Chicago Teachers: Apparently a 16 percent raise not good enough

[wjmacguffin]

Are you kidding? The AVERAGE teacher's pay in Chicago is $78,000 a year with great benefits and lots of time off. What job without an education pays that kind of money with those kinds of hours and those kinds of benefits? You're living in a dream world, my friend. Besides, I never said that I wanted to reduce their pay further...I simply think it's absurd to give them raise after raise when their performance SUCKS and the city is broke. It makes no sense at all....none!!!

You're actually mirroring some of the teachers' complaints. They are arguing that, in the middle of a huge budget crisis, why is the mayor demanding longer school hours that will require more costs even if the teachers taught for free? Why isn't he looking into research-based plans for improving student achievement such as tutoring? Emmanuel seems to have locked into one idea and refused to budge.

Think of two things before you judge the teachers:
1) Would you agree to work 90 minutes more each day if your boss said you wouldn't get paid for it?
2) Would you agree to having your job performance and retain/fire status depending on the performance of other coworkers? That's another problem for teachers. The truth people don't like hearing about education is this: You cannot force someone to learn/work. In the business world, a lazy worker is fired. In the education world, a lazy student is blamed on a teacher. With Emmanuel's new performance rating system, teachers are responsible for what their students don't do. Is that fair?