"I believe the teachers are fighting for a better education for our students," said Eileen Marciano.

Right. This is all about curriculum, right, Eileen? Obviously, giving more one on one time between teachers and students would be TERRIBLY harmful for the kids!LOL

Getting rid of underachieving senior faculty through fair evaluations is DEFINTELY "for the kids", right?

And what about those 4% per year raises they have been offered (16% total over 4 years), and has been found to be "not enough"? Obvioulsy paying a $71,233 per 170 days CTU member $82,600 for 170 days work will DEFINITELY make them a better teacher, right?LOL

The problem is that CTU members get the highest pay for least contact hours, with one of the poorest student outcomes, of just about any major city. Houston students get over a year more contact time than Chicago students by the time they graduate from HS. Our students deserve better. Our teachers union deserves less!

"We don't need just a longer day, but a better day," Majka said.

Actuall, if you knew ANYTHING about education and the underperforming Chicago schools, you'd realize they need BOTH! Why don't you tell us what CTU workers have done over the last three years to show they made the ridiculouosly short school days in CPS "better" and the equal service to those districts which spend less, such as Indian Praire 204 in Naperville. Their teachers are paid FAR less than CPS, they spend substantially less than CPS, but the outperform thier peers by significant amount. Check out the kind of education economically disadvantaged kids in 204 get, as evidenced by they ISAT and ACT achievement in school report cards, and compare it to CPS students. THEN tell me what kind of job CPS is doing for their at risk kids, and why CTU workers deserve ANY raise!

I am a 32 year CPS veteran and I'd like to offer a few words of advice to the strikers.
I was at the Ray school today and a few minutes ago watched many teachers smiling and laughing as if this is a big joke. Brothers and sisters in solidarity let me remind you that this very serious business and your expressions speak volumes to John Q.
Next, sadly the school reform debate never looks critically at the poor performance of the hundreds of school managers in the system that simply never understand that the key to management is leadership and the key to leadership is human resource investment. The private sector and military are very good at this, but in our industry it is sorely lacking. Going back to both Daley the elder and down to Daley the younger,Harold and their silly selections namely Pauly and Arne I can tell you not a one had a clue about inspired education leadership.
Last , Rahm is backed into a corner and be prepared for something radical like a quick visit to the GA asking for a significant increase in charters or perhaps the hated voucher option.

Good Luck

Brian McCann
Retired

The students at CPS schools deserve a better learning environment and that is what the teachers and CTU is fighting for! Rahm said yesterday class size is not an issue, well if his kids were in a class with 40+ students with no air conditioning, no text books, no computers, leaky roofs, and mice.....well we know what would happen! I think the teachers and CTU have our children's best interest at heart and are working towards building a fair contract for themselves and for the students. Teachers do deserve to get p[aid just like any other person who does a job and does it well. If any other union went on strike you would never here this union bashing you would hear songs of praise! Teachers work a hard and thankless job and by the way our 19th ward teachers are AMAZING!!! I stand strong with the teachers in solidarity and always will!

At Rock- you have NO idea what it is like to have your child in a classroom with over 40 students when the classroom is designed to hold only 30. You also have NO clue as to standardized testing scores in relation to teaching skills. There is NO direct correlation between poor test scores and poor teaching. Teachers are NOT the only teachers in our childrens lives. Parents also need to be held accountable, esp. since we are with our children 17 hours a day and teachers only 7. Teachers can't make up for parents who don't support their childrens education, nor should they be held accountable! My children's teachers ARE fighting for a better education for our children!

The ignorance of the facts about Chicago Public Schools I read here is AMAZING!

First, according to school report cards, average class sizes in CPS range from about 24 to 27 in K-8 and about 19 in high school. That's too high for elementary schools and too low for HS. Ideally, you'd have a class size of about 18 for kindergarten, 19-24 for 1-5, and 24-27 for 6-8. As the report cards show, the average for 6-8 is about right, but K-5 class size is too high.

This is not a "resource" problem, it's a mangement problem. At over $13,000 in OPERATING COSTS ALONE in CPS, there's more than adequate money to give the children a quality education. Look at what the Naperville Schools (203 and 204) are doing with less, and look at the "economically disadvantaged" student achievement in their schools, and you'll see how the CPS staff and faculty are failing the children.

The current offer to increase salaries by 16% and adding 500 teachers is clearly a HORRIBLE investment if you want improved schools. Students won't have a chance until CPS brings the contact hours ABOVE that of other major cities, and provides the quality tutoring services and summer programs that our children need to catch up.

A REAL investment that would bring postive results for the kids would be increasing contact hours and giving the kids the extra help and FREEZING salaries until average CPS salaries are on a par with the rest of the state. Currently average CPS salaries are 10% higher!

Eileen, if your local schools are having 40 student classes, it's indicative of a few things; (1) Your regional administration has failed to properly set attendance boundaries, (2) CPS has failed to provide mobiles to meet a temporary spike in enrollment, or (3) CPS has failed to set up agreements with currently under-enrolled private schools to rent space for the overflow until facility adjustments can be made.

All these problems are at Alderman Matt O'Shea's doorstep. It's HIS JOB to ensure the 19th Ward's children are adequately served by 125 S. Clark.

Sounds like he isn't serving you very well. Maybe it's time for a change!

Sorry Rock but I don't agree with you on all of that.
1- boundaries can't account for economic change and improved area schools which have cause more parents to send kids to the local public schools in our area instead of paying for private schooling.
2 - NO ONE WANTS MOBILES!!! Any one working in CPS knows the mobiles they say are temporary become the permanent solution and are rarely removed to later upgrade or expand a building.
3 - CPS needs to care for its students within its own buildings and put the money there but as a temporary solution I agree private school space is ideal to rent but the cost over time is not always worth it and we don't necessarily have any private school space available to even rent.

While I agree to keep the pressure on O'Shea to make sure our children are adequately served, I feel you are placing blame on the wrong person here..

Don't forget local parochial schools. Many of those in Evergreen and Oak Lawn are having a hard time with enrollments. CPS could give a voucher for about half the CPS cost and serve the students as well as the taxpayers! They could also rent space in churches. I grew up in the burbs and I had to take classes in both elementary and high school in church basements. Worked out pretty well!