Highest Paid Teachers Reject 16% Raise - Go on Strike.

[Tyrannical]

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Of course not. They do it for the money, lifetime job security, and ~180 work days a year

Eliminate public schools and go to a subsidized all private model. We need public education about as much as we need public gas stations or grocery stores.

[Coito ergo sum]

556584_10151139265519712_1527850658_n.jpg

Of course not. They do it for the money, lifetime job security, and ~180 work days a year

Eliminate public schools and go to a subsidized all private model. We need public education about as much as we need public gas stations or grocery stores.

....careful...some folks do think we need public gas stations and public grocery stores!

[Gerald McGrew]

I've posted the link twice, which stays that pay increases are a major sticking point

Same mistake, over and over and over and over. I'm done.

[Coito ergo sum]

I've posted the link twice, which stays that pay increases are a major sticking point

Same mistake, over and over and over and over. I'm done.

It's your mistake. And, I don't give a fuck.

[MrJonno]

....careful...some folks do think we need public gas stations and public grocery stores!

Not me I don't think we should have any gas (petrol) stations public or private at all. Petrol can be delivered to public transport depots and anyone emergency services who genuinely needs a car can get their petrol for free.

As for public grocery stores, considering Western agriculture is about as a close to free enterprise as North Korea is is I'm not sure there would be an awful lot of difference

[Gawdzilla Sama]

That salary sounds high, but I don't know how the cost of living differs from Indianapolis.

If the "average" in Chicago is $47,000, and they are making an average of $76,000 as teachers, they are making 1.62 times the Chicago average....for working about 180 to 210 days per year. And, that wasn't including benefits.

How many hours per day? How many days a year do they get paid?

[Coito ergo sum]

That salary sounds high, but I don't know how the cost of living differs from Indianapolis.

If the "average" in Chicago is $47,000, and they are making an average of $76,000 as teachers, they are making 1.62 times the Chicago average....for working about 180 to 210 days per year. And, that wasn't including benefits.

How many hours per day? How many days a year do they get paid?

They get paid salaries -- and generally teachers have the option of spreading their paychecks over 12 months, or 9 months. The school day in Chicago is 5 hours and 45 minutes, and 20 minutes of that is lunch and recess. So 3 hours of non-class time work on top of that and you have a normal 8 hour work day (plus time for lunch), with three months off, and huge numbers of holidays and such.

[Kristie]

That salary sounds high, but I don't know how the cost of living differs from Indianapolis.

If the "average" in Chicago is $47,000, and they are making an average of $76,000 as teachers, they are making 1.62 times the Chicago average....for working about 180 to 210 days per year. And, that wasn't including benefits.

How many hours per day? How many days a year do they get paid?

School is in session in most states for 180 days a school year. Most schools are in session for around 6 hours, but teachers are scheduled to get there half an hour before school starts and leave half an hour after school ends. There is a 30 minute or so lunch 'break', but at most schools, teachers take turns being lunch room monitors. Well, that's elementary school. High schools probably do get closer to an hour. The tricky part is in calculating the actual number of hours worked. Teachers spend countless hours drafting lesson plans, creating projects, grading papers, working with kids after school that need extra help and communicating via phone, conference or email with parents. That's why this job is salaried and not hourly.

[Coito ergo sum]

My only quibble with what you wrote, Kristie, is the use of the word "countless." They do work some number of hours for lesson plans, projects and papers, but much of their lesson plans are based on pre-set models that they tweek, and a history teacher teaching the same grade year after year will not have to reinvent the wheel every year. Grading papers on standardized and multiple choice testing is not time consuming and often automated, and even in a 6 hour school day, some of the day is left open for teachers to use as nonclass time to do other stuff. I do not accept the claim that teachers toil into the night every night and all weekend long, working 70 hours per week.

We can all remember hour school days -- I had plenty of teachers who hardly worked while they were supposed to be teaching in class. How many "film strips" and "videos" did we all sit through as students -- remember the joy we'd all feel when the teacher announced that we were going to watch a movie or a video in class? Why did the students feel that joy? Because there would be no risk of actually having to do anything in class! There are plenty of times during school weeks when nothing is assigned and there are no tests to grade.

Heck, I had a math teacher in 8th grade who "didn't believe in homework." I will always remember the shock and outrage that my dad (an electrical engineer by trade) expressed. What kind of a math teacher doesn't think homework is necessary? LOL. I had an architectural drafting teacher in high school that hardly said a word in class and we just sat their teaching ourselves to draft.

And, I went to a pretty darn good school district as a young 'un. Obviously, some teachers are better than others. But, to call them overworked is, I think, a tad of an overstatement.

[Svartalf]

Isn't that Chi town? a town in the league of San Francisco?

[Tyrannical]

That salary sounds high, but I don't know how the cost of living differs from Indianapolis.

If the "average" in Chicago is $47,000, and they are making an average of $76,000 as teachers, they are making 1.62 times the Chicago average....for working about 180 to 210 days per year. And, that wasn't including benefits.

How many hours per day? How many days a year do they get paid?

School is in session in most states for 180 days a school year. Most schools are in session for around 6 hours, but teachers are scheduled to get there half an hour before school starts and leave half an hour after school ends. There is a 30 minute or so lunch 'break', but at most schools, teachers take turns being lunch room monitors. Well, that's elementary school. High schools probably do get closer to an hour. The tricky part is in calculating the actual number of hours worked. Teachers spend countless hours drafting lesson plans, creating projects, grading papers, working with kids after school that need extra help and communicating via phone, conference or email with parents. That's why this job is salaried and not hourly.

Of course teachers work hard, but why do Chicago teachers deserve to be the best paid in the entire nation? Some of the best performing school districts in the US have have amongst the lowest paid teachers.

[Gerald McGrew]

I personally know 3 people who are public school teachers (one of them is a family member). The idea that they only work during school hours, or only 1/2 hour on either side of the school day is ridiculous. They work nights, weekends, holidays, etc., and in less affluent school districts, they spend their own money for supplies for the classroom, and sometimes even for the kids who can't afford basic things like notebook paper and pencils.

[Gerald McGrew]

Of course teachers work hard, but why do Chicago teachers deserve to be the best paid in the entire nation? Some of the best performing school districts in the US have have amongst the lowest paid teachers.

IMO, the fact that $76k per year makes you "the best paid in the nation" in a profession that (nowdays) requires you to have a masters degree is pathetic, especially when we add in the fact that they're responsible for educating the nation's youth.

[Coito ergo sum]

I personally know 3 people who are public school teachers (one of them is a family member). The idea that they only work during school hours, or only 1/2 hour on either side of the school day is ridiculous.

Nobody said they only worked during school hours.

They work nights, weekends, holidays, etc., and in less affluent school districts, they spend their own money for supplies for the classroom, and sometimes even for the kids who can't afford basic things like notebook paper and pencils.

Sometimes they work nights and weekends - rarely holidays, unless they choose to save work until then. But, they also get 2 months off. But, if they have a 5 hour and 45 minute school day, like in Chicago, I would expect 3 more hours a day, or 15 hours a week, to cover a full day. One can get a lot of paper-grading and class prep done in that time. And, if you work 9 or 10 hours a day for 180 days out of the year and summers off for the wages and benefits their getting in Chicago, I would think that'd be minimum. Other professions do that and more. I won't accuse them of working less than anyone else, but they're being fairly compensated and the rest of their complaints are bullshit.

I've heard of the spending their own money for supplies thing -- I suspect it's exaggerated, and it's certainly not something the school districts require.

[Coito ergo sum]

Of course teachers work hard, but why do Chicago teachers deserve to be the best paid in the entire nation? Some of the best performing school districts in the US have have amongst the lowest paid teachers.

IMO, the fact that $76k per year makes you "the best paid in the nation" in a profession that (nowdays) requires you to have a masters degree is pathetic, especially when we add in the fact that they're responsible for educating the nation's youth.

They aren't doing a good job at educating the nation's youth. They're graduating a disproportionate number of imbeciles.

LOL - yes, let's raise the salaries for incoming teachers to $100,000 a year, and put them in the top 5%. Then we'll see ACTUAL intelligent and accomplished people looking at teaching quite seriously, and the drive the current crop of dopey teacher college graduates out of the system.

That's the thing -- teaching our youth is quite important. But, the current crop of teachers suck and aren't the best and the brightest.