Chicago teachers strike!

Twenty-five thousand teachers in Chicago are striking today. Most of the time we think strikes are about pay and work conditions. This is not the case in Chicago. These teachers earn an average of $72,000, about $30,000 more than the national median salary for teachers. Furthermore, the school district offered them a 16% raise over 4 years. So why are they striking? Accountability.

That's right, they don't want to be held accountable for the performance of their students. They are striking because the district wants to include teacher evaluations in its program. You may recall that I wrote about the budget problems of the San Diego school district. I included teacher evaluations in my plan, and some people told me that it would never happen, that teachers would never accept evaluations. It appears to be true.

So, public school teachers, who are being paid by the taxpayers, don't want oversight and evaluation of their performance? Attendence is mandatory, taxation is mandatory. So what we're being told is we have no choice but to send our children to these schools, to pay for them, and performance be damned. Oh, but don't worry! No child will be left behind. The curve to the rescue, and As for everyone! So what if our highschool graduates can't read or write, and don't understand math. So what if our college graduates do not have the skills necessary to perform the jobs they supposedly trained for. Everyone will feel good about themselves, and that pink fluffy feeling is all that matters, right? We wouldn't want to make kids feel bad about poor performance.