My Blog

Tag: CTU

  • How to Help Black Kids Graduate? Vouchers!

    Since CTU is out on strike, this appears to be timely. Educational choice is the civil rights movement of our generation. Then look at a breathtaking new study from researchers at the Brookings Institution and Harvard University. Brookings fellow Matthew M. Chingos and Harvard government professor Paul E. Peterson tracked 1,363 New York elementary school…

  • Teachers’ Unions vs. Children

    When schoolchildren start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children. — Albert Shanker, former president of the United Federation of Teachers I wrote about this before, how the truth is that CTU, WEAC, and all other teacher’s unions have a fiduciary duty to the union members.  The union cannot do anything…

  • U.S. Department of Education: 79% of Chicago 8th Graders Not Proficient in Reading

    Seventy-nine percent of the 8th graders in the Chicago Public Schools are not grade-level proficient in reading, according to the U.S. Department of Education, and 80 percent are not grade-level proficient in math. via CNS News. Very… very… sad. Teachers make over $60/hour.  Get awesome benefits.  Not getting the job done.  On strike demanding more…

  • Chicago Teachers Union: It’s About Children Greed

    According to the Chicago Tribune key issues separating Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union: SALARIES AND BENEFITS. The district offered 16 percent increase over four years and “modified step increases that both reward experience and provide better incentives for mid-career teachers.” The union said it’s closer on pay but is still concerned about…

  • IL Pension Hole Analysis

    I wrote this a few weeks ago as a comment on a retired teacher’s blog.  The post there was about how we need to “tax the rich” in order to fund the teachers’ pensions.  I was asked to comment on the post by a retired teacher I know.  Analysis follows: There is no one sided…

  • CPS To Raise Property Taxes The Maximum

    For the second year in a row, Chicago Public School officials under Mayor Rahm Emanuel will raise property taxes for schools to the maximum allowed by law, yielding the cash-strapped system $41 million. The 1.5 percent increase should cost the average homeowner $28 a year, school officials said Wednesday. via Chicago Sun-Times. Well isn’t this…

  • Illinois lags in science, tech, engineering, math grads

    Bad News: Illinois is producing fewer graduates with degrees in science, technology, engineering and math than the national average, according to the June release of the Illinois Innovation Index. … According to the Illinois Innovation Index, the number of STEM degrees granted to Illinois graduates hit a high-water mark of 20,248 in 2003 before dropping…

  • Illinois’ Pensions are the Worst

    A new report being issued today — see the bottom of this post — from the Pew Center on the States says that Illinois once again ranks 50th of the 50 states in assets relative to liabilities. But while Illinois’ absolute position did not sink — a mathematical impossibility — its relative position did erode,…

  • Tale of Two Missions

    Absolutely amazing piece of work about Chicago’s failing schools. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmnFQkD0Eg0] I have considerable new found respect for Mr. Williams after seeing this.  I always thought we was railroaded out of NPR unfairly.  But I also thought he was a little light intellectually.  Whatever his faults (and we all have faults) it’s clear he cares…

  • Chicago Teachers’ Union Closer to Strike

    Both sides have agreed to the appointment of a fact-finding panel that has 75 days to issue a report recommending terms for settlement of the labor contract. Once that report is issued in the middle of July, the parties have 15 days to accept or reject the panel’s recommendation. If its rejected, the fact-finding panel…