September 11, 2012 - 1:25 pm
It’s as if Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, just likes to protest in the streets.
Hey, it beats going on a diet.
Sorry to make a rude fat joke here, but the fact is, relative to the average Chicago resident, the teachers are quite fat economically. Their strike is hurting the poor parents of that city far harder than it is hurting anyone else. The union is irresponsibly striking to get a raise and to maintain benefits that the city cannot afford.
They can’t get the current economic situation, which they helped create, through their thick skulls.
And yet (once again), they “care” about the children. This is WI all over again as Rahm tries to be a mini-Walker (15% raise, Rahm? What are YOU thinking?).
I heard the remaining issue was benefits. With the Union so staunchly supporting Obamacare, and it being upheld in the Supreme Court, why are benefits still an issue?
Why are all public unions not “mandated” to fall under Obamacare?
Because the unions got waivers to obamacare. Anyone remember the part of the bill about cadillac(sp) plans. All union members have better plans than everyone else. In NY there benefit package covers plastic surgery for cosmetic reasons. so they get waivers.
I beleive all gov employees are exempt from obamacare. Do you really think Obama would inflict something like that on the nation and not exempt all his bcronies in public employee unions.
Disgusting. They are the one’s who are greedy. If my children were in Chicago’s schools I would go on a parents strike and pull my kids out of public school and homeschool them.
I am sure there are thousands if not millions of underemployed educated people out there who would gladly take even a portion of the pay and benefits that these slobs are getting. With the track record of these schools, what would it hurt to try a new approach, hire grads with degrees in specific subject areas rather than teaching degrees to replace the scumbags who don’t care about the children.
It’s like public unions that are hurting this country financially. Unlike the private company unions, the taxpayers have to pay their salary, 401k match, insurance, pension, and social security. Creating bigger govt. to provide jobs for the unemployed breeds big unions with high demands that comes out of our pockets. If you are taxed over 30% from your salary or paychecks, you will work free labor for the govt. for 4 months out of a year. Add the state and local taxes on the goods you buy, and you will pay more than 6 months full pay to our govt.
– your people, Obama.
It’s for the children!
I remember reading that the union is concerned about the rising cost of healthcare. Yet they support Obamacare, the biggest reason the cost of healthcare will continue to rise.
I am concerned about rising health insurance costs too. It does not help that our property taxes are so high, much of which goes to fund the public schools, their golden parachute benefits and pensions and the BMW driving administrators. In a region where most people drive used cars, the only luxury cars you can find are usually parked in the school parking lot.
Well, she’s got the Elizabeth Warren’s rap and circular hand gesticulations down.
Maybe Warren really is the mother of the Occupy Movement?
Pure communist rhetoric.
The real issue is the duty of the CPS to fire poor preforming teachers. If the CTU would agree to a mandatory annual termination & replacement of 5% of the worse performing teachers they would be worth the money.
For teachers job security = you can’t fire anyone.
Don’t think of it as a Chicago School Teachers strike. Think of it as a reprieve from institutional state child abuse.
Doublethink. They will accuse parents of child abuse if they don’t send their children to the IQ decreasing hellholes, but it is really the other way around. Time for a parent strike.
She’s got more chins than a Chinese phone book!
Some pigs are more equal than others. Back away from the trough, you commie hog.
“Inequitable distribution of wealth”. In other words, no matter how hard someone works to make money, they need to give it to people who didn’t work for it.
What utter, communist bulls**t.
The remaining issues are all related to poor performing teachers. The administration wants to use standardized testing to identify bad teachers and replace them. The union doesn’t want that. The second issue is rehiring teachers. When new teaching positions open up, the unions want the positions to be automatically filled with the same teachers who were replaced for poor performance.
Basically the union is striking to keep the worst teachers in the classroom and shield from discovery and removal. They don’t deserve a shred of support.
Chicago needs to do a PATCO on these teachers: Given them three days to return to the classroom, then declare that those that have not returned have abandoned their jobs. Terminate the ones that do not return, decertify the union, and replace the departed teachers. The strike is illegal, so the courts should back this.
And based on the performance of Chicago students, seems to me you could replace these teachers with anyone that has a baccalaurate degree and can pass a basic competency test — and not do any worse by the students.
Won’t happen. It would hurt The Won to much.
Chicago will cave to the teachers in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1
I have a modest proposal for the Dear leader. Drop her on Cairo or Libya. That is, if we can find the lift capability. It’s a twofer.
Unfortunately, if the city leaders did that the parents would crucify them. Anyway, Chicago voters will learn precisely nothing from this strike. Like California’s voters, they steadfastly refuse to see that the corrupt collusion between the Democratic Party snd the public employee union is destroying the ability of government, and the motivation of its employees, to provide the basic services government is supposed to, let alone the vast complex of services that have evolved as government’s sphere. Chicago can’t pay its vendors and is functionally insolvent. But Chicago citizens will continue to vote for their beloved Democrat gangsters, huckseters and union exploiters until the city completely collapses financially, which is not far away. And after that, they will still vote for Democrats. They all deserve each other.
Let me put it this way. I’m the guardian of an effected student. I talk with other Chicago parents. The subject of the conversation is what a lot of greedy bastards the teachers are. Everyone is missing work. Everyone is shuffling their kids around to spend the day at friends houses. If Rahm pulled a PATCO and fired them all every parent I know would cheer from the rooftops.
affected, of course. Sigh.
Truth be told, I hope this strike goes on for a loooooooong time. The longer this plays out, the higher the chances that Lewis, Rahmbo and, most importantly, His Majesty Barack the First will ALL lose.
My money says if this strike continues into October, Illinois may actually go Red in November.
What happened to her face?
The Greater Chicago Suburban Realtors Board wants to thank Karen Lewis for her outstanding contributions to their growth
These are the teachers that supposedly school children from age 5 (kindergarten) for 13 years through high school graduation — and 80% fall below math and reading proficiency.
What are they doing for thirteen years except collecting a paycheck and using their medical benefits?
Apparently, not much.
Teachers unions take over the schools, get more money year after year and yet test scores drop and teacher demands increase. No wonder they dont want their job performance linked to pay. Is it any wonder the nation seems to be coming apart with these people in control of the children?
Teachers can’t spell, students can’t read, Democrats cuddle them, parents keep voting Democrats to power, whose fault is that?
The parents keep complaining about their public schools, keep asking politicians to tax the rich to give to the schools, it’s for the children. They may line up for days for a lottery slot in a magnet school for their kids. But when they vote, they ignore the Republicans’ calls for school choice, for creating more magnet schools, govt vouchers for their kids to go to private schools, they vote Democrats whose kids are sent to $25,000/year private schools. Whose fault is that?
Parents, look at the mirror, meet the enemies who destroy your kids’ future.
I return to a statement I made at the start of events in wissconsin. Let us require that all contracts between government, at any level, and a union must be submitted to the electorate through a plebisite. We can no longer rely upon elected officials to bargain with public employees in a responsible manner. I am a strong supporter of a constitutional republic over a popular democracy, but here is a case where elected officials fail to represent our interests. instead they sell us out to special interests who line their pockets. How wonderful that this is coming home to roost in Emanual’s hometown, in his administration brought home from Obama;s administration. Is this what his old boss will bring to us all upon re-election?
I’m beginning to take Rush’s theory seriously. I can’t bring myself to believe that the Chicago teachers union is going up against Obama’s former chief of staff. It just smells funny.
Now we see that the “president” of the union is also an “organizer” of the Occupy “movement”?
Any bets she has ties with Acorn too?
Looks like someone saw “Supersize Me” and took the title literally.
at 55 sec: “You don’t make money by yourself”
Borrowing [or inspiring] the meme from Elizabeth “You didn’t create your business” Warren and Barack “You didn’t build it” Obama.
These people live in a world where everything belongs to them.
“They can’t get the current economic situation, which they helped create, through their thick skulls.”
They don’t care, either. Frickin’ union thugs, pure and simple.
Uh, wasn’t that 10 Oct 2011 date a SCHOOL DAY?
I wonder abut something. All we heard for the 4 days before this was the huge bounce obama got from his convention, and how it was all over for romney. Given this mess in obamas home town, and the even worse mess at our embassies, is there a chance this huge obama bounce might end up fading, if it ever really existed in the first place.
A point on salary should be made. These clowns (who are almost all in the bottom third of their peers in college…this is factual) earn an average of $71,000. But that’s part time! Factoring in summer vacation and Christmas, they work just nine months. That’s equal to $95,000. Plus they are among the few who get defined benefit pensions. A low end value of their pension value is $1 million each at retirement. In effect, this adds at least $30,000 per year to their salary(I won’t go into the calculation, but I do this for a living and I’m confident this is a low estimate). So their pay is more Ike $125,000 on average. Let’s see how many friends they have among the parents making $30,000 and $50,000 when they learn little known data point.