A big question is what percentage of CTU members have schoool age children. If 1 in 5 send their kid

The Chicago teachers' strike is an awkward dinner conversation between President Barack Obama and his former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.   Many of the policy prescriptions in the new Chicago teachers' contract designed to create more accountability are supported by the Obama administration.
As the Chicago san francisco cable car rentals teachers' strike continues, we've learned that they make $71-76,000 a year and they turned down a 16% pay increase, which amounts to $11,360.  They work nine months out of the year, but say that this strike is benefits oriented.  However, given that ABC World News didn't even air this story last Sunday and most of the media, with the exception of CBS, failing to mention the  compensation statistics  in their broadcast – suffice to say that the  media will probably ignore the fact that almost 40% of Chicago s public school teachers send their kids to private schools.
I'm not against public san francisco cable car rentals education, but the fact that these teachers make enough to send their kids to private schools shows that Chicago s public teachers are aware of the serial failure within the system.  Second, it shows that these teachers have zero confidence in their own respective school district.  Why are the teachers going on strike?  Aren t the contentious measures they re squabbling about aimed at enhancing accountability  that will make their institutions of learning better for the students?  It appears this strike, like most union strikes, are defined by these three words: give. me. more.
However, given the state of public education and that of Chicago, it s not alien for public school teachers san francisco cable car rentals to ship their kids to private institutions.  According san francisco cable car rentals to The Washington Times in  September of 2004 , they quoted the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which found that:
In Washington (28 percent), Baltimore san francisco cable car rentals (35 percent) and 16 other major cities, san francisco cable car rentals the figure is more than 1 in 4. In some cities, nearly half of the children of public school teachers have abandoned san francisco cable car rentals public schools.
In Philadelphia, 44 percent of the teachers put their children in private schools; in Cincinnati, 41 percent;  Chicago, 39 percent ; Rochester, N.Y., 38 percent. The same trends showed up in the San Francisco-Oakland area, where 34 percent of public school teachers san francisco cable car rentals chose private schools for their children; 33 percent in New York City and New Jersey suburbs; and 29 percent in Milwaukee and New Orleans.
san francisco cable car rentals Union teachers know that many of their colleagues aren t great teachers. Only 12% of American students attend private schools,  but,  39% of Chicago public school teachers send their children to private schools .  Anti school-choice politicians are no less hypocritical: President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Jesse Jackson, Hillary san francisco cable car rentals Clinton and Al Gore (to name just a few) all send or sent their children san francisco cable car rentals to private schools.
Now thousands of Chicago children san francisco cable car rentals are kept out of school. Your supermarkets and movie theaters aren t closed because of strikes. That s because  private companies have competition . Government monopolies don t.
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I know a number of public school teachers here that send their children to parochial school. In many cases, it is because of the ability to receive an education in an environment that is consistent with their religious beliefs. san francisco cable car rentals So apparently 40% of Chicago teachers are deeply religious. /s
FDR vowed that never would public unions corrupt govt, but now the Teachers Union has gained control of public education, and turned the whole process into a massively wasteful joke where the primary goals center not around teaching kids but on compensating teachers and ensuring diversity and proper indoctrination.
Give education back to localities. san francisco cable car rentals And get the feds out of it. And get the states out of it. With an eye on costs and on getting san francisco cable car rentals the job done, private citizens with a limited budget would have the goal of making education effective, and they would achieve that.
I have some family and friends who teach, and to be fair, I can understand san francisco cable car rentals the concerns over the wrong kind of accountability. Putting emphasis on numbers is not entirely fair, and it s difficult [difficult, but not impossible] to measure the effectiveness of teachers.
One of my friends teaches in a NYC school that they attempted to close and fire 50% of the staff. Her school is deemed failing, but part of the problem is that nearly all her students are minorities from poor backgrounds. Half of her kids don t speak English, half of them don t show up. So, I don t think it is necessarily fair that her school district is expected to have students perform at the same level as students from schools that draw from more expensive areas. I do think she is a qualified teacher who was getting good results from her kids, but yet she was not part of the 50% that was not selected to return.
The problem, as many have identified, is accountability but it s hard to enforce accountability in something that is corrupt, and where accountability has no consequences. I think Condeleeza Rice said it best, when she made the comment about how if you know someone s zip code, you know if they got a good education or not. It s nearly impossible to quantify, yet we do it all the time in the private industry. I keep hearing all the time from teachers that they need protection from being fired for no reason, san francisco cable car rentals but that can happen in the private industry too. I work in software, and you can t measure someone san francisco cable car rentals s productivity in numbers, but you can tell who is contributing and who isn t. Who is standing in the way of improvement san francisco cable car rentals and who isn t.
Without being teachers, parents KNOW where the good schools are, where the good teachers are. And I think the principals san francisco cable car rentals and administration do too. There is just no Return-on-investment to keep the highest qualified staff. The only way things san francisco cable car rentals will get better is if the consumers (parents students) have a say. The only way that happens is with school choice.
I ll also add, this same teacher, who I do genuinely believe is a good, effective, hard-working teacher always tells me whenever I work late, or do a late-night deployment, or do other things, san francisco cable car rentals you know, expected of me to be an effective team member where I work, that I should have a union. I ve tried to explain to her that if we had unions, we wouldn t be able to stay profitable because we can t just tax people for more money to fund the benefits bonuses overtime san francisco cable car rentals pay.
She talks about how hard teachers work and all that they do in one breath, but when I asked if she d do some of the extras she does around the school (like help with the school play) if she didn t get paid extra for it, and she was like No way, why would I do it if I didn t get paid?
I just wish [some] teachers would own up to the fact that they are looking out for their own interests as much as anyone else would. And that s OK. But spare me the It s all about the children san francisco cable car rentals nonsense.
Well these teachers can darn well afford to send their kids elsewhere, they are the highest paid in the country! san francisco cable car rentals Too bad the citizens paying their salary can t afford san francisco cable car rentals to get good teachers for their kids?
Does anyone truly believe san francisco cable car rentals that the kids have had less education during the week that the teachers have been on strike? Come on, even the parents aren t upset about the lack of education they just don t like having to spend extra on daycare.
A big question is what percentage of CTU members have schoool age children. If 1 in 5 send their kids to private school but only 2 in 5 have school age children, that would mean 50% of CTU members with school age children send their kids to private schools. That makes the numbers even worse.
Holding teachers san francisco cable car rentals accountable for increasing test scores year-to-year and basing san francisco cable car rentals their salaries on the scores, amid the utter collapse of the family and what the students do in the other 17 hours is bull$shit. san francisco cable car rentals The youngest teachers get given the worst students as a matter of seniority. That s how it works. So you penalize young teachers because the principal assigned them the dregs, and if the teacher can t improve scores, year after year, despite mayhem in the students homes, the teacher loses salary or get fired.
The real problem with schools is they no longer let the Principal delegate someone to spank the children san francisco cable car rentals that misbehave. The parents could care less if their children are suspended and generally blame the school not their child.
The real problem with schools is they no longer let the Principal delegate someone to spank the children that misbehave. The parents could care less if their children are suspended and generally blame the school not their child.
A life lesson in those formative years: You are responsible for yourself . That concept has been completely san francisco cable car rentals excised from public education, and replaced with it takes a village , and the scores and graduation rates reflect that change.
I can understand the concerns over the wrong kind of accountability. Putting emphasis on numbers is not entirely fair, and it's difficult [difficult, but not impossible] to measure the effectiveness san francisco cable car rentals of teachers.
It used to be that the Principals who were familiar with the teachers, their classes, and their progress evaluated teachers san francisco cable car rentals on both numeric and non-numeric standards and made hiring and firing decisions. But unions have removed that responsibility from the people best positioned to use it and instead have created san francisco cable car rentals a byzantine structure of rules, appeals, arbitrators, and hiring panels to make things more fair and equitable .
For rural areas eventually guidelines could be set up so companies could qualify to run schools in rural areas. But they would have to first prove themselves in cities. They would also have to pass a vote of confidence yearly to keep a con