make another snide remark.
Burt
11:06 am on Friday, September 21, 2012
Wow David- I'd like to see you teach a class of 30 Kindergarteners, where some under the age guidelines(but parents didn't want to pay daycare), most don't speak English, and many come to school w/o a lunch. Now, you would not only be required to oversee them, but get them to learn to read, write, gain social skills, and speak English.
If David can create lesson plans, prep his classroom, and provide student tests and evaluations, all while educating our youth, in 25 hours a week(while the kids are in your classroom for 35), well, I believe David should be on the President's Cabinet as the Education Secretary.
Dixie
9:38 am on Friday, September 21, 2012
Teachers work before and after the "school day" every day, weekends, and summers to attend training, meetings, plan lessons, give extra help to those who need it. Visit a classroom with 30 school-aged kids in it to see what a "real grind" it can be. Just saying, teachers don't work "25 hour work weeks and 8 months of the year".
Kevin Smith
9:44 am on Friday, September 21, 2012
Thanks, Dixie! You beat me to it. :)
Terry Elliott
11:09 am on Friday, September 21, 2012
6% of Chicago public school students go on to earn a 4-year college degree. The Chicago Public Schools are a failure, and these kids and the entire country suffer the result. The teachers, through their union representatives, have opposed every single reform initiative-- every one. Meanwhile demonstrably incompetent teachers (even those convicted of misdemeanor crimes) in Chicago can't be fired.
They can talk about "teachers" in glowing, evocative terms-- and there are excellent teachers in Chicago-- but the stats show that Chicago schools are a failure.
David F
1:50 pm on Friday, September 21, 2012
It is difficult to compare the issues with one of the largest school districts in the US to any MN school district. Chicago has some stifling poverty and crime. I recently moved from a large school district in VA and the high school my children would have gone to has had full scale student riots and MS-13 gang problems. Big urban school districts have more to contend with than just class size.
Daryl Fryxell
2:23 pm on Monday, September 24, 2012
These bums in Chicago make an average salary of $77,000 (before the strike) for working 8 months, not including their generous, taxpayer funded benefits packages. That is a salary of $115,000 if they worked 12 months instead of 8. These cretins are crying the blues when millions of private sector employees would do anything for a job with that kind of salary and benefits.
Don't give me this B.S. about how hard they work. Private sector salaried workers in their income bracket work 50-60 hours a week and work 12 months a year. There is no proof for the ridiculous assumption that teachers are more dedicated or virtuous than other salaried employees.
Fundamentally, schoolteachers should not have the right to strike. No government employee should. They have a job only because the government has decided to take my tax money and pay that person. They don't create wealth. They simply confiscate it.
Scott Rickhoff
3:17 pm on Monday, September 24, 2012
Chicago Schools are excellent? Really with dismal 54% graduation rate? (Hate to think of a failing school system would look like by your terms)... and now those people walked away from 16% pay raise. Does anyone know anybody in the private side who received big wage adjustments much less a 16% raise these past 4 years? Surprised? Not really. In my opinion, teachers are the poster children for Obama's " Me 1st " political class. These people are always 1st in line for the goodies, including demanding increasing portions of your paycheck.