“Real Lesson of the Chicago Teachers Strike—Fire Them All and Start Over!”, an opinion piece written by Wayne Allyn Root, on Foxnews.com, argues that we need to quit supporting the use of government tax money to fund inefficient teachers and instead should hire replacements at one-third of the cost, but implement a pay based on performance policy. Root claims that Chicago teachers are among the highest paid, yet have the worst performance rates. By increasing their pay during this “Great Depression,” we are increasing the billion dollar debt in chicago’s education system. In order to uncover Root’s underlying purpose, the following articles will be used in contrast which also serve to further complicate Root’s argument. Horace Mann’s Report …show more content…
“The Chicago teachers are among the highest paid in the nation. And their results are among the worst in the nation...they went on strike because they were unhappy with a big fat raise, and they did not want to face evaluations of their performance from time to time.(Root 2012)” Root expresses himself in a sarcastic manner, understates the purpose of the strike in order to discredit the teachers to convince the audience to support his claim and reduce school funding. The reason why we are Investing more money into a teacher's “gold-plated health care packages” is evident. Root does not consider the dangers of chicago, where parents assault young students, gang activity is in every corner. There are far more factors than can be blamed on teachers for the students performance. Various reports lead to the children's lifestyles where most of them are way below the poverty line and live in violent neighborhoods. Teachers voluntarily work in these situations acknowledging the type of students they will be working with, and despite the dangers, they continue to teach for change. These impressionable children are surrounded by the chaotic nature of the lower class lifestyle, where you have to steal to eat, where you have to fight back to avoid getting killed. More and more children are getting involved in gangs. These “little homies” are children that have been showed their whole lives that the only way of survival is to be in this negative system of violence. The only way to break this chain of abuse is to introduce these children to education where they will learn more than pulling triggers. It is a fact that there is an increased chance of a child to become involved in criminal activity if not educated properly. Whether there is more money being invested into willing educators or not should be the last concern for our society. Kozol’s commentary on the 2012 teacher strike, interpreted by Liz Dwyer,
“Growing Roses in Concrete”(Duncan-Andrade 5) is not an easy task because of the many circumstances and policies that create inequality in these schools and in the society as a whole. In urban schools in the United States, there is more disparately and inequality among young people of color and while educators have tried to solve such issues through different means, the problem still prevails and this has just created “false hope”. Duncan-Andrade states that th...
The Chicago Public School District is the third largest school district in the United States educating around 400,000 students. Back in 1987 CPS was named “the worst in the nation”(). Moving its way up to the top, since then, CPS had completely rebuilt its structure, appointing leaders and reformed ideas. Now, with a deficit projected to be around $1 billion CPS is headed back in a downwards path, money being the biggest issue. The United States Federal Government already has financial issues of its own, which makes dealing with a CPS budget a problem within a problem. CPS, with a $6.6 billion FY2013 budget, is now taking a new strategy based upon a flawed “Student-Based Budgeting System”. The Board of Education is also struggling to solve the debt they have reached, and with their FY2014 plans this year’s budget book is argued to be “one of the most poorly written budgets”(). The way CPS is handling their budget is not benefiting the lives and education of students and is leaving CPS at a loss with giant financial issues.
In many low income communities, there are teachers that are careless and provide their students with poor quality education. These teachers are there just to make sure that they keep receiving their monthly paychecks and act in this way because they believe that low income students do not have the drive, the passion, or the potential to be able to make something of themselves and one day be in a better place than they are now. Anyon reveals that in working class schools student’s “Work is often evaluated not according to whether it is right or wrong but according to whether the children followed the right steps.” (3). This is important because it demonstrates that low income students are being taught in a very basic way. These children are being negatively affected by this because if they are always being taught in this way then they will never be challenged academically, which can play a huge role in their futures. This argument can also be seen in other articles. In the New York Times
The gap between the nation’s best and worst public schools continues to grow. Our country is based on freedom and equality for all, yet in practice and in the spectrum of education this is rarely the case. We do not even have to step further than our own city and its public school system, which many media outlets have labeled “dysfunctional” and “in shambles.” At the same time, Montgomery County, located just northwest of the District in suburban Maryland, stands as one of the top school systems in the country. Within each of these systems, there are schools that excel and there are schools that consistently measure below average. Money alone can not erase this gap. While increased spending may help, the real problem is often rooted in the complex issues of social, cultural, and economic differences. When combined with factors involving the school itself and the institution that supports it, we arrive at what has been widely known as the divide between the suburban and urban schools. Can anything actually be done to reverse this apparent trend of inequality or are the outside factors too powerful to change?
Salary schedules for public school teachers are almost a common feature in public school districts. These schedules largely determine the salaries for the teachers. A single district schedule sets the pay for hundreds of thousands of teachers in thousands of schools (Besharov 1). The key factor that influences the pay for the teachers in the salary schedules include experience in terms of years and the total number of graduate course works that a teacher has completed. This paper will look at the cons and pros of the salary schedules in terms of an economic point of view.
By stating some hard statistics about the schools in Chicago and even describing some possible means of addressing the problems that emphasized immediate action, these reports seemed to provide some hope for the future of Chicago’s public schools. However, despite the fact that the Chicago Board of Education even accepted most of the terms and recommendations in the reports, the ensuing years showed very little improvement. Since 1967, the Chicago Board of Education’s passive approach towar...
At the beginning of school days in September 2015, teachers in Seattle public schools went on strike. It is the second time that teachers went on strike in the U.S. in recent years since 2012, when Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) was negotiating for a new contract that improves teachers’ salary, and evaluates teachers’ performance fairly. CTU has reached an agreement after a long negotiation period with the city. The pattern and goal of the Seattle teachers strike matched perfectly with what had happened in Chicago. Teachers in Seattle also went on strike because they were not satisfied with their contract.
Some school critics and statisticians have observed that drug-dealing, vandalism, robbery, and murder have replaced gum-chewing, “talking out of turn,” tardiness, and rudeness as the most chronic problems afflicting today’s schools. If the intent of this observation is to shock and rattle the public’s sensibilities, it’s working. Of course, some of us may interpret such suggestions as merely dark, stoic, and cynical—“scare” tactics quite in keeping with the current national mood about many social issues these days.
The oversite committee then evaluates the success of their money allocation and incentivize the success of the public school’s education. “Americans do not appear ready to pay the price.” (Barber, p. 215) Money is the most powerful motivator, and if the success of school districts reaps the benefits of more financial resource, educators will fight to be the best. This new desire to be the best, is possible with the equalization of opportunity from the allocation of funds to the poorer schools. The race to the top would already be won by the larger, richer, and more powerful school districts without those foundational funds. “Because we believe in profits, we are consummate salespersons and efficacious entrepreneurs.” (217) Barber’s essay supports the idea of incentivized results. Not only would districts compete with other schools, but their standards would be raised year after year in consequence to the oversite of the
As children, we look to our parents to teach us skills that we need in everyday life, whether it be social skills or how to. Yet for a variety of reasons, some children do not have this personal role model for them to follow and learn from. For these children, their teachers may be the first adult to give them any sort of attention or care. As a result, a teacher can play a huge impact in a young child’s life. The Allentown School District’s high schools are both considered Title I schools, meaning that over 40% of the school’s students come from families that are legally considered low-income (www2.ed.gov). In the ASD, this number is nearly doubled at 88.7% (www.allentownsd.org). Most likely, these students come from homes in which the adults they live with are working most of the day and
Schools are sending children out of the classroom because “the definition of what is a crime as opposed to a teachable moment has changed in extraordinary ways” (Editors of Rethinking Schools, 2011/1012). The article further discusses that “We cannot build safe, creative, nurturing schools and criminalize our children at the same time” (Editors of Rethinking Schools, 2011/1012). Instead it is vital to create “alternative approaches to safe school communities that rely on restorative justice and community building instead of criminalization” (Editors of Rethinking Schools, 2011/1012). I think Kathy does just this; she empowers the children to communicate their feelings and create solutions to the problems they
In recent years, tragedies have been visited upon schools across the country. From Kentucky to Oregon to Colorado, the notion of schools as safe havens has been shattered by the sound of gunfire. These acts are not limited to any geographic regions or family backgrounds, nor do they have a single catalyst. Those who have committed such heinous acts have done so for different reasons, at different times, in different schools. But these acts of school violence have at least one thing in common- they have spurred all of us to take a look at what can be done to better protect children and teachers at school. Protecting our children is not simply a matter of public policy. It is a matter of strengthening basic values, of teaching children right from wrong, of instilling in them respect for others. We each have a responsibility to work to end youth violence and to keep schools safe for children and for those who teach them. Youth violence in many schools has reached universal proportions. It is not only happening in our high schools, it has also made its way into our elementary and middle schools. Everyone seems to have a different perspective on why there is such a problem with school safety. Some say it is the parents’ fault, some say it is the media, and others blame the schools. Yet, the question still remains. What can be done to make schools safer for the children and staff? One thing we need to do is learn to listen to our children and observe their behavior. According ...
You can’t turn on the television, or read the paper without hearing about violence in our cities and world. In a report from “Stand Up for Kids” in Chicago, they analyze the relationship between low wages, income inequality, and the epidemic of violence in Chicago’s low income neighborhoods. This report found that in 2012 there were nearly 7,700 gun-related crimes reported in the city. The city of Chicago has the third highest overall metropolitan poverty rate in the nation. Nearly one quarter of all Chicago residents live below the federal poverty threshold according to this report. ("Chicago Not Only Leads the Nation in Gun Violence Rates, but Also in Measures of Urban Poverty." Stand Up Chicago, 1 Feb. 2013. Web. 7 Oct. 2014.) Decades of research have demonstrated that there is a statistically significant link between low wages, income inequality and crime. The analysis presented in this report shows that when a city’s economic conditions improve, the violent crime rates go down.( "Chicago Not Only Leads the Nation in Gun Violence Rates, but Also in Measures of Urban Poverty." Stand Up Chicago, 1 Feb. 2013. Web. 7 Oct. 2014.) Parents and children are turning to violent acts to provide for their family needs. Policy makers and the government need to address the issues of persistent poverty and income inequality such as raising the minimum wage to a living wage and create satisfying jobs for the
From the more extreme situations of parent 's not enrolling their child into school, to the more common everyday situations of a parent not enforcing attendance or not partaking in any curricular activities, they essentially portray the idea that school is not important or necessary to succeed. A young child’s mind is like a sponge, absorbing everything they see. Their first teachers are not that of kindergarten teachers, but the parents, where children will begin to develop what kind of person they will become within the first few years of their lives. This is the crucial point in a child’s life where is if the parents are not mentally constructive with their child, it will only result in weaker mental growth. This in turn will affect the child for the rest of their life. Instilling the importance of education is crucial at a young age, as a young mind grows and develops, so will the core beliefs. Be that it may not be the case for every child, if he or she has not had the importance of an education instilled upon them via parent’s, they are far less likely to succeed academically as well as economically though out their lives. It is a well know fact that the higher the level of education one has, the greater the pay they can come to expect. With the average income of a high school dropout being just over $23,000 a year, whereas a typical bachelor degree holder makes on average $55,000 a year and only increases with the level of education. A decrease in education is typically tied with an increased likelihood of crime
In many states, teachers are underpaid. Though money is not the motive for most teachers, without enticing salaries, many are lured away from the teaching profession and graduates looking for a first year teaching position are not given much to look forward to. So, since teachers are not paid adequately, raising the pay scale would ensure that our children are left in the hands of quality educators. One way teachers can be sufficiently compensated is by merit pay. The formula is simple; as test scores and evaluations rise, so would the teachers’ salaries. Although controversial, it is just one of many