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Chicago Teachers On Strike

Mike

Well-known member
CHICAGO (AP) — City officials vowed to keep hundreds of thousands of students safe when striking teachers hit the picket lines Monday and school district and teachers union leaders resumed negotiations on a contract that appeared close to being resolved over the weekend before the union announced both sides were too far apart to prevent the district's first strike in 25 years.

The walkout in the nation's third-largest school district posed a tricky test for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his city, as parents and school officials begin the task of trying to ensure nearly 400,000 students are kept safe.

School officials said they will open more than 140 schools between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. so children can eat lunch and breakfast in a district where many students receive free meals. The district asked community organizations to provide additional programs for students, and a number of churches, libraries and other groups plan to offer day camps and other activities. But it's not clear how many families will send their children to the added programs.

Police Chief Garry McCarthy said he was deploying police officers to those sites to ensure kids' safety but also to "deal with any protests that teachers may, in fact, have" while protecting their rights. He also was taking officers off desk duties and redeploying them to the streets to deal with potential protests — and thousands of students who could be on the streets.

Emanuel said he will work to end the strike quickly.

"We will make sure our kids are safe, we will see our way through these issues and our kids will be back in the classroom where they belong," Emanuel said Sunday night, not long after the union announced it was going on strike. "I would like all the parties to do right by our children. ... Our kids belong in the classroom. The negotiators belong at the negotiating table and finish their job."

The two sides were not far apart on compensation but were on other issues, including health benefits — teachers want to keep what they have now — and a new teacher evaluation system based partly on students' standardized test scores, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said.

"This is a difficult decision and one we hoped we could have avoided," she said. "We must do things differently in this city if we are to provide our students with the education they so rightfully deserve."

"This is not a strike I wanted," Emanuel said. "It was a strike of choice ... it's unnecessary, it's avoidable and it's wrong. "

More than 26,000 teachers and support staff were expected to hit the picket lines at 6:30 a.m. Monday.

Both Emanuel and union officials have much at stake. The walkout comes at a time when unions and collective bargaining by public employees have come under criticism in many parts of the country, and all sides are closely monitoring who might emerge with the upper hand in the Chicago dispute.

The timing also may be inopportune for Emanuel, a former White House chief of staff whose city administration is wrestling with a spike in murders and shootings in some city neighborhoods and who just agreed to take a larger role in fundraising for President Barack Obama's re-election campaign.

As the strike deadline approached, parents spent Sunday worrying about how much their children's education might suffer and where their kids will go while they're at work.

"They're going to lose learning time," said Beatriz Fierro, whose daughter is in the fifth grade on the city's Southwest Side. "And if the whole afternoon they're going to be free, it's bad. Of course you're worried."

School board President David Vitale first announced Sunday night that talks had broken off, despite the school board offering what he called a fair and responsible contract that would cover four years and meet most of the union's demands. He said the talks with the union had been "extraordinarily difficult."

Emanuel said the district had offered the teachers a 16 percent pay raise over four years, doubling an earlier offer.

Lewis said she would not prioritize the issues, saying that they all were important to teachers.

That included concern over a new evaluation that she said would be based too heavily on students' standardized test scores, which she said would be unfair to teachers because it could not adequately account for outside factors that affect student performance, including poverty, violence and homelessness.

She said the evaluations could result in 6,000 teachers losing their jobs within two years.

City officials said they did not believe that was true but said the union would not tell them how they came to that conclusion. Emanuel said the evaluation would not count in the first year, as teachers and administrators worked out any kinks. Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard said the evaluation was mandated by state law but "was not developed to be a hammer," but to help teachers get better.

The strike is the latest flashpoint in a very public and often contentious battle between the mayor and the union.

When he took office last year, Emanuel inherited a school district facing a $700 million budget shortfall. Not long after, his administration rescinded 4 percent raises for teachers. He then asked the union to reopen its contract and accept 2 percent pay raises in exchange for lengthening the school day for students by 90 minutes. The union refused.

Emanuel, who promised a longer school day during his campaign, then attempted to go around the union by asking teachers at individual schools to waive the contract and add 90 minutes to the day. He halted the effort after being challenged by the union before the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board.

The district and union agreed in July on how to implement the longer school day, striking a deal to hire back 477 teachers who had been laid off rather than pay regular teachers more to work longer hours. That raised hopes the contract dispute would be settled soon, but bargaining continued on the other issues.
 

Steve

Well-known member
Emanuel said the district had offered the teachers a 16 percent pay raise over four years, doubling an earlier offer.

it seems the sticking point is evaluating and firing rotten teachers..

:?
 

Larrry

Well-known member
Steve said:
Emanuel said the district had offered the teachers a 16 percent pay raise over four years, doubling an earlier offer.

it seems the sticking point is evaluating and firing rotten teachers..

:?

So it is safe to figure that the interest of the students isn't high on their agenda
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
loomixguy said:
Saw Rahm on the tv this morning. I resisted the impulse to puke, but it took everything I had. :mad:

Yeah, Micheal Reagan said today on the Wilkow Majority Talk Radio that
Rahm doesn't send his own kids to public school. When asked about it,
he said it was a "decision between my wife and I." Well, guess what?
Not everyone has that option so their kids are schooled in the ways
of the liberals.
 

okfarmer

Well-known member
My wife teaches elementary (in the lowest end school of one of the most sought after districts in OK.)

About 45% of her kids wouldn't pass 2 grades below where they are, 45% could skip the grade above, and the remaining 10% are where they need to be. And you are suppose to teach all of these on the same level?

There are many problems with the public school system. It is still far better than not having free education, but it is by far to liberally dominated.

Part of the fear of hiring and firing based on kids production, is what happens when you get a skewed population of kids? That is the fear she has this year. They gave her all the problem kids because she can handle them, now she is responsible for their scores?

There should be a fair system that can be devised. But it may not be as straight forward as one would think.


Interrupting school days is deplorable. I hope all involved with that get what they deserve.
 

Steve

Well-known member
There should be a fair system that can be devised. But it may not be as straight forward as one would think.

kids are all variables in any equation.. and just test scores should not be a single basis for evaluating a teacher.. but they can be part of an effective way to narrow down a problem and identify a teacher with better then average skills.

any system that evaluates a teacher would have to take in a child's entire educational background.. and look at overall trends..

for example.. if johnny scored in the lower 45% in K- thru 3 and then improved in 4th but dropped back in 5th and remained steady the rest of his education... and his scores were typical across all the students irregardless of their individual scoring..

who would be deserving of a better evaluation? and worth looking at to see what they are doing right?

hint:.. the fourth grade teacher

and if the trend is a drop in all fifth grade students.. you might want to take a look at why?

it isn't rocket science.. one would think a building full of teachers could come up with a fair effective evaluation of their occupation.. if they wanted to...

and thank your wife for teaching... we all know it is often a thankless job.. and we just want to give more to those who want to teach and weed out those who can't... for the children's sake..
 

Steve

Well-known member
Among other demands, the Chicago Teachers Union had asked for a 30 percent pay increase

and that is over two years..

they were offered 16% over 4 years and turned it down!



“Chicago Public Schools has projected a $3 billion budget deficit over the next three years and faces a crushing burden of pensions promised to retiring teachers.”

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, formerly President Obama’s White House chief of staff, is getting an advanced class in union power. He came into office last year and asked the teachers to accept a 2 percent pay raise instead of 4 percent to try to address the $700 million budget shortfall, and the union refused.

He did reach a deal to lengthen one of the country’s shortest school days. As the Tribune describes: “In exchange for the longer school day—an additional half-hour in high schools and 75 minutes in elementary schools—CPS agreed to rehire nearly 500 teachers in non-core subjects from a pool of teachers who had been laid off. That kept the hours in the work week the same for full-time teachers.”

The union argues that Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) wants to extend the school day, and that the requested salary increase would compensate them for extending the school day from 5.5 hours—among the nation’s shortest school days—to 7.5 hours. Chicago Public Schools states that under the extended school day:

On average teachers will provide 5.5 hours of instruction (an increase of 54 minutes), receive a 45-minute duty-free lunch and 60-minute prep period and supervise the passing period. They will also be required to be on-site for 10 minutes before and after school.


It takes a lot of nerve to ask for a 30 percent pay raise. You’d better be sure you had a banner year. Yet in Chicago, where just 15 percent of fourth graders are proficient in reading (and just 56 percent of students graduate), the teachers union is set to strike if the district does not agree to a 30 percent increase in teachers’ salaries.

well Rahm, you need to get this cleaned up,.. Obama needs those union votes..
 

Traveler

Well-known member
Check out the sign. They got "hood" right.

http://www.hyscience.com/archives/2012/09/sign_of_the_day.php?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
 

Mike

Well-known member
$76,000.00 (average pay) for 9 months work is a fair wage.

The same thing should happen to them that happened to the aircraft controllers during Reagan.

Sometimes you just have to put your foot down.
 

okfarmer

Well-known member
It is obviously not about the education of the children.

The unions derive a lot of power because many teachers know they need liability insurance, and don't know they have options outside of teacher's unions. We pay a little more I think, but it may be the best money we spend.

I think the unions are proving how rediculous they are. I kinda hope they keep it up, so we can get some change.
 

Tam

Well-known member
The shameful thing is the tax payers that pay those teachers are on average making about $30,000 a year less, $76 k for teachers and $46k average wage for everyone else. And those paying are not getting every holiday off and a three month summer to spend with their kids. I agree teachers have a tough job but these wages ate redicuos when you consider the average wage in Chicago and time off.
 

Mike

Well-known member
Karen Lewis - The teacher's unionleader:

https://www.google.com/search?q=karen+lewis&hl=en&qscrl=1&rlz=1T4GGNI_enUS459US459&prmd=imvnsuo&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=2WFPUN2PEqa-0AH9joHYAw&sqi=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1191&bih=541

Reckon she eats collard greens & pork ribs?
 

TSR

Well-known member
Steve said:
There should be a fair system that can be devised. But it may not be as straight forward as one would think.

kids are all variables in any equation.. and just test scores should not be a single basis for evaluating a teacher.. but they can be part of an effective way to narrow down a problem and identify a teacher with better then average skills.

any system that evaluates a teacher would have to take in a child's entire educational background.. and look at overall trends..

for example.. if johnny scored in the lower 45% in K- thru 3 and then improved in 4th but dropped back in 5th and remained steady the rest of his education... and his scores were typical across all the students irregardless of their individual scoring..

who would be deserving of a better evaluation? and worth looking at to see what they are doing right?

hint:.. the fourth grade teacher

and if the trend is a drop in all fifth grade students.. you might want to take a look at why?

it isn't rocket science.. one would think a building full of teachers could come up with a fair effective evaluation of their occupation.. if they wanted to...

and thank your wife for teaching... we all know it is often a thankless job.. and we just want to give more to those who want to teach and weed out those who can't... for the children's sake..

Some other scenarios-- In the 4th grade Johnny's dad came back home, In the 4th grade Johnny's classmates were different, he had some that now valued good scores, The 4th grade teacher had enough influence to "choose" her class roll. All these things happen all the time.
 

Larrry

Well-known member
And while we sit back and do nothing, the children will be hurt.

Not the good teachers, not the sorry teachers. You have to admit the public school system protects the sorry teachers at the expense of the children.
 

Tam

Well-known member
What are these people NUTZ they are get $30,000 more than than the average TAX PAYER and they just anounced they are requesting a 35% increase in wages. Have they been sleeping for the last four years and not hear the US economy is tanking and the US goverment is BANKRUPT. :roll: :x
 

Steve

Well-known member
TSR said:
Steve said:
There should be a fair system that can be devised. But it may not be as straight forward as one would think.

kids are all variables in any equation.. and just test scores should not be a single basis for evaluating a teacher.. but they can be part of an effective way to narrow down a problem and identify a teacher with better then average skills.

any system that evaluates a teacher would have to take in a child's entire educational background.. and look at overall trends..

for example.. if johnny scored in the lower 45% in K- thru 3 and then improved in 4th but dropped back in 5th and remained steady the rest of his education... and his scores were typical across all the students irregardless of their individual scoring..

who would be deserving of a better evaluation? and worth looking at to see what they are doing right?

hint:.. the fourth grade teacher

and if the trend is a drop in all fifth grade students.. you might want to take a look at why?

it isn't rocket science.. one would think a building full of teachers could come up with a fair effective evaluation of their occupation.. if they wanted to...

and thank your wife for teaching... we all know it is often a thankless job.. and we just want to give more to those who want to teach and weed out those who can't... for the children's sake..

Some other scenarios-- In the 4th grade Johnny's dad came back home, In the 4th grade Johnny's classmates were different, he had some that now valued good scores, The 4th grade teacher had enough influence to "choose" her class roll. All these things happen all the time.

I mentioned that you need to look at trends..

in my description,.. I noted that just using the scores would not be enough.. and that the teacher should be looked at... to see what they are doing right.. that "look" may result in a negative evaluation... they could be teaching the test and faking the grades as well..

even in the case of the 5th grade teacher example of a drop in score trends.. I only said that the teachers methods should be observed..

it is easy to find examples and reasons not to evaluate teachers..

but the fact remains they are adults.. and are paid to do a difficult job.. that job should not be made more difficult by ineffective teachers..

and no child should be subjected to a failing ineffective worthless teacher..

all many are asking is for them to try,... and for an effective way to weed out the worst..

is that to much to ask?
 
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