Anonymous
Post 09/11/2012 08:47     Subject: Chicago teachers are making me sick

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:People who vote 90% democrat deserve to have children with no future. All those sloppy union teachers out picketing in sweatpants showing off their slovenly physiques should get a raise and continue their assault on the next generation of moron leftists and dependents. Makes it easier for my kids to be in the 1 %. The idiots just take themselves out of the game voluntarily.


And people who can't produce a cogent, on-topic argument ought not argue anything at all. Since you write in pre-chewed soundbites, I've bolded the irrelevant parts of your anti-union (I think? What you're so pissed about isn't clear.) screed. I've italicized the part that talks about you.

Unions are an easy target for people who feel powerless against a business world that could care less whether they live or die ground beneath a machine. Students with happy, well-educated, well-compensated teachers with autonomy perform better. Seriously, for all of you simpletons who think that teaching is only the hours in front of the classroom, you are sorely mistaken. Grading, planning, additional training, interacting with parents, shopping - do you know how much your kid's teacher spends on supplies? - this is several more hours than "just" teaching.


Not the PP, but I know very well how many hours go into it. I'm a teacher. But I'm still anti-union. I want to be treated as and seen as a professional, but the union makes that very difficult.
Anonymous
Post 09/11/2012 08:40     Subject: Chicago teachers are making me sick

Anonymous wrote:People who vote 90% democrat deserve to have children with no future. All those sloppy union teachers out picketing in sweatpants showing off their slovenly physiques should get a raise and continue their assault on the next generation of moron leftists and dependents. Makes it easier for my kids to be in the 1 %. The idiots just take themselves out of the game voluntarily.

We are all equal, but some are more equal than others.
But why punish the children for their parents voting habits.
Can we rather instead punish the children whose parents lack a sense of fashion, have skew teeth, are bold, drive over the speed limit, stutter, etc etc
Anonymous
Post 09/10/2012 21:27     Subject: Chicago teachers are making me sick

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:As a former CPS teacher, I have to say that unless YOU have been a CPS teacher, you have no business having any opinion. The fact that the schools are horrible is not because teachers aren't doing their job. Yes, there are some teachers that are terrible, just like EVERY OTHER SCHOOL DISTRICT IN THE COUNTRY. But every single one of my former colleagues busted their ass to do the best job with the meager resources and support they received. So unless you actually know what you are talking about, I suggest you STFU.


You are a great representative of your cause.


Not to mention an obviously well-educated writer and thinker. (Ha Ha).

If this poster is representative of Chicago public school teachers, I can see why the poor kids are in trouble.
Anonymous
Post 09/10/2012 21:17     Subject: Chicago teachers are making me sick

http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d10/tables/dt10_190.asp?referrer=list

I can't speak to Chicago, but I can read a spreadsheet. This table shows a 34% increase in per pupil spending (constant $) over the past 15 years, nationally. I would expect similar data for Chicago.

Teachers may say "well it's not getting to the classroom" and that may be so. But Illinois is a crooked and broke little place--it's our Greece--and there are tough choices to be made (after several decades of avoidance.)

We'll see much more of this in the days ahead. Even right here in rarified MoCo (anyone see today's story about lack of private sector job growth in suburban MD?)

It all ties together.
Anonymous
Post 09/10/2012 21:08     Subject: Chicago teachers are making me sick

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:One of my friends is a CPS elementary teacher. Here's what she said about the issue:
The Board of Ed wants a 5 year contract with 2% raise the 1st year, then up to 2% each year after that based increased test scores, grades, & parent review or in my case - principal and parent review (I have a brand new principal with NO experience & she doesn't ever leave the office so she hasn't a clue what we do. She has NO experience ever dealing with children 3 to 13 in education). They want to get rid of capping off class size - so far I have 30 2nd graders (5th grade has 38 in her classroom right now, no aide and Kindergarten is full time with 35, no aide), and the BoE wants to eliminate all step or lane raises counting years of service and set the salary the same for everyone regardless of how much schooling you've had or how many years you've been in the system so basically pay everyone the same even though most of us have at least one or two Masters degrees. Not looking pretty at all.

The parents ARE in an uproar! They've joined us at rallies and they've formed groups to protest what he's doing to our children. Rahm could care less as long as he's known as the dude who broke up one of the largest unions here and made education what he thinks it should be. To top that off, he's mandating recess for all schools - even the schools without playgrounds (not sure how that works out for them) and schools in high crime areas in which shootings happen day, night, all the time (Heaven help these children). He says "it's good for the kids to get out." I don't care so much for the raise, but it's the working conditions I care about. He wants teachers/staff to work 15 days longer a year, 3 hours more a day without paying for the time. He's set the schedule for us to teach 7 hours and then meet with parents for 5 hours immediately afterwards for conference twice a year. Wanna bet we're not going to be the most pleasant people?




Now, I disagree with her on some things (DC has a similar recess requirement with crappy facilities as well), but to totally get rid of step increases and incentives for graduate degrees? And not capping class size?

Anyway, this is what she's heard. She's worried and upset about the whole thing and hates that this is going on.


That is always the point where teachers lose me. I will defend you like crazy on working more than 10 months a year or only 7-8 hours a day but to base pay simply on education level is ridiculous. Please.


Why? That's been a standard practice of government classification and compensation models for at least 30 years. Across the board. Not just teachers. There are several reasons for that. The standard one is that years of education are seen as equivalent to years of on the job training. The other, particularly relevant with teaching, is that outcome measures show better performance by teachers who have more education.
Anonymous
Post 09/10/2012 20:49     Subject: Chicago teachers are making me sick

Anonymous wrote:People who vote 90% democrat deserve to have children with no future. All those sloppy union teachers out picketing in sweatpants showing off their slovenly physiques should get a raise and continue their assault on the next generation of moron leftists and dependents. Makes it easier for my kids to be in the 1 %. The idiots just take themselves out of the game voluntarily.


And people who can't produce a cogent, on-topic argument ought not argue anything at all. Since you write in pre-chewed soundbites, I've bolded the irrelevant parts of your anti-union (I think? What you're so pissed about isn't clear.) screed. I've italicized the part that talks about you.

Unions are an easy target for people who feel powerless against a business world that could care less whether they live or die ground beneath a machine. Students with happy, well-educated, well-compensated teachers with autonomy perform better. Seriously, for all of you simpletons who think that teaching is only the hours in front of the classroom, you are sorely mistaken. Grading, planning, additional training, interacting with parents, shopping - do you know how much your kid's teacher spends on supplies? - this is several more hours than "just" teaching.
Anonymous
Post 09/10/2012 17:27     Subject: Chicago teachers are making me sick

None of this noise about unions, standardized testing, merit-based pay etc will have any real effect on our public school system one way or another. The fact is that most Americans do not really value education. We say we do, but we don't. We worship celebrities, entertainers and "reality" show stars. Until we make education a real priority, most of our public schools will be sub-standard.
Anonymous
Post 09/10/2012 17:16     Subject: Chicago teachers are making me sick

People who vote 90% democrat deserve to have children with no future. All those sloppy union teachers out picketing in sweatpants showing off their slovenly physiques should get a raise and continue their assault on the next generation of moron leftists and dependents. Makes it easier for my kids to be in the 1 %. The idiots just take themselves out of the game voluntarily.
Anonymous
Post 09/10/2012 16:39     Subject: Chicago teachers are making me sick

Anonymous wrote:Sorry to tell this to the ignorants, in professional fiels education counts.
You cannot practice law as a licensed attorney without a degree. If you want to sell your services as a tax lawyer without a degree, then go for it

Nurses have to have education and get paid in relation to their education. So do doctors and brain surgeons and gynacologists etc


You are missing the entire point. Do bad doctors, nurses, lawyers, etc. get paid more simply because they have an advanced degree? Does the resident, who is an MD, make as much as the surgeon (MD) who has been working for 20+ years?

Chicago teachers have typically been paid BASED on their degree rather than performance or time in the classroom. This is from 2006, not sure of any changes that have occured over the last 6 years.

http://www.nctq.org/docs/4_6812.pdf

Anonymous
Post 09/10/2012 16:30     Subject: Chicago teachers are making me sick

jsteele wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
No one is forced to be a teacher. You know what you are going to get paid when you enter the profession. All lawyers have a law degree. You pay more for the ones with more experience, not more law degrees.


Yes, we want our children to be taught be the unambitious, the uneducated, and the inexperienced. And, we want the best education system in the world. And, cheap. We want it cheap.

A worker is worth his keep

Anonymous
Post 09/10/2012 16:23     Subject: Chicago teachers are making me sick

Sorry to tell this to the ignorants, in professional fiels education counts.
You cannot practice law as a licensed attorney without a degree. If you want to sell your services as a tax lawyer without a degree, then go for it

Nurses have to have education and get paid in relation to their education. So do doctors and brain surgeons and gynacologists etc

Anonymous
Post 09/10/2012 15:46     Subject: Chicago teachers are making me sick

Freeman wrote:
Anonymous wrote:No one is forced to be a teacher. You know what you are going to get paid when you enter the profession. All lawyers have a law degree. You pay more for the ones with more experience, not more law degrees.


Did you know that there are more advanced law degrees, such as an LLM? Particularly in fields such as tax, those with an LLM will make more on average than those without it. Oh, and it isn't actually necessary to have a law degree to become a lawyer in some states. So you may want to try for a better comparison. Receiving higher pay for a higher level of education is common in most professional careers. It should not be the be-all and end-all in determining pay, but there should be some encouragement to continued educational advancement, just as there should be encouragement for other types of improvement.


If you are a crappy tax attorney with an LLM should you be paid more than the excellent tax attorney with just a JD?
Anonymous
Post 09/10/2012 15:39     Subject: Chicago teachers are making me sick

jsteele wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
No one is forced to be a teacher. You know what you are going to get paid when you enter the profession. All lawyers have a law degree. You pay more for the ones with more experience, not more law degrees.


Yes, we want our children to be taught be the unambitious, the uneducated, and the inexperienced. And, we want the best education system in the world. And, cheap. We want it cheap.


I didn't say that. But I do think it is silly to give teachers extra money simply because they get a masters degree. We had a first year teacher last year (no masters) and she was way better than many of the older, more educated teachers we have had. We have also been in a charter where the TfA grads came in way better than the older teachers hired from DCPS with masters (not saying all of them but I was surpised at how great they were for "inexperienced" teachers). Not saying that everything should be based on test scores but it shouldn't be based simply on education either.
Freeman
Post 09/10/2012 15:26     Subject: Chicago teachers are making me sick

Anonymous wrote:No one is forced to be a teacher. You know what you are going to get paid when you enter the profession. All lawyers have a law degree. You pay more for the ones with more experience, not more law degrees.


Did you know that there are more advanced law degrees, such as an LLM? Particularly in fields such as tax, those with an LLM will make more on average than those without it. Oh, and it isn't actually necessary to have a law degree to become a lawyer in some states. So you may want to try for a better comparison. Receiving higher pay for a higher level of education is common in most professional careers. It should not be the be-all and end-all in determining pay, but there should be some encouragement to continued educational advancement, just as there should be encouragement for other types of improvement.
Anonymous
Post 09/10/2012 15:17     Subject: Chicago teachers are making me sick

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:One of my friends is a CPS elementary teacher. Here's what she said about the issue:
The Board of Ed wants a 5 year contract with 2% raise the 1st year, then up to 2% each year after that based increased test scores, grades, & parent review or in my case - principal and parent review (I have a brand new principal with NO experience & she doesn't ever leave the office so she hasn't a clue what we do. She has NO experience ever dealing with children 3 to 13 in education). They want to get rid of capping off class size - so far I have 30 2nd graders (5th grade has 38 in her classroom right now, no aide and Kindergarten is full time with 35, no aide), and the BoE wants to eliminate all step or lane raises counting years of service and set the salary the same for everyone regardless of how much schooling you've had or how many years you've been in the system so basically pay everyone the same even though most of us have at least one or two Masters degrees. Not looking pretty at all.

The parents ARE in an uproar! They've joined us at rallies and they've formed groups to protest what he's doing to our children. Rahm could care less as long as he's known as the dude who broke up one of the largest unions here and made education what he thinks it should be. To top that off, he's mandating recess for all schools - even the schools without playgrounds (not sure how that works out for them) and schools in high crime areas in which shootings happen day, night, all the time (Heaven help these children). He says "it's good for the kids to get out." I don't care so much for the raise, but it's the working conditions I care about. He wants teachers/staff to work 15 days longer a year, 3 hours more a day without paying for the time. He's set the schedule for us to teach 7 hours and then meet with parents for 5 hours immediately afterwards for conference twice a year. Wanna bet we're not going to be the most pleasant people?




Now, I disagree with her on some things (DC has a similar recess requirement with crappy facilities as well), but to totally get rid of step increases and incentives for graduate degrees? And not capping class size?

Anyway, this is what she's heard. She's worried and upset about the whole thing and hates that this is going on.


That is always the point where teachers lose me. I will defend you like crazy on working more than 10 months a year or only 7-8 hours a day but to base pay simply on education level is ridiculous. Please.



I don't think the base pay based on their education is ridiculous. They are paid similarly to engineers and nurses, who also start with a BA or BS. Teaching is essentially an applied psychology major. It's fair.