Teacher Bashing: The Inequality Psychology
In any society where wealth and income concentrate overwhelmingly at the top, the affluent will almost always come to sneer at public services and the men and women who provide them. In Chicago, those men and women have pushed back.
Last year state lawmakers in Illinois did their best to make a Chicago teacher strike impossible. They passed a new law that required at least 75 percent of the city’s teachers to okay any walkout in advance.
How did Chicago teachers respond? In advance balloting early this June, 92 percent of the city’s teachers voted, and 98 percent of those teachers voted to strike if contract negotiations broke down.
This near-total teacher support for last week's walkout in Chicago shows just how intensely frustrated the city's teachers have become. They've been teaching for years in schools woefully ill-equipped to serve the city’s students.
The vast majority of these students, 87 percent, rate as “low income.” Many have no books in their homes and no quiet place to study. Some — over 15,000 — have no homes at all.
Chicago political officials haven't done nearly enough to help teachers help these students learn. Over 160
Last year state lawmakers in Illinois did their best to make a Chicago teacher strike impossible. They passed a new law that required at least 75 percent of the city’s teachers to okay any walkout in advance.
How did Chicago teachers respond? In advance balloting early this June, 92 percent of the city’s teachers voted, and 98 percent of those teachers voted to strike if contract negotiations broke down.
This near-total teacher support for last week's walkout in Chicago shows just how intensely frustrated the city's teachers have become. They've been teaching for years in schools woefully ill-equipped to serve the city’s students.
The vast majority of these students, 87 percent, rate as “low income.” Many have no books in their homes and no quiet place to study. Some — over 15,000 — have no homes at all.
Chicago political officials haven't done nearly enough to help teachers help these students learn. Over 160