The average teacher salary in the Chicago public schools is
$60,788. The starting range is between $53,070
and $79,182. This week, one month into
the school year, the teachers union finally came to terms with the city on a
contract, that would put teachers and students back in the classroom. The teachers got a 16% pay raise as well as
back pay for five of the days that the shirked their duty. Classroom size is still being negotiated.
And in return…..the city of Chicago got…..absolutely nothing.
Chicago graduates roughly 30% of the students that enter in
the first grade. The average Chicagoan
in public school can read at the 4th grade level…while in the 12th
grade. Twenty percent of Chicago public
school graduates go on to college where almost 100% of them fail to graduate.
Ending the teachers strike costs the city of Chicago $1.5
Billion dollars, which the rest of us in Illinois, those of us that CAN read
and write, now have to pay for, with ZERO return on our investment. The teachers union got what it wanted and
Chicago got shit in return. There was no
pledge to better test scores, to improve graduation rates, to improve reading
and math levels…..nothing……the teachers union got theirs and we in Illinois are
once again left paying the bill for the rot in Chicago.
Nothing, we got absolutely nothing.
And we payed $1.5 BILLION for it.
In Illinois…..that appears to be a bargain.
Teaching is one of those fields that difficult to put a good individual performance metric to. Sure in the aggregate the overall graduation rates, test scores etc show a bad picture. But how do you put it down to individual teachers? And even the best teacher can only do some much with students who don't do the reading, the homework, the studying, etc. You can lead a horse to water but.... So while I'm not letting the teachers off the hook, I don't know how to measure such a lop-sided exercise.
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