UNION RIPOFF/GREEDY BASTARDS AREN'T THEY?

[Whirlaway]

Chicago Teachers Union Demands 30 Percent Pay Raise
Lindsey BurkeJune 12, 2012 at 3:00 pm(78)

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.

The average teacher in Chicago Public Schools—a district facing a $700 million deficit—makes $71,000 per year before benefits are included. If the district meets union demands and rewards teachers with the requested salary increase, education employees will receive compensation north of $92,000 per year.

According to the Illinois Policy Institute, the average annual income of a family in Chicago is $47,000 per year. If implemented, the 30 percent raise will mean that in nine months, a single teacher in the Chicago Public School system will take home nearly double what the average family in the city earns in a year.

According to the union, 91 percent of its members voted for the ability to strike. That vote gives the union the ability to walk out of public school classrooms as children return to school this fall.

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.

While the union bemoans the longer school day and is demanding a hefty pay raise as a result, taxpayers will be left holding the bill for a 30 percent salary increase and wondering whether $92,000 is appropriate compensation for public school employees.

As Heritage’s Jason Richwine notes, public school teachers should be compensated no better or worse than their similarly skilled private-sector counterparts.

…the teaching profession is not actually underpaid, nor is it an unpopular career choice among college graduates. In fact, total compensation for the average public school teacher is considerably higher than what his or her skills would merit in the private sector.

Creating a teacher compensation system that rewards the best teachers in a fiscally responsible manner is a broadly shared goal. To that end, policymakers should avoid across-the-board pay increases, focusing instead on performance pay by easing restrictions on entering the teaching profession, and basing tenure decisions on performance in the classroom.

Posted in Education, Featured
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/06/12/...ent-pay-raise/

[JD Barleycorn]

Union members are usually well trained and submissive. Their masters in the union leadership usually follow their orders. Let me try this scenario; you are familiar with Sista Soulja and Reverend Wright. Sista Soulja made some outrageous statements about this time in the Clinton camgaign. This gave him an opportunity to smack her down and the press celebrated Clinton's indepedence for speaking out. The last election the Reverend Wright came out swinging against the Jews and made some other outrageous statements. This is the time that Obama threw him under the proverbial bus. Later Reverend Wright admitted that he made the statements to give Obama the public oppportunity to smack him down. I'm not saying that it is true but this looks like a golden opportunity for Obama, Rahm, and their slimey ilk to score points by being seen standing up to the unions. Would the unions sacrifice the students in a political ploy? You betcha!

[joe bloe]

These people are already overpaid. Most teachers are dimwits that can't get a decent job in the private sector. The old saying that those who can't do, teach, is very often true. Teacher unions don't give a damn about educating the children. They only care about pay and benefits. They're not striking for more books or better computers.

Chicago spends over thirteen thousand dollars a year per student. Most of that money doesn't even go directly to education. Most of it goes to "administrative costs." That's why private schools can educate children for half the cost of public schools and do a better job; they are much less wasteful.

Public worker unions should be illegal.

[JD Barleycorn]

In defense of some teachers there are many who are into their second or third careers. They generally resist or do not belong to unions. They also teach at private schools. Like finding assholes at work, you can find the union hacks around the school who are just puting in their time.

[joe bloe]

Originally Posted by JD Barleycorn

Union members are usually well trained and submissive. Their masters in the union leadership usually follow their orders. Let me try this scenario; you are familiar with Sista Soulja and Reverend Wright. Sista Soulja made some outrageous statements about this time in the Clinton camgaign. This gave him an opportunity to smack her down and the press celebrated Clinton's indepedence for speaking out. The last election the Reverend Wright came out swinging against the Jews and made some other outrageous statements. This is the time that Obama threw him under the proverbial bus. Later Reverend Wright admitted that he made the statements to give Obama the public oppportunity to smack him down. I'm not saying that it is true but this looks like a golden opportunity for Obama, Rahm, and their slimey ilk to score points by being seen standing up to the unions.

I think you may very well be right. Rahm Emanuel is obviously directly connected to Obama. Obama has seen the recent results in Wisconsin of Scott Walker, standing up to the unions.

This would be a perfect Sister Soulja moment. I wouldn't be surprised if this whole thing wasn't coordinated with the union. The union makes ridiculous demands, knowing full well they won't be met, just so Emanuel can look good by turning them down. The timing is just too perfect, with the election, to be a coincidence.

[i'va biggen]

Originally Posted by JD Barleycorn

In defense of some teachers there are many who are into their second or third careers. They generally resist or do not belong to unions. They also teach at private schools. Like finding assholes at work, you can find the union hacks around the school who are just puting in their time.

If you taught those thugs in Chicago you would need more money,,,,

[JD Barleycorn]

Highest paid teachers in the country with excellent healthcare and retirement benefits. Besides who need healthcare benefits when you have Obamacare coming to make your day?

[i'va biggen]

Romney is going to repeal it on his first agenda when he takes office.Oh wait he will keep part of it..

[Whirlaway]

Average pay = $71,000 / 8 working months = $8,875/month pay

or, $106,500 annualized salary !

And that DOES NOT include their very generous benefits !!!!!!!!!!

[Whirlaway]

Last year, Obama's U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stated that America’s public school teachers are “desperately underpaid” and called for a doubling of teachers’ wages. A similar theme is touted frequently by politicians, media, and education unions.

WTF !

[Submodo]

$13,000 per student per year.

Student-to-teacher ratio (avg) 22:1

So, $286,000 per year to run the classroom.

Minus the $71,000 + benes = say total $100,000 for the teacher compensation.

Teacher comp is only 35% of the education costs?

[Guest032516]

Originally Posted by joe bloe

These people are already overpaid. Most teachers are dimwits that can't get a decent job in the private sector.

You're confusing cause and effect. This is a good example of getting what you paid for.

Teaching jobs are relatively low-paying, so they do not attract the top students out of high school. The teaching colleges are oten filled with the bottom third of the high school class. Those closer to the top of the class go into colleges where they can pursue science, medicine, business, engineering - all of the disciplines that pay better.

If you want better teachers, pay them better. Make it a job that college students will want and will be afraid to lose. With that in mind, take away their job security. No tenure in grammar schools and high schools. Tenure evolved many years ago in the universities because professors would often be sacked for teaching controversial ideas that challenged the teachings/ideologies of the dominant religion or political group (i.e., democracy vs. nobility, evolution, atheism, etc.). While tenure is important at the university level, it has no business being used to protect an ineffective high school geometry teacher that likes to smoke dope.

Originally Posted by joe bloe

The old saying that those who can't do, teach, is very often true.

OK, You butchered that one. The old saying is: "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach."

And it is meant to refer to people who drop out of OTHER professions (where they aren't doing well or aren't happy) to become teachers. In other words, they change careers. So, an engineer gets tired of working for Qualcomm and he/she teaches freshman engineering. Or a lawyer gets sick of billable hour requirements and becomes a law school professor.

The saying doesn't refer to people whose chosen profession ALREADY IS teaching. If a teacher "can't", then he can't really go become a teacher, can he?

Originally Posted by joe bloe

They only care about pay and benefits. They're not striking for more books or better computers.

Yes. And the ski is blue. Rarely does anyone strike for anything other than pay and benefits. The UAW strikes to get better pay, not to insist that Ford or GM put better safety equipment in their cars.

Workers strike for better pay and benefits because that is something they have some measure of control over. But that doesn't mean they don't care about those other, secondary issues, like books and computers for students - or anti-lock brakes and stronger seat belts in cars.

Originally Posted by joe bloe

Chicago spends over thirteen thousand dollars a year per student. Most of that money doesn't even go directly to education. Most of it goes to "administrative costs." That's why private schools can educate children for half the cost of public schools and do a better job; they are much less wasteful.

Good point, so reduce the admin staff and take all that extra money and pump it back into higher teacher pay, while simultaneously reducing or eliminating teacher job security.

[Submodo]

Actually, in many instances teaching is relatively HIGH paying.

Normalize for days worked, generous benefits, good retirement packages, heck the ability to get retirement package at all.

With just a 4 year BA degree in English, math, history, foreign language, music...and a MAT (1 year) its a very good compensation package. And job security like very few other fields.

Even in the sciences, with 5 years of college, teaching job will be better in MANY instances once all is figured in.

Working conditions may suck, depending on district/student base obviously.

[JD Barleycorn]

You know you could try to make the same case for our soldiers. They don't get paid nearly enough. Maybe we should pay them as much as teachers. If we double their pay then they will be twice as good is that what I understand you're saying?
Teaching, like the military, is more a calling than a job. When you have so many there for the job the children suffer. I would fire them all and let them reapply for their jobs. They can justify their rehire and they lose their tenure and senority. They are a public union. Yes, the kids will be out of school for a few weeks but this will solve the problem rather than kicking it down the road and still getting crappy teachers.


Personally I could find a job with my math skills but I prefer to work with what I like. This is where someone like Doove says something about young girls....

[Guest123018-4]

Are any of you teachers?

Generally speaking, teachers are not paid enough and the administration level is way tooo top heavy .
School districts saddle themselves with bonds to jpay for extremely expensive school buildings that are much more expensive than a comparable commercial building.

The fact is we spend more each year on education and are getting dimminishing reults. The method of funding our schools is awful as it is based on attendance rather than results.

The solution to Chicago's issue is to fire them all and hire new teachers. There are over 23 million unemplyed and out of that number they ought to be able to find at least some that are qualified to teach.