Chicago Teacher's Strike Defines Election Issues

The American Thinker ^ | September 11, 2012 | Matthew Holzmann

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Members of the Chicago Teacher's Union have gone on strike, shutting down the third largest school district in the country with over 404,000 students now in disarray.

Chicago's teachers have the highest average salary in the country at $76,000/year and according to the Mayor's office, the financial side of the $400 Million deal is done. 4%/year raises have been agreed to, taking them to $88,900/year by 2016.

The Mayor's office stated that:

"The two remaining stumbling blocks involve re-hiring laid off teachers from schools that get shut down or shaken up and a new teacher evaluation process that the union says puts far too much weight on student test scores."

So while 404,000 students are missing school, the real issues are accountability and union job protection.

Chicago is not really different from Wisconsin, but while it is only 90 miles away, it is a universe away in its political realities. The city has seen the same economic straits as most large cities in the country and yet at a time when everyone else is cutting back and trying to get by, the Chicago Teacher's Union, who have already been financially sated, wants more control with less accountability.

....Whether it is for gross misconduct by teachers or for regular evaluations and student testing, the union expects to remain unaccountable. In Chicago, standardized test results are destroyed almost immediately after the tests are scored. They have it down in Chicago. No Atlanta scandals there........

...Chicago's teacher union is symbolic of much of what has gone wrong in our country. Self-interest, cronyism, corruption and sloth when our children need the best we have to offer, are completely and utterly unacceptable. The Chicago strike defines what is wrong while the Wisconsin reforms point to a possible solution....

[Happy Rain]

Sorry Rahmbo, but Obama and the Chicago Mob value the unions over even their most loyal henchmen.

Just go to Hell and ask Hoffa...

[olezip]

"The two remaining stumbling blocks involve re-hiring laid off teachers from schools that get shut down or shaken up and a new teacher evaluation process that the union says puts far too much weight on student test scores."

We will watch these issues with great interest. I suspect that it will go in favor of the unions because they want more control, higher pay, and less accountability. Student test scores? What has that got to do with teaching?

[dsrtsage]

Has anybody seen these standardized tests that the teachers complain about so much? I have. They were created many many years after I graduated from high school, therefore I was never “taught to the test”. Yet 25 years after high school, my opinion is that any 7th grader should be able to ace them. These tests are ridiculously easy.

[SkyPilot]

Have you seen, and yet better - heard, this obese, fanatical, narcissistic bully who is the "leader" of this Communist front group called the Teachers Union in Chicago?

Her name is Karen Lewis. She is the epitome of matriarchal atheism, abuse of power, corruption, cronyism, and could serve as the poster child for the DNC.

Her entire mantra is that white folks who live in decent houses should be raped even more in their already exorbitant property tax bill so that "the Children" can get more "educated."

[gotribe]

I agree. When my son brings home the test results, unless he grades “Accelerated”, he has work to do. A former guidance counselor told me “Average” is failing.

[Thebaddog]

My bet is that the union will badly overreach by winning this strike at any cost and that it will bounce bad on Obama. Illinois is a lost cause in the electoral column, but this strike will create national issues for the campaign out of anybody’s control.

And after it’s all over, I’ll be stuck with the bill. This city is getting less and less livable every year.

[MasterGunner01]

What the CTU wants is to collect salary, warehouse the kids in prisons called schools for 8 hours, do NO teaching, watch porn, work on side business deals, and have sex with students. That’s the Holy Grail sought by the CTU.

Fire all the striking teachers with prejudice, and hire new without a union. Pay according to merit and performance.

[Happy Rain]

“Hizzoner” would have never had a problem like this.

[sharkhawk]

What the CTU wants is to collect salary, warehouse the kids in prisons called schools for 8 hours

In Chicago the teachers want to warehouse kids for 5 1/2 hours a day. That is one of the big sticking points in the contract.

[onevoter]

I am by no means defending the teacher’s union but one thing about Obama that irritates me is his attitude that school days should be extended and the school year should be longer. This is nothing more than a blatant attempt to force a situation where the tax payers provide daycare for the slugs who keep having children but don’t want to care for them. Several years ago we put in less time in school and performed better - there is no link between longer classes, longer school years and academic success. Bottom line is that you can’t teach a stump. The mother of two who was quoted claiming, “We don’t want our kids out on the street selling drugs and stuff” is very telling of the mentality of those who have been on the dole for generations and are expanding. Well - if that is what they are going to be doing, they are wasting taxpayer time and dollars in school as well - not to mention disrupting classes for those who want to learn.

That said, the teachers are hurting themselves by making more and more demands financially instead of making a cogent argument for why they cannot be held responsible for the decline in test scores that result when the government keeps paying slugs to have more and more children.

[Alberta's Child]

Illinois overall may be a "lost cause" in a presidential election, but one of the interesting things that came out of the 2010 midterm elections is that 11 of the state's 19 House seats are now held by Republicans (they'll lose one seat this year as a result of the 2010 census).

This Chicago teachers' strike may end up solidifying Republican support not only in the rest of Illinois, but in bordering regions of Indiana and Illinois as well.

Let's face it, folks ... the suburban and exurban areas around Chicago are probably filled with moderate, independent voters who left Chicago to get away from the people like Barack Obama who have run that sh!t-hole into the ground.

[MasterGunner01]

Whether 8 or 5.5 hours, the main thing is that NO teaching is accomplished while the CTU members watch porn, pursue outside businesses, or have sex with students. To do anything resembling real teaching would be against CTU work rules. We, as good CTU members, wouldn't want to violate the rules, would we? /sarc/

[Alberta's Child]

Sorry -- correction on that: "... in bordering regions of Indiana and Wisconsin as well."

[Cincinatus' Wife]

....Several years ago we put in less time in school and performed better - there is no link between longer classes, longer school years and academic success......

There also were intact families and most likely a parent at home raising their children instead of the 2-parent workforce -- where "we can have it all."

[Spartan79]

Not to worry. The Won will let the strike drag on for a week or so while Geitner prints a few billion dollars worth of $100 bills, which will then be airlifted over Chicago and dropped onto the strikers. As the strike ends there will be rejoicing throughout the land and the MSM will pronounce Obama Master of the Universe.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

It also dilutes and distracts from Obama’s governing mess.

[outpostinmass2]

Most of these slugs don’t care if their kids are in school or not. Check the attendance rates at these Chicago schools. Very telling. Longer school day, shorter school day, no school that day, welfare checks keep coming in and the scratch tickets can still be bought at the corner store.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

The Unions will help to elect Romney. The Union leadership and the Democratic Party have ruined the nation, one city at a time—and now that crime is being displayed for all to see. Greed and power is now that things are all about. Even if, Obama wins, nothing will change until the whole rotten system falls apart of its own corruption. Chicago gives a bad name to corruption. Even Al Capone could have run things better.

[capt. norm]

This whole "strike" is a staged Obama event where he flies in wearing his cape an miraculously saves the day.

He's just waiting for his cue.

[chainsaw]

so that "the Children" can get more "educated."

By insinuation she is admitting that the teachers are not doing their job. What a pathetic blob.

[chainsaw]

Even Al Capone could have run things better.

He would make them an offer they dare not refuse.

[Ax]

At least the kids will be spared the communist indoctrination for a few days or weeks until a “just compromise” can be worked out.

[yldstrk]

sorry but a teacher should make about 25K a “year”, they only work til 3, they “work” with kids, not adults, they get snow days, Thanksgiving, Spring, Winter and Summer breaks.

The schedule alone is enough “pay”. This 88K stuff is just absolute garbage.

[yldstrk]

yeah but now the “dads” feel “trapped” in marriage and need to be free to act like dogs with their wienies hanging out

[Shadowfax]

I agree completely. This stinks to high heaven. A dogmatically liberal labor union in a city with an erstwhile member of the Obama administration decides to go on strike during an election year, throwing the entire city into chaos and threatening its children?

Just waiting for Obama to step into a phone booth to put on his costume so he can fly in and save everyone. When you don’t have any accomplishments, you have to invent them. Romney better be ready to counter this. I’m pretty sure it’s coming.

[Boomer One]

Give collective bargaining to government employees in a non-competitive setting and this is what you get - “the tail wagging the dog”. Fox did a very good piece on municiple bankruptcies which showed the major cause of collapse was employee salaries and benefits. In each case the municiple employee was paid more than the civilian counterpart. Here’s another example of citizen abuse by employees.

[Paladin2]

Is twinkletoes paying ANY Chicago property taxes yet?

[chainsaw]

Is twinkletoes paying ANY Chicago property taxes yet?

She probably lives in the suburbs.