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Wait, what? Zero payroll deductions and free healthcare? Could you cite some examples please, because my 30 year teaching position has never provided those benefits.
Chicago public schools. No premiums, no deductibles, no coinsurance, no copayments. All this information is publicly available in the documents that are published every four years when the union goes on strike because these benefits are never good enough.
Beginning teacher pay is $56k. The highest base pay bracket is $105k with bonuses for certifications and extra duties (maximum allowable with these extras is $120k). The average Chicago teacher earns $85k, which is nearly 3x the median income in Chicago. Their current contract includes a 16% COL increase, which is higher than their 14% COL of their previous contract. Pay and health insurance isn't their only great perk. CPS teachers are eligible for their full pension after 14 years of teaching. That means for a teacher that begins their career at CPS, they can retire with full benefits at the age of 36. High school teachers have only 5 teaching periods per day, out of a 7-hour work day. Each teacher gets $250 per year for whatever supplies and materials they wish to buy, over and above what the district already provides for instruction. CPS teachers can decline any school assignment, even if their position has been eliminated at their current school assignment, without losing any pay or benefits.
Among the 150 largest school districts in the country, Chicago ranks highest for teacher compensation.
The last time teachers went on strike, they were upset that the city offered teacher's aides a minuscule raise to keep up with minimum wage. Teacher's aides earn $30k per year. Teachers demanded that if the aides got a raise, then the teachers should get one too (on top of their regular COL raise). Gimme, gimme, gimme. It's why most schools don't have librarians or nurses.
And CPS teachers get all of this despite failing to teach 2/3 of our kids how to read. Even weather forecasters and baseball players have better stats.
Last edited by MarianRavenwood; 12-21-2022 at 08:56 PM..
Chicago public schools. No premiums, no deductibles, no coinsurance, no copayments. All this information is publicly available in the documents that are published every four years when the union goes on strike because these benefits are never good enough.
Beginning teacher pay is $56k. The highest base pay bracket is $105k with bonuses for certifications and extra duties (maximum allowable with these extras is $120k). The average Chicago teacher earns $85k, which is nearly 3x the median income in Chicago. Their current contract includes a 16% COL increase, which is higher than their 14% COL of their previous contract. Among the 150 largest school districts in the country, Chicago ranks highest for teacher compensation.
The last time teachers went on strike, they were upset that the city offered teacher's aides a minuscule raise to keep up with minimum wage. Teacher's aides earn $30k per year. Teachers demanded that if the aides got a 5% raise, then the teachers should get one too (on top of their regular COL raise). Gimme, gimme, gimme. It's why most of our schools don't have librarians or nurses.
And CPS teachers get all of this despite failing to teach 2/3 of our kids how to read. Even weather forecasters and baseball players have better stats.
Why haven't you jumped on that gravy train??? Surprising that they have still have a teacher shortage.
Or is it?
Illinois is short 5,301 teachers in 2022. One fifth of the unfilled positions are in Chicago.
Supply and Demand should have filled these jobs. Something else is at play.
Illinois actually has more teachers than we need. More than we've ever had in the state, despite declining population and declining students in public schools. The 5300 vacant positions that you cite represents a mere 3% vacancy rate, and is mostly in rural downstate, in hard-to-fill roles like special ed.
Illinois DOES NOT equal Chicago. Chicago also does not have a teacher shortage, in fact we are closing schools (have been for years). Chicago even has a few schools whose enrollment is less than 10% of capacity, yet the school is fully staffed.....and the teachers still have only achieved a 6%/1% reading/math proficiency.
It's clear that actually there ARE people jumping on the gravy train just for the benefits because a person has to be TERRIBLE at teaching to reach this level of ineptitude. It is cruel to children to impose teachers this bad upon them.
Illinois actually has more teachers than we need. More than we've ever had in the state, despite declining population and declining students in public schools. The 5300 vacant positions that you cite represents a mere 3% vacancy rate, and is mostly in rural downstate, in hard-to-fill roles like special ed.
Illinois DOES NOT equal Chicago. Chicago also does not have a teacher shortage, in fact we are closing schools (have been for years). Chicago even has a few schools whose enrollment is less than 10% of capacity, yet the school is fully staffed.....and the teachers still have only achieved a 6%/1% reading/math proficiency.
It's clear that actually there ARE people jumping on the gravy train just for the benefits because a person has to be TERRIBLE at teaching to reach this level of ineptitude. It is cruel to children to impose teachers this bad upon them.
For years, Washington D.C. held 1st place for highest pay and lowest scores. Has Chicago now eclipsed them?
If you believe that inept teachers are the reason public school students have such poor test scores, then you haven't spent any time in those classrooms recently.
Lack of interest, cell phones, disruptive behavior, poor parental support, and low cognitive ability are some of the challenges.
Should Correctional Officers be blamed for the dismal rate of rehabilitation among inmates?
Chicago public schools. No premiums, no deductibles, no coinsurance, no copayments. All this information is publicly available in the documents that are published every four years when the union goes on strike because these benefits are never good enough.
Beginning teacher pay is $56k. The highest base pay bracket is $105k with bonuses for certifications and extra duties (maximum allowable with these extras is $120k). The average Chicago teacher earns $85k, which is nearly 3x the median income in Chicago. Their current contract includes a 16% COL increase, which is higher than their 14% COL of their previous contract. Pay and health insurance isn't their only great perk. CPS teachers are eligible for their full pension after 14 years of teaching. That means for a teacher that begins their career at CPS, they can retire with full benefits at the age of 36. High school teachers have only 5 teaching periods per day, out of a 7-hour work day. Each teacher gets $250 per year for whatever supplies and materials they wish to buy, over and above what the district already provides for instruction. CPS teachers can decline any school assignment, even if their position has been eliminated at their current school assignment, without losing any pay or benefits.
Among the 150 largest school districts in the country, Chicago ranks highest for teacher compensation.
The last time teachers went on strike, they were upset that the city offered teacher's aides a minuscule raise to keep up with minimum wage. Teacher's aides earn $30k per year. Teachers demanded that if the aides got a raise, then the teachers should get one too (on top of their regular COL raise). Gimme, gimme, gimme. It's why most schools don't have librarians or nurses.
And CPS teachers get all of this despite failing to teach 2/3 of our kids how to read. Even weather forecasters and baseball players have better stats.
Chicago Public Schools right now has 789 teacher vacancies despite being in your opinion too well compensated. If you think it is so awesome, apply yourself. They could certainly use your warm body. Bet you have no interest in that, just like most people who complain about how overpaid and underworked teachers are. This gets so old. Great pay and light working schedules are not generally associated with an inability to fill vacant jobs.
You are incorrect about the retirement. I plugged your 14 years of teaching at age 36 into the official pension calculator and got the following response:
Quote:
According to the information you entered, you would not be eligible to retire from CTPF with a Tier 1 benefit. In order to retire from CTPF, you need to be at least age 55. If you are under age 62, you need at least 20 years of service credit in order to retire. At or after age 62, you need at least 5 years of service to retire.
By the way, that 5 years of service after age 62 turns to 10 if the teacher was hired after 2011. What is more Chicago teachers are NOT eligible for Social Security. There are 15 states where that happens. Illinois is one of my four Social Security non-eligible states I worked in, a factor no one wants to consider when discussing teacher pensions and unfortunately something teachers themselves don’t think about enough when young.
The bold in your quote is not okay if that rule is under any circumstances, particularly if it holds true when a school loses enrollment to the point that classroom sizes throughout the school falls below 20-22 students per class. It should never be true within a school. However, if it’s to prevent vindictive transfers that have nothing to do with declining enrollment, which was a common practice at one time in large school systems, that is now common policy in most states, as it should be.
__________________
When I post in bold red that is moderator action and, per the TOS, can only be discussed through Direct Message.
The prior posters arguments are disingenuous. While Chicago is highly educated, we don’t have more than 50% with a bachelor’s degree AND working full time. The median per capita income typically includes people working part time and people who dropped out of HS on up. No, one wouldn’t expect a full-time teacher with at least a bachelor’s degree to be making the same as a HS dropout who does some seasonal landscaping work.
Chicago is also a huge school district where a lot of people don’t have cars. Even with a car, if you work/live in th South Shore area and that position gets eliminated, sending you up by Rogers Park, it is easy to see why you might decline. I live in the suburbs and have met many people who work for CPS, so they may also be coming from outside the city. The benefit to the suburban schools is a small school district where there isn’t much variety in where you will teach. Many districts have a whopping two high schools, so worst case scenario you may be moved to the other one.
Teaching is a part time job. 8am to 4 pm with 1.5 hrs off for lunch & recess x 200d/y = 1300 hr/y...Don't give us the BS about "home-work." Many jobs require off the clock preps.
OTOH- I still want to know how Dennis Hassert, a recent Speaker of the House, who started out as a teacher in downstate IL, a poor district paying only ~ $15000/yr became a millionaire after only a couple yrs in DC with an offical salary of $174,000/yr?
Chicago public schools. No premiums, no deductibles, no coinsurance, no copayments. All this information is publicly available in the documents that are published every four years when the union goes on strike because these benefits are never good enough.
Beginning teacher pay is $56k. The highest base pay bracket is $105k with bonuses for certifications and extra duties (maximum allowable with these extras is $120k). The average Chicago teacher earns $85k, which is nearly 3x the median income in Chicago. Their current contract includes a 16% COL increase, which is higher than their 14% COL of their previous contract. Pay and health insurance isn't their only great perk. CPS teachers are eligible for their full pension after 14 years of teaching. That means for a teacher that begins their career at CPS, they can retire with full benefits at the age of 36. High school teachers have only 5 teaching periods per day, out of a 7-hour work day. Each teacher gets $250 per year for whatever supplies and materials they wish to buy, over and above what the district already provides for instruction. CPS teachers can decline any school assignment, even if their position has been eliminated at their current school assignment, without losing any pay or benefits.
Among the 150 largest school districts in the country, Chicago ranks highest for teacher compensation.
The last time teachers went on strike, they were upset that the city offered teacher's aides a minuscule raise to keep up with minimum wage. Teacher's aides earn $30k per year. Teachers demanded that if the aides got a raise, then the teachers should get one too (on top of their regular COL raise). Gimme, gimme, gimme. It's why most schools don't have librarians or nurses.
And CPS teachers get all of this despite failing to teach 2/3 of our kids how to read. Even weather forecasters and baseball players have better stats.
Okay, so let's think about that (presuming what you posted is correct). Let's see...how do you attract teacher candidates to a urban school district? Oh yes...benefits. That are better than suburban or rural school districts.
Teaching is a part time job. 8am to 4 pm with 1.5 hrs off for lunch & recess x 200d/y = 1300 hr/y...Don't give us the BS about "home-work." Many jobs require off the clock preps.
OTOH- I still want to know how Dennis Hassert, a recent Speaker of the House, who started out as a teacher in downstate IL, a poor district paying only ~ $15000/yr became a millionaire after only a couple yrs in DC with an offical salary of $174,000/yr?
Who said? In our district, the teacher day was 7.5 hours with a 26 minute lunch period. Planning periods had a purpose, as did after-school help sessions, the requirement to perform "other duties, as assigned", including some night and weekend activities. Yes, off duty preps are not exclusive to teaching...but it is usually understood that is part of the job and part of the remuneration.
I've told this story before and I'll tell it again. One year we had a PTA that wanted to have more night dances for their kids. "Oh, don't worry, Mr. Victor. You and your staff won't have to do a thing". I knew better, so I had a full normal contingent of teachers and administrators on hand -- in the lounge -- to supervise when things started falling apart. Let's see. First the PTA ran out of refreshments in the first half hour of a 3 hour dance. You can imagine how kids who had paid for tickets felt about getting none of the food promised when they bought those tickers, and they were very willing to express their anger. Then there were the 4 kids who climbed up on the roof and the PTA parents had to call the police officer in on that one. Then there were the kids (most), who hated the disc jockey and made no effort to hide their anger on that issue. And then PTA mothers began crying...and leaving...and that's when the professionals stepped in and tried to clean up the mess. If you're not a teacher, you don't get it. I don't care if you've got 3 kids of your own, that's not the same as controlling a thousand to a few thousand middle or high schoolers.
Chicago public schools. No premiums, no deductibles, no coinsurance, no copayments. All this information is publicly available in the documents that are published every four years when the union goes on strike because these benefits are never good enough.
Beginning teacher pay is $56k. The highest base pay bracket is $105k with bonuses for certifications and extra duties (maximum allowable with these extras is $120k). The average Chicago teacher earns $85k, which is nearly 3x the median income in Chicago. Their current contract includes a 16% COL increase, which is higher than their 14% COL of their previous contract. Pay and health insurance isn't their only great perk. CPS teachers are eligible for their full pension after 14 years of teaching. That means for a teacher that begins their career at CPS, they can retire with full benefits at the age of 36. High school teachers have only 5 teaching periods per day, out of a 7-hour work day. Each teacher gets $250 per year for whatever supplies and materials they wish to buy, over and above what the district already provides for instruction. CPS teachers can decline any school assignment, even if their position has been eliminated at their current school assignment, without losing any pay or benefits.
Among the 150 largest school districts in the country, Chicago ranks highest for teacher compensation.
The last time teachers went on strike, they were upset that the city offered teacher's aides a minuscule raise to keep up with minimum wage. Teacher's aides earn $30k per year. Teachers demanded that if the aides got a raise, then the teachers should get one too (on top of their regular COL raise). Gimme, gimme, gimme. It's why most schools don't have librarians or nurses.
And CPS teachers get all of this despite failing to teach 2/3 of our kids how to read. Even weather forecasters and baseball players have better stats.
If all that you posted is correct, you are citing one school system. You found one. (Kudos to the CTU on their contract.) In your previous post you wrote, “Trade in the three months/year off, the pension with zero payroll deductions, the free healthcare. Trade them all in for no pension and virtually no employer contribution to your own retirement savings” as if this applies to most of not all teaching positions. You cherry picked one unspecified example (Chicago) with a private sector example to the opposite extreme. “…no pension and virtually no employer contribution to your own retirement savings. For health insurance that will eat up your paycheck. Two weeks' vacation (if you are lucky)”.
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Surprising that they have still have a teacher shortage. 
