CPS Strike

[greg775]

It's pretty easy to fix CPS actually but nobody wants to think about it. Raise taxes in Chicago. The rest of us pay a pretty penny where we live for good schools. My taxes in Chicago were 25% of what they are in a good school district. You want great schools? You have to pay.

Interesting. Good post.

[caulfield12]

Finally, let's look at the scope of what we are trying to accomplish with the schools. Lately the social emotional character development of kids is being thrusted on the schools. http://www.casel.org/ We aren't really into taking anything out of the school day, but we keep adding. Does society really want me to be responsible for the emotional development of a kid I see 48 minutes a day? How am I going to have any meaningful impact on the social development of a kid who goes home to a dysfunctional family? When I was at my last school 15% of the students had a parent who had been in jail or prison, close to 50% had a family member or close friend in jail. And I am going to be judged on that child's character? I take seriously the fact that I may be the best role model that student sees each day and I do my best to help guide my students. They know when I'm talking to them like a dad and appreciate that. I would rather throw that in for free than be expected to and evaluated on how well the student's turn out.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_emotional_learning

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/it...earning_why_now

 

 

Therein lies part of the problem, expecting teachers to also function as social workers/counselors.

 

I taught for four years in the Kansas City MO Public School District and we had a serious fight nearly every week. Pretty much every month, at least one student was directly affected by a murder or violent crime. One student stands out...he said his mom was always having sex with her boyfriend and there was never any food in the house, there were some nights I heard the cafeteria workers allowed him to stay in the cafeteria or not go home at night they were so concerned by his home environment.

 

One of the ironies is that many of my students were born with crack addiction...and, of course they were over-prescribed ritalin to calm them down, turning many of them into zombies. Of course, if you allowed a student to sleep in your classroom (even if he had to work from 3 pm until 11 pm to 1 a.m. the previous night), you could be brought up for child abuse/negligence.

 

I also had an economics class with 38 students when the district cap was supposed to be 33 in a classroom. Not ideal.

 

A Fulbright Scholar didn't make it through the first month of teaching in our school...he was "bum rushed" because he was blocking the door to stop the students from leaving early at the end of the day and the situation became so confrontational and uncomfortable with that particular student that he ended up quitting.

 

And let's not get started on breaking up fights with girls (we were basically told never to intervene because you could get accused of inappropriate contact) with long fingernails/hair extensions...22 1/2 hours teaching hours per week, usually the one planning period each day for my first two years was given up to substitute because the absentee/attrition rate in our district was so high (some positions went unfilled, others had teachers barely hanging on for their pensions that for instance were locked in their lab closets while the lab was set on fire, for example, I distinctly remember another teacher having his computer taken away due to an allegation of having child porn on it and him trying to hold onto the monitor idiotically, not to mention female students saying he tried to look under the table if they were wearing a skirt), and then I was coaching volleyball/basketball/soccer in addition to taking 2 1/2 hour classes for my master's degree 2-3 nights per week...and then I consistently had 2-4 different plans to do as well (for history, you have to teach American History, World History, Economics, American Government, Sociology, Psychology, World Geography). No surprise that only about 15-20% of teachers can survive that environment for more than 5 years, and that's what it felt like sometimes, a combination of survival/babysitting.

 

One year, the seniors in our school that actually had an interest in college were averaging about 12.5-13.5 on their ACT prep test work. And that was the BEST 25% of those classes, god knows about the rest of them, and they felt so hopeless and/or unable to pay for college that many of them didn't even try despite the school paying KAPLAN a ton of money to improve their ACT scores. There was just no real world application to them, many of them already were parents at age 15-18 and the only thing they really cared about was economically providing for their families...sad situation, but reality.

 

And then you're making about $2000 a month take home after union dues, pension payments, FICA, medicare/medicaid, etc. When we substituted, it was around $75 gross for 1 1/2 hours but only ended up around $30 after taxes, something ridiculous like that.

 

At any rate, I always enjoy hearing the judgments and wisecracks from those who have never been inside a classroom and don't have the first idea about it...the program I was in, there was an actual medical doctor (neurosurgeon) who gave up his position to teach (our program was very similar to Teach for America) and he didn't last because his expectations were so high, the student ability level/morale/attitude so low that they simply decided to join together and accuse him of hitting or touching them in order to get him sent to "teacher jail" and he became so frustrated with the whole situation he just gave up...granted, there are certainly times when students had legit cases, but in my school, there were just as many when students knew they could screw up a teacher's career with a simple allegation backed up by just a couple of classmates. Not an easy environment, where any "tough discipline" leads to an inevitable accusation so teachers just give in and let the inmates run the asylum, so to speak.

Edited April 10, 2016 by caulfield12

[Texsox]

The allegations from students is a worry that all too many teachers worry about. I've been able to teach in two well respected school districts with some good kids. Currently I am teaching advanced placement classes with mostly college bound or military bound students.

[caulfield12]

I'm almost bored because the students in my Chinese school are TOO good, but they don't particularly enjoy debate/critical thinking (of course, they're miles ahead of US students on math, physics and chemistry, with students getting teased for anything below 740 on SAT Math).

 

We have A-levels, IB, AP and International Foundation Year. Seven of our seniors got into Oxford/Cambridge, another 8 to UCLA, 5 to USC, University of Chicago, Cornell, Notre Dame, UNC, UC-Berkeley, Georgetown, UVA, etc. The students in IB and even some in A-levels look down on AP and believe it's not as academically rigorous, haha. Talk about the opposite of teaching in the inner city, where I had refugee/asylum students from 13 different countries on my girls' soccer team.

 

I think the average SAT score for the IB program is around 2150-2175.

Edited April 10, 2016 by caulfield12

[Chisoxfn]

It's pretty easy to fix CPS actually but nobody wants to think about it. Raise taxes in Chicago. The rest of us pay a pretty penny where we live for good schools. My taxes in Chicago were 25% of what they are in a good school district. You want great schools? You have to pay.

I think those taxes tend to go into the facilities vs. compensation for teachers (in many instances). At least that is how it works in California.

[southsider2k5]

The CPS is a disaster, but the problem is no one wants to give any ground where the problems should be fixed.

 

The biggest problem right now is that the schools do not reflect the loss of population in the City of Chicago, and the movement of people out of certain areas. They have schools that are at as little as 1/7th of their capacity. As of the start of school this year, 20 high schools were less than 1/3 filled. That insane. The neighborhoods don't want to lose their schools, and the teachers union doesn't want to lose the jobs, but the reality is there is a ton of money being absolutely wasted there. They have got to come up with a big picture plan to balance out schools and enrollment first.

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-chic...1102-story.html

[Chisoxfn]

By the way, lots of good discussion in here and I'll be the first to admit, I'm not the answer man. I do know that a lot of studies have proven the fact that money doesn't fix education and the reality is, as Tex and Caufields stories have both alluded, the more lower income the district, the larger the uphill battle to educate (from a test score perspective, etc). Reality is, the more affluent the area, generally speaking, the more importance put on education and in general the better role models the individuals have around them and thus they are in a better position to succeed (and can afford more slip-ups in theory).

 

In fact, the reality is, the biggest way to improve education in lower income areas would be by strengthening the family unit and having more parental involvement, etc. Hard to do in the case that you have stats where 1/3 African American males will be incarcerated (as discussed previously), when crime is high, and when the reality is, you struggle to know where your next meal is and in many cases, don't even feel safe at home. Think about how stress can impact any of us and than imagine whatever we are stressing about (with the exception of health...health is everything) and it probably pails in comparison to what the average 13 year old growing up in a really really bad neighborhood.

[RockRaines]

I think those taxes tend to go into the facilities vs. compensation for teachers (in many instances). At least that is how it works in California.

The tax revenue in Illinois has a direct correlation to the quality of public schools in that district. Chicago proper has very low property taxes comparatively to the areas that have good schools. People who want to move to areas with good schools (out of chicago) tend to pay quite a bit more in taxes willingly.

[bmags]

Karen Lewis called Rauner an ISIS recruit and a liar yesterday. Further showing how strong of a mayoral candidate she was.

[StrangeSox]

Sometimes she says some bafflingly stupid things.

[RockRaines]

Sometimes she says some bafflingly stupid things.

Shes a moron.

[southsider2k5]

Karen Lewis called Rauner an ISIS recruit and a liar yesterday. Further showing how strong of a mayoral candidate she was.

 

It struck me listening to a clip of it exactly how Donald Trump like she sounded.

[bmags]

It makes her and the teachers union look week, if the only sense of power they can claim is making personal insults.

 

I hope an independent arbitrator gets called in. I don't trust the children in charge to make judgments at this point. Claypool is a fiscal idiot for signing that bonds deal, lewis is playing demagogue, and the state doesn't even have a budget to negotiate on.

[Jake]

Interesting point about Chicago taxes. It's also unique in that the city doesn't have an income tax. NYC, to which salaries and such have been compared, taxes incomes at 3-4% (modestly progressive), and that's on top of a state income tax that can go as high as 10% for top earners. Where I live in Ohio there is a 2.5% city income tax (and a progressive state income tax that ranges from 0-5.5%).

[Jenksismyhero]

It's been 90 days, time to start threatening another strike. Good God I wish the CPS would implode so we could start over. I'm so glad i'm not a parent in that s*** system.

[Harry Chappas]

It's been 90 days, time to start threatening another strike. Good God I wish the CPS would implode so we could start over. I'm so glad i'm not a parent in that s*** system.

 

A friend of mine retired at 53. She will collect $80,000 next year and has essentially a cost adjusted annuity for the rest of her life.

 

 

 

 

[maggsmaggs]

A friend of mine retired at 53. She will collect $80,000 next year and has essentially a cost adjusted annuity for the rest of her life.

For round number sakes, let's say she lives until she is 83. Without adjusting for COL increases, she will receive $2.4 million worth of pension payments (actually higher because of the COL adjustments). For that $2.4 million, because CPS had been picking up 7% of the 9% portion of her salary that goes toward a pension, she paid 2% of her salary each year toward that $2.4 million. This, in a nutshell, is why I have no sympathy for the CPS teachers threatening to strike.

[bmags]

What I dislike heavily on CTU strike strategy is how they group their contract demand issues with classroom improvement issues. And so while it seems nobile (bringing attention to the classroom conditions for students) it convolutes the argument and knowingly tries to pin city/taxpayer on the argument of "you are going to vote against giving kids more desks?"

 

 

[ptatc]

For round number sakes, let's say she lives until she is 83. Without adjusting for COL increases, she will receive $2.4 million worth of pension payments (actually higher because of the COL adjustments). For that $2.4 million, because CPS had been picking up 7% of the 9% portion of her salary that goes toward a pension, she paid 2% of her salary each year toward that $2.4 million. This, in a nutshell, is why I have no sympathy for the CPS teachers threatening to strike.

The only slight sympathy I have is that they want to make the teachers pay their portion of the pension (which they should) in too fast of a time period. Imagine your boss cutting your pay by 7%. It is not the teachers fault that the idiotic politicians decided to pay the teachers portion a long time ago. They should slow the process of cutting their pay.

[Harry Chappas]

The other item of note is that school enrollment drops and as such people lose their job.

 

This is from last year but will most likely be the same story this year.

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/ct-chicago-p...1023-story.html

 

If the students do not exist, it is not a budget cut yet that is what the CTU wants you to believe.

 

 

Edited August 10, 2016 by Harry Chappas

[bmags]

I'm sympathetic to that too but if they get to the stage of the negotiations where that is the only sticking point that would be huge progress. Instead we are in the situation where the we have huge debt responsibility with declining school enrollment, and the teachers union responds by telling the city to change their TIF policies and that will cure everything.

[maggsmaggs]

The only slight sympathy I have is that they want to make the teachers pay their portion of the pension (which they should) in too fast of a time period. Imagine your boss cutting your pay by 7%. It is not the teachers fault that the idiotic politicians decided to pay the teachers portion a long time ago. They should slow the process of cutting their pay.

You are absolutely correct. IIRC, CPS had at one time proposed a contract with pension payment increase phase-ins.

[Jenksismyhero]

What's more appalling here too is that everyone else but the teachers have sacrificed. The State has funded more than they wanted to. The City has raised taxes when it didn't want to, and CPS itself is making cuts to meet the balanced budget.

 

And yet the teachers are like, nope, f*** you, if you touch our salaries we're going to strike. Also, won't someone think of the children!