Something has got to be done about special education costs. They really are astronomical, and at the expense of other students. How much does it cost to keep a very developmentally delayed student in school till they're 21, with aides for toileting and eating? Is this fair to the other students!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 don't necessarily want education cheap but in DC, where we have one of the highest per pupil costs, shouldn't we expect a high return on our investment? We pay a lot of money for something with questionable value and outcomes.

Most of that money is spent on special education transportation and private schooling. You have to actually look at the break-down of the budget to realize that information. I am not giving you an excuse, just a reason for the high per pupil cost. Other jurisdictions with lower per pupil cost have been able to moderately or successfully implement their SN children in their regular public schools without the private schooling and two adult- attendees per bus for one-child.

Agree with this. I read somewhere recently the average cost per student was about $6,000, whereas the average cost per special needs student was closer to $90,000. The difference was astronomical.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paid maternity leave. That's one of the "outlandish" things the Chicago teachers want. Paid maternity leave.

Caps on class sizes. I have yet to meet a parent who is coolwith their child being ina classroom with 39 other students. I back the teachers on this one.

The current classroom cap in Chicago is 31 kids, but everyone admits that the city goes over that limit. 40 isn't typical.

But let's use your number of 40 kids.

The teachers want some of the highest pay in the country, and they want a 16% increase in pay, but the school district is broke. They they also want caps on class sizes. It seems to me that the best way to lower the class sizes would be to hire more teachers.

Average teacher salary (and I know there are benefits costs and other things) in chicago is $71K.

Lets say you have a group of schools with 100 teachers with each one making $71,000 having 40 students...so 4000 students total. That's $7,100,000 in salary costs.

If we want to take the class sizes down to no more than 30 kids in a class...that requires 134 teachers. You could make that work on the same salary costs by paying the teachers $52,985 each.

Lets compare that to a national average teacher salary of $56,069....that would give you 126 teachers...so only 32 kids in a class vs 40.

It's not in the teacher's interest to lower the salaries, but it is clearly in the interests of the students, to stop the pay raises, lower salaries and hire more teachers.

Anonymous wrote:Paid maternity leave. That's one of the "outlandish" things the Chicago teachers want. Paid maternity leave.

Caps on class sizes. I have yet to meet a parent who is coolwith their child being ina classroom with 39 other students. I back the teachers on this one.

Anonymous wrote:Paid maternity leave. That's one of the "outlandish" things the Chicago teachers want. Paid maternity leave.

Caps on class sizes. I have yet to meet a parent who is coolwith their child being ina classroom with 39 other students. I back the teachers on this one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 don't necessarily want education cheap but in DC, where we have one of the highest per pupil costs, shouldn't we expect a high return on our investment? We pay a lot of money for something with questionable value and outcomes.

Most of that money is spent on special education transportation and private schooling. You have to actually look at the break-down of the budget to realize that information. I am not giving you an excuse, just a reason for the high per pupil cost. Other jurisdictions with lower per pupil cost have been able to moderately or successfully implement their SN children in their regular public schools without the private schooling and two adult- attendees per bus for one-child.

Anonymous wrote:

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 don't necessarily want education cheap but in DC, where we have one of the highest per pupil costs, shouldn't we expect a high return on our investment? We pay a lot of money for something with questionable value and outcomes.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

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.