Chicago Teachers Striking For “The Kids” Or Greed?

Classes for an estimated 350 thousand students in Chicago are cancelled again today.  The teachers are some of the highest paid teachers in the country earning approximately $76,000 yearly and they want more.

So many times we hear of teachers striking for higher pay for the good of the children and I’m sure better pay will attract better teachers but there must be accountability.  The teachers in Chicago are already earning much more than the parents of the students they teach and have turned down proposals that would give them incremental pay raises.  This weekend Union president Karen Lewis said teachers want the opportunity to continue to discuss the offer that is on the table.  “Our members are not happy,” Lewis said. “They want to know if there is anything more they can get.”  I can’t believe she said “They want to know if there is anything more they can get”.  Is that greed or what?

I don’t know what the cost of living is like in Chicago and maybe it takes $76,000 to live there.  What about the families of the students?  These are public school students going to school in one of the most crime riddled cities in the worlds.  What do you think the parents of these children earn?  I bet it is not even half what the teachers are demanding and their union president says they want to see what more they can get from the strike.

When Rahm Emanuel took office as mayor he inherited a school system with a $700 million deficit and now he’s faced with teachers who want to see how much they can milk from the system.  I can’t believe this but I almost sympathize with Emanuel!  Notice I said “almost”.  He knew what he was getting into before he ran for office.  By the same token the teachers had a pretty good idea what the pay was at the onset.

Why couldn’t the teachers hold protest marches before this year’s school session started?  Would that have interrupted their vacations?  Couldn’t sacrifice their vacation time but they can sacrifice education time of the students they are hired to educate though.  In my opinion these teachers are as greedy as the Wall Street crooks.  The system is $700 million in the red and they’ve been offered more money than their employers make.  I think they should suck it up and go to work to do the job they were hired to do.