Salaries are not, reportedly, a major sticking point in the negotiations between the Chicago Teachers Union and the School Board (and City). However, they've been a major factor in the criticism the striking teachers have received (see, for example, the excerpt from Rick Garnett that I previously posted):
The Chicago Teachers Union, like so many others, resists meaningful educational reform -- including school choice, which Catholic Social Teaching clearly supports -- at (almost) every turn. And yet, they are unsatisfied with pay that exceeds that of their colleagues in nearly every other big city and with a strikingly generous healthcare-benefits and retirement-benefits package, and they resist efforts to somehow hold them accountable for their performance.Professor Bruce Baker (Rutgers—Education) has a post with solid data about teacher pay in Chicago and the surrounding areas that serves as a useful takedown of characterizations like Garnett's.
Pay in the Chicago Public Schools starts around $40,000 and peaks and tapers near $80,000 at around 15 years of experience.
By contrast, pay in nearby New Trier Township (just north of Evanston) starts at $60,000, hits about $100,000 at 15 years experience, and continues rising to $120,000 for teachers with 20-25 years under their belt.
And Baker points out another useful comparison: 85% of CPS's students are classified as "low-income." Only 3% of New Trier's students are so classified.
Given numbers like those, it's hard to see the problem in Chicago as one of over-paid teachers demanding more money at the public trough. Instead, it seems, the problem is once again wealthy communities privileging their children at the expense of the most vulnerable.
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