Support Chicago Teachers: because Middle-Aged-Overweight-Women-of-Average-Intelligence need a new Lexus.
Posted on 09/10/2012 6:49:53 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Chicago teachers began walking the picket line for the first time in 25 years Monday morning, leaving parents to scramble for alternatives for their children.
.....Steve Parsons, the lead picket who teaches AP psychology at the high school said Monday: “It’s all up to Mayor Emanuel. We all want to go back to the classrooms. The mayor is not valuing our opinions as educators.”
.....Vitale said the contract amounted to a 16 percent raise over four years for the average teacher when factoring other increases. And the raises could not be rescinded for lack of funds — which is what happened this past school year, angering teachers and helping to set the stage for Monday’s strike.
“This is not a small commitment we’re making at a time when your fiscal situation is really challenged,” Vitale said. A $1 billion deficit awaits the system at the end of this school year, officials have estimated. And the district drained its reserve funds to plug this year’s budget......
.....The union also has pushed for improved working conditions, such as smaller class sizes, more libraries, air-conditioned schools, and more social workers and counselors to address the increasing needs of students surrounded by violence — all big-ticket items. CPS officials contend they are seeking a “fair” contract, with raises for teachers, but are limited by funding and the threat of a $1 billion deficit at the end of this school year.
In front of Chicago Teachers Union strike headquarters Sunday afternoon at the corner of Marshfield and Van Buren, a steady stream of teachers picked up picket signs and T-shirts.....
(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...
If Romney and the GOP don’t seize on this, they are completely useless.
How would you seize on it?
Have an ad, stating that for years the Democrats have tried to say that the Republicans have a war on children....but here is clear proof that they are the ones guilty of it.
Sadly makes sense in their diabolical world. Not too many people at any wage turn down 16% increase. And as for standardized tests, they have all looped around that for years... teachers who can’t or don’t want to work still keep their union protected jobs and students graduate unable to read or make change in a store. Sad show for O to save the day and all those jobs can be added to his already imaginary figures.
Exactly what I was thinking this morning while watching him on the news. LOLOLOLOL!!! Payback is a witch.
What a weird system
Or Rahm’s “Sistah Souljah” moment for his potential 2016 run for POTUS.
Public sector unions, the state media and Obama are salivating for Romney to wade into this — it will become “the Rich, white Republican candidate’s war on middle America (formally known as “working American” aka unions).” It will suck all the air from any other issue.
The Underground History of American Education
BTW, I went to govt schools, have one kid in govt school (against my wishes) and one homeschooled. I see both sides. And the govt schools are a joke. No, a nightmare.
“Some schools opened to serve breakfast and lunch”
I worked in a small school district (8 elementaries - 2 high schools) in So. Cal for a few years for the the elementary school lunch program. At one time they were going to start this breakfast program. Supervisor asked for suggestions from us “lunch servers” (aka, dreaded lunch ladies). I tried to get behind the program but it was difficult as every suggestion I had was turned down.
I pictured 20 or so kids sitting at a table sharing a big box of wheaties, or corn pops or whatever, cups of OJ poured from large container, milk for the cereal out of a pitcher and a piece of sliced fruit. We had a full service kitchen — so we could intersperse hot oatmeal and raisins or Cream of Wheat in between the cold cereals.
No, No, No each kid had to have individual boxes of OJ, Milk, and those little cereals, doubling the cost of course for taxpayers. The little boxes were so they could have a “choice”. My response was “This is free — what’s the big choice thing going on here.”
My final suggestion of saying Grace, or a moment of thanks for this meal was just laughed at out loud, as I knew it would be.
So, in summary, what I envisioed as what could have been a fun start of the day for the little kids, with good humor and a flower or two on the table occasionally, turned into a costly assembly line of 20 griping kids with half-eaten breakfast — just like at the lunch time where trash cans are full of food.
My rant for the day. Thanks for listening (reading).
Thank you for the report.
Here’s how a HUGE employer and contributor to meals at school is being blamed for the need.
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=10471
“Why Walmart loves free school breakfast”
by Dana Woldow‚ Sep. 10‚ 2012
...............”So the obvious answer to the question of why Wamart supports expanded school breakfast is that Walmart wants to help feed poor kids in the communities where its stores are located. But is there more to it than that?
To answer that question, one first must examine the impact Walmart has on the communities where it locates. Numerous studies have linked Walmart’s arrival in a community with a reduction in jobs and lowering of wages within that community. Michele Simon is a public health lawyer and president of Eat Drink Politics, a consultant firm on food industry tactics.
She reviews many of these studies in an article entitled “Is Walmart’s March into Cities Helping or Hurting?”, and writes
In a report from last summer called “The Walmartization of New York City,” researchers at the City University of New York concluded that, “despite Walmart’s promises of jobs and lower prices for the community, the longer term impact is actually the opposite.”
Assuming Walmart opened the 159 stores needed to reach 21 percent grocery market share in New York City (the same proportion the company enjoys nationally), the impact would be a net loss of almost 4,000 jobs, and a loss of more than $453 million in wages per year for all remaining workers.
What about the new Walmart jobs? According to the report, 4,279 new low-wage Walmart workers would have to “rely on social services to make ends meet, costing New York taxpayers over $4 million per year” in health care benefits alone. This, in a city where the mayor has asked for $2 billion in budget cuts.
The effects are even greater when examined nationwide. In 2006, the St Louis Business Journal reported
A study focused on the effects of Wal-Mart stores on poverty rates found that an estimated 20,000 families nationwide have fallen below the official poverty line as a result of the chain’s expansion.”.......
They certainly are, especially the big-city ones.
But I still see the value in public education, based on my own experiences. I grew up in a neighborhood where almost every kid was the grandchild of Eastern European immigrants. There was not a single black family in my neighborhood.
Yet I had my black friends while growing up. It was because the local public school drew kids from different neighborhoods and mixed us all in together. That was a wonderful thing!
In my twenties, I spent some time teaching at a private school. There were no black students at that school, and very few in the neighborhood. So the students there had no contact with blacks. Those students viewed blacks with a mixture of fear and confusion. Not a good thing!
I'm sure there are other stories like this out there. Just substitute "Jew" for "black", or "Asian" for "black", etc.
So I hope you see my point. In a diverse society like the US, we need good public schools! It's a real shame that the liberals have completely ruined most of them.
Support Chicago Teachers: because Middle-Aged-Overweight-Women-of-Average-Intelligence need a new Lexus.
I have this plan for “next time around” in next life. And that is to be a Political Cartoonist.
How about a drawing of kids at a Chicago school breakfast sitting at a table with the lunch lady taking orders.
Kid 1: “I’ll have my egg scrambled.”
Kid 2: “Just toast and jam for me today.”
I like it — and have the “tip” being left in Democrat campaign coffers.
It makes no sense apart from allowing the Chicago Democratic politicians a disproportionate amount of control of the schools and the awarding of contracts and jobs.
Higher:
The average teacher salary in Chicago was $74,839 for the 2011-12 school year, according to the district. The total salary increase would equal $380 million over four years. That includes “modified step increases that both reward experience and provides better incentives for mid-career teachers to help keep them serving in the Chicago Public School system,” according to a news release from the school system.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/10/what-are-key-issues-in-chicago-public-school-strike/
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