Click to see

Click to see
Obama countdown

Monday, September 10, 2012

Does Chicago get their money's worth from teachers?

  So Chicago teachers are out on strike.
  Did you know starting pay for CPS is over $50,000?
  This is for a four year degree.
  From an earlier post we did this year:
What I might see as decent, another might view as indecent.   For example, Chicago teachers, a first year teacher in Chicago schoolswill make between $47,000 and $57.000 a year with no experience.   The schedule goes up to $115,000 a year for a 36 week a year job. This does not include fringe benefits;  in fact, without fringe benefits, in Chicago these teachers make these salaries:
  • An Instrumental Music teacher $189,434 for a 9 month work year.
  • A Phys-ed teacher over $1,000/day to watch freshmen do push ups.
  • A second-grade teacher $17,000/month to teach coloring between the lines.
  • A Drivers-ed teacher $130/hr to teach teenagers how to parallel park.
  • Five teachers more than $20,000/mo.
  • 4,706 Teachers more than the average family MD ($11,779/mo).
  With fringe benefits:
Add about $48,000 each for state pension contribution (30% of salary) and at least $15,000/yr health insurance benefits. Then include 15 days sick leave payable at retirement if not used, 2 personal days/yr and up to $300,000 payment to the Teachers Retirement System by the local school district if they decide to take early retirement (see “Anatomy of a Teachers Contract” here).
  And what does Chicago get for their money, though some complain that suburban Illinois schools' top wage is upwards of $132,000 for classroom teachers?
  This, from Willow Creek Education Initiative:
The problems in Chicago Public schools are staggering. Take a look at these facts: 
48% of elementary students in CPS are failing. 
68% of high school students in CPS are failing. 
Low-income students account for 86% of CPS (409,000 students). 
Lawmakers can actually determine the number of prison beds they will need based on third grade literacy rates. 
The CPS drop-out rate is 42.5%. Dropouts have less earning power and are more susceptible to end up in prison, on welfare, and continue the cycle of poverty.
  Willow Creek has provided a video:


Explaining the Inequalities in Education in Chicago from Willow Chicago on Vimeo.
  In fact, 319 students have been shot in Chicago so far this year.
  Free meals. Social justice.
  Regarding the struggle for reform:
 Half of the 411,000 children in the Chicago public schools never graduate and tens of thousands receive diplomas even though they are scarcely able to read, write, or compute. Recognition of the deplorable shape of the city's schools led to the reform efforts that resulted in the creation of local school councils composed primarily of parents. While other school systems have attempted reforms on a large scale, none has attempted to decentralize as thoroughly or as rapidly as has Chicago. A chronic lack of funds and enormous social problems have undermined the Chicago schools over the years, but there are other barriers to reform that come out of poorly written legislation, politics, and the problems of a swollen bureaucracy.
  In this case, we can find agreement with Rahm Emanuel, mayor of Chicago who is trying to reform the schools and increased the woefully short school day for students, if not for teachers.
  But he's up against this. This is from 2010:

  What do we want? MONEY! When do we want it? NOW!

No comments:

Post a Comment