3 Stupid Ways to Talk About the Chicago Teachers Union Strike

[Starry Messenger]

http://jezebel.com/5942968/3-stupid-ways-to-talk-about-the-chicago-teachers-union-strike?tag=hot-for-teachers

1. Karen Lewis — did you notice that she's fat and loud?

Karen Lewis is the President of the Chicago Teachers Union. And boy, do news outlets love to point out that she's a big loud fat lady. The Associated Press called her "brash and blunt, a union leader known for her tart tongue and flip one-liners." The Washington Times calls her "silly."

Others aren't as subtle. Whirlwind of frothy, barking hate Michelle Malkin called Lewis "a vulgar standup comic wannabe" and a "fat cat." GET IT?! Because she's not skinny!

<snip>

This strike is not about salary. It's about job security and the future of the teaching profession as a viable way to earn a living wage. But that hasn't stopped many a news outlet from printing complaints that it's all about the Benjamins and bling and fancy cars that prompt people to get into the teaching profession in the first place. Reporting — for some reason — from Phoenix, one intrepid and totally-not-in-Chicago commentator showcases his entry into this year's anti-teacher fanfiction writing contest.

<snip>

Ah, yes. The myth of the wealthy public school teacher. Not only is this strike decidedly not about salary, he's wrong about what Chicago teachers earn. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it's more like $56,000 — BLING BLING. Folks, keep your eyes open for the next Bret Easton Ellis novel "Apple Core," about the seedy cocaine soaked world of excess hiding just behind the coatroom curtain at America's public schools. Many It people try to get past the velvet monkey bars, but only a few Make the Grade. In stores this fall. In the meantime, be sure to check out Teachers of Instagram, a blog devoted to the private jet photos teachers snap on their way to their Bacchanalian anything-goes gilded getaways they call "inservice."

<snip>

and so much more awesome at the link...

[dkf]

1. Should there be job security in a system that is failing?

[Starry Messenger]

3. Do you have a question about the actual topic?

The system isn't failing...and job security has nothing to do with a system's success. If it did, all of Wall Street would be living in their cars.

[dkf]

4. 79% of 8th graders are under their grade level for reading proficiency.

80% aren't proficient in math.

That is actually worse than the 40% peak default rate in subprime mortgages so Chicago teachers have managed to do worse than sub prime lenders.

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/05/mortgage-delinquencies-by-loan-type.html?onswipe_redirect=never&m=1

[ibegurpard]

5. because teachers are the only factor in a kid's education sucess right?

family background, income level, community...none of that has anything to do with it right? It's just lousy teachers...
GTFO

[dkf]

7. Are 80% of 8th graders in the same family background, income level, and the rest?

[hunter]

21. Yes. It tends to be the communities that are broken...

... not the schools.

And it was the shit heads of corporate America and the banking industry that broke those communities.

Now we want these same shit heads to "fix" our schools?

Fuck that.

But then again it's dkf we're responding too... Why do we bother?

[Scuba]

24. Why bother indeed.

[Starry Messenger]

6. NEAP scores have risen--

http://www.quickanded.com/2010/03/misunderstanding-the-naep-results.html

So, because NAEP has gradually included more black and Hispanic students, and black and Hispanic students score lower, on average, than white students, the total score doesn’t reflect the true gains made by each group. The chart below shows scores taken from the same testing years, this time disaggregated by race.

Each group has actually made greater gains over time than the overall total. White students increase 11 points, one more than the national average. Black students scored 23 points higher, and Hispanic students were scoring 24 points higher in 2008 than they were in 1975 despite quadrupling in size. In other words, the white-black and white-Hispanic gaps are closing and every group is scoring higher, but the national score is showing more modest improvements because of demographic changes.

That isn't failure dear. Maybe stick to questioning the birth certificate, hmm?

[rhett o rick]

11. There are lots of possible problems that may add to low student performance. But you and Hannity

seem to want to pin it on the teachers.

[HiPointDem]

12. your link is about mortgage delinquencies.

[rhett o rick]

9. Interesting that you put that in the form of a question in lieu of making a statement.

If you have a case, please present it. Insinuation by question is a lousy Fox News technique.

[RetroLounge]

17. Right wing talking points, right on time

never fails...

RL

[Hissyspit]

22. Derp.

Derp, derp, derp, & derp.

Also, more derp.

[Scuba]

23. We always know we can count on you!!

[tama]

2. Fascinating cultural differences

Maybe Finnish fame in education is because kids here carve more spiders than penises on pulpets... and repetitio est mater studiorum, not pater.

[frazzled]

8. The Bureau of Labor Statistics number is NOT for Chicago

It's for a huge area that includes all of Cook County plus six other counties:

Monday, I passed along the Chicago Public Schools’ estimate of the mean teacher salary, which is $74,839. Pro-union sources are objecting, with some putting the figure at $56,720, almost $20,000 below CPS’ estimate. So is the school district just lying about this?

Nope. The union allies are right to look at medians, and the CPS number is slightly out of date, but $74,839 is closer to the right answer than $56,720.

The $56,720 number is the median salary for teachers in what the Bureau of Labor Statistics dubs the “Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL Metropolitan Division.” This includes not only Cook County, which includes all of the Chicago (and thus all of the Chicago Public School district), but also suburbs and other outlying towns like Burbank, Chicago Heights and Park Ridge, as well as six other counties: DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, McHenry and Will.

Using the Census’s 2011 estimates, the population in those seven counties is about 7 million (or 6,999,344 to be precise) as opposed to 2,707,120 in Chicago alone. So the $56,720 figure assumes that we can extrapolate salary patterns in Chicago from those of a region more than two-and-a-half times its size. That’s a questionable methodology, to say the least.

Luckily, we don’t have to guess, since CPS publishes median salary statistics (see page 198 in this pdf). As is often the case with stats like these, the median salary is below the mean: for the 2010-11 school year, the most recent year for which data is available, the median salary was $67,974, as opposed to the mean of $74,236 that year (as reported, pdf, by the Illinois State Board of Education). That mean is slightly different than the one reported by CPS because it relies on more recent ISBE data.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/09/11/how-much-do-chicago-teachers-make/

Soooo ... who you calling stupid? Maybe you'd better check your own facts first before you start calling people stupid. Do you even know where Joliet and Naperville are? I do.

[Starry Messenger]

10. It's the title of the link, dear.

Do you know what a title is? I do.

[frazzled]

13. Don't try to evade the issue ... dear

You posted the article with the title (yes, I saw it was the title at the link) and in doing so presumably endorse its message yourself ... as well as its totally incorrect facts.

The article you link to is the one with misinformation ... even as it accuses others of being "stupid" and misinformed. Now isn't that a bit embarrassing? And isn't it embarrassing to try to bypass the corrected information to slur a respondent instead of thanking them for the correction?

This is about EDUCATION ... dear. And in education, facts matter.

And by the way ... no one calls me "dear."

[Starry Messenger]

15. It is posted for discussion.

Your need to resort to personal attacks is noted. Dear.

The article is mainly about the feminist issue embedded in teaching. Something that completely eluded you in your leap to elevate the $ teachers make to Romney/Ryan levels of BLING. Thereby, making the article's point. You're welcome.

[frazzled]

16. Oh man ...

Where did you take your etiquette lessons from ... Godzilla?

You're the one who posted the excerpt with the salary disinformation.

And I'm a woman, a feminist, and spent twelve years volunteering in inner-city public schools. The supposedly feminist article you posted is offensively written, factually incorrect. It's an embarrassment to educators and women.

[Starry Messenger]

18. Oh yes, posting an article is *just* like a giant reptile destroying entire towns.

LOL. Where did you take your hyperbole lessons from...Nixon?

I'm not a volunteer, I'm an actual teacher.

[HiPointDem]

20. why would you assume that posters "endorse" every article they post, let alone every word?

that's really not a very educated assumption.

[HiPointDem]

14. Median chicago teachers salary = $67.9K. Half make less, half make more. Thanks for the info.

Doesn't sound like a bunch of fat cats to me, particularly as they live in the chicago metro area. as all the folks at DU tell me, you need to make around $250K to live in major cities these days.

Chicago teaching scale tops out at $94K if you have a PhD & 20 years in.

Rahm's office staff is paid an average of $88K. He added office staff and gave out big raises when he came in.

[HiPointDem]

19. she didn't call anyone stupid. it's the title of the article she posted. Dept. of taking offense

where none was intended, not to mention counterattacking in the absence of any attack.

[Honeycombe8]

25. True. But that's because Lewis is female. Also, Chicago teachers avg salary is about $70k....

according to what I read. Not true?