Chicago Teachers Go On Strike

Following in the footsteps of Wisconsin, the IMF riots move from the fringe to the populace -

Chicago teachers began walking the picket line for the first time in 25 years Monday morning at the nation’s third largest school system, leaving parents to scramble for alternatives for their children.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel quickly blasted the strike announcement as “a strike of choice.” He repeatedly declared Sunday night: “My team is available now.” He is expected to hold a news conference Monday morning to turn up the heat more on the union and had already cancelled a fund-raising appearance later in the day.

And why are they striking?

Key disputed issues in the talks were teacher cost of living raises, additional pay for experience, job security in the face of annual school closures and staff shakeups, and a new teacher evaluation process that ties teacher ratings in part to student test score growth.

“Evaluate us on what we do, not on the lives of our children we do not control,” Lewis said Sunday, denouncing the online process by which teacher evaluators were being trained.

CTU officials contend that CPS’ offer of raises over the next four years does not fairly compensate them for the 4 percent raise they lost this past school year and the longer and “harder” school year they will face this school year, with the introduction of a tougher new curriculum.

The union also has pushed for improved working conditions, such as smaller class sizes, more libraries, air-conditioned schools, and more social workers and counselors to address the increasing needs of students surrounded by violence — all big-ticket items. CPS officials contend they are seeking a “fair” contract, with raises for teachers, but are limited by funding and the threat of a $1 billion deficit at the end of this school year.

Reports are filtering in that the union has turned down a $400 Million Deal that included a 16% pay raise on top of an average wage of $76k per year before benefits. You poor, poor mistreated educators. If only someone would give you a raise. Of course not entering this discussion is the quality of the product produced -

I can speak to this because I used to run a company in Chicago. We had to institute a screening test for applicants as it was utterly common to have someone come in for an entry-level job, requiring nothing more than a High School education who could not read, could not write a common business letter and could not make change for a $20 without needing a calculator or computer!

That's ridiculous.

And common.

Anyone that has followed me for any period of time knows of my utter contempt for most public unions and their effect on the economy. Try asking a unionista once 'Just how much money do you think you should get?' and the answer will almost always follow the same line of thinking.

Relative.

'Uh, I need 10% more for this year.' and 'We need a working wage.' and 'It's for the children, we need more.' and 'Don't you know how hard it is?!?'

All of these responses pale in comparison to the capitalist's answer. 'How about $20 an hour?'

Note the differences. The unionista will never, ever be satisfied with his compensation because someone, somewhere will always be making more. Therefore, he must get more. It doesn't matter if the market can support it, the taxpayers should sacrifice more! It doesn't matter if the product is inferior, those lazy parents need to help more! All of their proposed solutions involve more money and blaming someone else.

Ok teachers, how do you propose that works when your State is beyond bankrupt? Your pension fund is reportedly done in 6 years and how about the fact that your credit recently  was in a worse state than Portugal? You can't borrow, you can't raise taxes much without blowing your economy up and there's a limit to how much you can stiff people with bills to pay!

Of course all of this is a scam. The unionistas are being driven by the state to take on the taxpayers, the taxpayers are against the public sector and the banksters laugh all the way to the bank.

Look for the unrest to spread as the bills become harder and harder to cover with faulty paperwork. This is certainly going to be a crazy 4th quarter.

UPDATE: Just to drive home the point that the unions do not merit a pay raise, they deserve a boot out the door for these absolutely abysmal results -

Seventy-nine percent of the 8^th graders in the Chicago Public Schools are not grade-level proficient in reading, according to the U.S. Department of Education, and 80 percent are not grade-level proficient in math.

So 80% are flunking? That matches with what Denninger reported above. But what does this have to do with the strike?

...one of the major issues behind the strike is a new system Chicago plans to use for evaluating public school teachers in which student improvement on standardized tests will count for 40 percent of a teacher’s evaluation. Until now, the evaluations of Chicago public school teachers have been based on what a Chicago Sun Times editorial called a “meaningless checklist.”

I see. The payee wants accountability for their dollars coming in with a 80% failure rate and the unions response is to demand a RAISE!?!

GIVE THEM ALL THE BOOT!