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Chicagoland has relatively typical (for the midwest) prices on everything...except housing. Housing in Chicago can get pretty outrageous. It's easily 50-75% more expensive than Fort Wayne or maybe even double (consider that Fort Wayne is somewhat cheaper than the Indy metro area). Also consider that housing tends to become a larger portion of a household budget the lower the household income goes.

Now, 76k still seems high. Teaching is a tough job and often underappreciated, for sure, but yeah...that's pretty good money even in Chicago. Maybe they felt like they had to pay them extra to get them to put up with living in Chicago :)

The root of the strike is about this education reform that's trying to put new laws into place about assessing performance of the teachers and students. Would you not be worried and upset if your job depended now on public test scores of students in a rough inner city district with 80% free and reduced lunch? A lot of the new evaporation models (not so much our district but that's because we had a big committee customizing ours for our already very strong district) kinda limit flexibility and forces teachers to not be able to be as creative or free to do what they feel they need to in classrooms when all these standardized tests are becoming the all-operant barometer of how you do your job.

I didn't see much about air conditioner but it's dreadful to be in old downtown buildings in the summer time with classes of 30ish with no air circulation. Kids, especially at risk inner city kids, can't concentrate like that.

The root of this strike is money. To strike, they're literally required to make contract negotiations an issue. They want better pay, better benefits, and protection for teachers who lose their jobs due to school closures. Everything else is just hyper-virtuous rhetoric. The only benefit teachers stand to gain is a better paycheck. As soon as they do, the strike will end and nothing will have changed.

If you want to fix failing schools, stop the incentives for people to have children. If you're poor and having lots of kids is your bankroll, all the government is doing is making a bad problem worse.

Fluffyumpkins wrote: If you want to fix failing schools, stop the incentives for people to have children. If you're poor and having lots of kids is your bankroll, all the government is doing is making a bad problem worse.

Section 8 housing, now with free condoms and birth control.

Well you are right at least about the parenting part. The single most important factor in any student's education is support and commitment from home. You can have the best teacher in the world but if nobody is modeling good behavior, holding you accountable or encouraging you at home, you will not do well. A lot of children who have issues with grades or willingness to learn often will have a matching set (or single) parent at home where that type of attitude is transferred from. It's amplified in areas of poverty, and school test results and graduation rates mirror the types of families living in the area... Chicago public schools are probably pretty tough places to be honest.

I think money is probably part of the strike, but moreso the guarantee that they even will get paychecks with their jobs more at risk due to new laws, one of which like I said ties standardized test scores to teacher achievement... not really always a fair benchmark but whatever. There are a lot of factors and circumstances that go into laws like that. If some teachers HAVE to be listed as "ineffective," other teachers will be less likely to share creative lesson ideas and collaborate, or teachers with advanced students will have upper hands over remedial teachers who have to worry more about fights breaking out in their rooms more than getting a kid to read a 5 pages in a book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmodVun16Q4

Have you guys actually watched this? Hard to believe people can get so bent out of shape over something so stupid.

I want the government to tell me what to eat so maybe I won't be fat anymore.

Fluffyumpkins wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmodVun16Q4

Have you guys actually watched this? Hard to believe people can get so bent out of shape over something so stupid.

I can't believe people are dying over this. I bet $10,000 most protesters haven't made an effort to watch this video.

Fluffyumpkins wrote:

Fluffyumpkins wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmodVun16Q4

Have you guys actually watched this? Hard to believe people can get so bent out of shape over something so stupid.

I can't believe people are dying over this. I bet $10,000 most protesters haven't made an effort to watch this video.

The truth of the matter is this, the people taking extremist actions over this trailer are people not truly secure in themselves, let alone their faith. If they want respect, they should do it by respectfully speaking out against the movie instead of committing crimes that their very own book condemns.

I saw a lot of red shirts riding bikes around Chicago this weekend. Not a bad way to spend one's vacati-- I mean strike.

Fluffyumpkins wrote:I saw a lot of red shirts riding bikes around Chicago this weekend. Not a bad way to spend one's vacati-- I mean strike.

Red shirts? Did nobody warn them about this?

Congrats to Chicago teachers! The quality of education is unchanged, but at least you're making more money. Oh and teachers that do poorly, your jobs are safe too.

America.

Fluffyumpkins wrote:Congrats to Chicago teachers! The quality of education is unchanged, but at least you're making more money. Oh and teachers that do poorly, your jobs are safe too.

America.

While you do make a good point, you also have to realize that it ISN'T really that fair to tie teacher evaluation to standardized test scores. There are a lot of really good teachers out there bent out of shape about the new evaluation models too. Everyone is kind of upset but most districts wouldn't go on strike about it. However if the enforcers of the new models aren't listening to teacher concerns, I guess they felt it was their option.

You also gotta realize that they're most likely going to have to make up those missed days anyways at the end of the year... kids, by law, have to go to school 180 days. So they essentially just took a little fall break.