Yeah, this fits - Granite Grok

Yeah, this fits

We’ve kinda left the Chicago Teacher strike alone thus far.  To be sure, I think it is rather emblematic of the Blue Social model – large public unions pulling more and more from the taxpayers via in-the-Union-Pocket elected officials.

In this case, we have the CTU members earning an average wage of approximately $71-76K / year where the average taxpayer earns around $46K / year.  The union has rejected a 16% raise by Rahm Emmanual, Obama’s former Chief of Staff and now Mayor of Chicago.  What the Union is NOT accepting is the whole notion of teacher evaluations and other reforms.

So, this is Day 4 of the strike that has taken 360,000 children out of school.  As Rahm said “this is a strike of choice”; it was clear what he meant.  This is not a strike about improving the conditions “for the children” – it IS about improving the conditions “of the teacher wallets”.  One Democrat tactic is to often use children as political pawns in almost any argument pertaining to increasing the size of government – what the CTU has done has taken them hostage knowing that many parents are struggling to just pay their bills simply to get more money for their members (see here).

But this cartoon pretty much sums up the MOST IMPORTANT data point that the CTU (and probably NEA and AFT unions as well) wants buried as deep as possible: The US Dept of Education reports that almost 80% of Chicago students cannot do math or read at grade levelAnd a 40% dropout rate.

And these clowns think they should be rewarded for failure with more pay?

Go ahead – read your school district’s budget.  You will first be astonished, and then mad, when you realize how little of taxpayer money actually goes to stuff (like textbooks) that ends up in student hands.  And there has NEVER been a study that shows a positive correlation of high salary to student achievement. And always remember that most students that major in Education are in the bottom third of SAT scores of college applicants.

(H/T: Dan Mitchell)

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