2,180 (Chicago) teacher layoffs to ease budget crunch (3,660 total jobs)

[UpInArms]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/education/cst-nws-teach24.html

About 3,660 Chicago Public Schools workers, including 2,180 teachers, will get pink slips this week in a budget- balancing effort to trim a $100 million deficit facing the system, the Board of Education will announce today.

School officials were quick to note, however, the net loss of teachers in the nation's third- largest school system will amount to only 130, once about 2,050 vacant or new teaching positions are filled by laid-off teachers who can apply for them.

The layoffs, immediately assailed by teachers and community stakeholders, represent the most dramatic reduction affecting CPS' 26,550 teachers since Mayor Daley took over control of the system in 1995.

<snip>

Another 1,300 non-teaching personnel inside the schools, including teacher aides, security guards, clerks and parent workers, will be told not to come back next year.

...more...

[mhr]

1. No, This Can't Be! Frodo Said There Were Jobs Aplenty!

A carpet of riches awaits us all.

How, oh how could Frodo let us down.

His charts were so convincing!

[frank frankly]

4. maybe there will be new charts about the other charts

I WANT MY CARPET OF RICHES!

LOL. :hi:

[brokensymmetry]

2. Just what we need.

As global competition heats up, we destroy our schools.

[ze_dscherman]

3. Leave all children behind

Except those with parents to pay for private schools.

[iconoclastic cat]

5. Since I am married to one of those Chicago teachers,

I should take the time to tell you how bad things are right now, before these massive cuts.
I should, but I can't. It is too depressing.
As for myself, I was a copywriter who spent the last two years becoming certified only to discover that I will not be changing careers after all.
You should see the schools in Chicago; even the "good" ones are reprehensible.
I can't even finish this comment. Too depressing.

[hatrack]

6. "Yeah, but they didn't raise MAH TAXES!!!!!!!!!!"

There isn't a single English verb to convey the idea of "eating the seed corn". There should be.

[redqueen]

11. Hear, hear!

How best to quickly educate the masses about how dangerous a practice this is? It took the right 25 years to demagogue the masses into this special kind of apathy / cluelessness... how long will it take to set it right? Are we out of time?

[Eye and Monkey]

7. If they are firing 2180, and hiring 2050, why not offer transfers?

This is nonsense. It seems unlikely that 2050 new positions exist or will be created.

[WhereIsMyFreedom]

8. Not necessarily nonsense

It is a way to reduce the pay, benefits, seniority, tenure, etc... of teachers. Transferring teachers would not give them the same opportunity to screw the teachers over.

[Eye and Monkey]

9. Screwing teachers over is nonsense in my book.

Yes, it is obvious that firing people and then hiring them back APPEARS to be a method of reducing the payroll and benies costs. But it doesn't wash in the end.

I've seen systems where "time-in" resumes where it left off following a lay-off (i.e. an employee is laid-off after 5 years, then re-hired - the clock starts at 5 years, not back at zero).

[WhereIsMyFreedom]

12. Yes, I'd agree that is nonsense (nt)

nt

[Catfight]

10. I keep saying Teachers need vouchers, not students...

If we paid teachers more and had more teachers, public schools would be far better off and there would no longer be a desire to send children to private, fundamentalist schools to pray for better public schools. Bush=president of the idiots

[Massacure]

13. Chicago is already among the worst school systems in the country.

Now they plan to make it worse?

[grasswire]

14. oh no......

...we have a DU-er who teaches in Chicago. I hope he checks in.