The public looks like they have the backs of the teachers. I have done some more research and it is clear to me that Chicago teachers are not bad off financially but they can't be bought off with an offer of a decent raise. This is encouraging but as teacher militancy is now a national movement, we have to wonder why there is zero, absolutely zero militancy in NYC even though we have plenty of reasons to fight for a better deal. Let's do a little comparing.
Right now according to Chalkbeat, Chicago teachers start out at a little over $56,000 a year and max out at $108,242 per year after only 14 years (NYC teachers do not get to maximum until after completing 22 years). Factor in the cost of living which is 42% lower in Chicago compared to NYC and Chicago public school teachers earn a decent living. Add to this that the city is offering the teachers 16% salary increases over five years. The starting salary, if they just say yes, will be $64,960 a year in Chicago by 2024. That would be higher than the $61,070 starting pay New York City teachers will earn when the current contract ends in 2022. We would need two years at 6% total in NYC to catch up with their starting salary. The last time the UFT achieved two consecutive annual 3% increases was a while ago. The Chicago teacher maximum salary would rise to $125,561 if the union accepts the city's offer. Remember, top salary only requires 14 years of service to reach. After 14 year in NYC, a teacher with a Masters +30 credits will make $104,145 in 2022. Strike or no strike, Chicago will really not need the lower cost of living to beat NYC at almost all of the levels.
Any way you slice it, Chicago teachers, where teachers insist on a militant union, are doing better in terms of salary than the passive NYC teachers and our "do little" union.
Let's now look at the class size issue, a major focus of the CTU strike. When we examine contractual class size limits, Chicago before the strike doesn't look bad compared to NYC. In NYC, the contract says 25 maximum in kindergarten, 32 in elementary schools, 33 in middle schools and 34 in high schools except required music and phys ed which are permitted to go to a maximum of 50. There are of course exceptions to these ridiculously high limits that are easy to use and if the Department of Education routinely violates the limits, the remedy is determined by arbitrators. Resolutions have included one less professional period for the teacher with an oversize class. I have no idea how that helps kids.
For Chicago, this class size information comes from Patch:
Chicago's class size cap is 28 students in kindergarten through fifth grades, and 31 students in middle and high school. If a K-2 class has 32 or more students, the district must provide an additional teacher assistant, a demand won in the last contract. A joint district-union panel reviews classes exceeding the caps and seeks ways to mitigate the crowding.
Except for kindergarten, their limits are lower than NYC and Chicago teachers are striking over these caps and other staffing issues (more librarians, social workers, nurses). They want it in writing in the contract. They are demanding lower class size maximums and strict enforcement. Wow! Watch Jennifer Johnson if you have Facebook.
I am not stating any of this to say that the CTU should be happy with what they are being offered so they should take the money and run. No, their union is doing right by their membership and their students. The rank and file is out on the picket lines and the streets rallying. I support them 100%. They will have better salaries, teaching conditions and learning conditions when this ends. I also hope they get a provision so if the district retaliates against them for striking by closing schools, they cannot fire the displaced teachers.
What about the teachers here in NYC? We complain anonymously on social media about how terrible conditions are and some foolish individuals are dropping their union altogether so they can save union dues. Judging by what I am seeing out of Chicago and around the rest of the nation, we would be doing much better if we demanded a better union, not an end to the union.
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| Chicago average teacher salaries compared to other big cities from CBS Chicago. Notice the media spin against the teachers. I think their NYC figures are a little out of date but our salary schedule moves up very slowly so averages are low. |
Just got word from my school that we are adding minutes to each of our periods (HS). This will be starting October 21st in order to compensate for the December 23rd day.. we thought we won... Admin claims this is so that we will remain in compliance with NYSED instructional time. WTF? I thought changes in day/schedules had to be done via an SBO vote. Googled online and cannot find anything about this compliance issue. Now my OCD tendency is to actually ADD up all those minutes until June and see how many we are doing extra and compare to how much was "lost" due to December 23rd.
ReplyDeleteI have not heard of this anywhere else. You may have a unique situation or maybe this is the first of many. Adding 5.5 hours from Dec 23 is unlikely to get you to 990 instructional hours. Email us your instructional hours (periods) at iceuft@gmail.com. We will review and try to help.
ReplyDeleteJust off the top of my head, 5.5 hours from 1 day is 330 minutes. Adding 2 minutes per period for 7 periods per day would add 14 instructional minutes to each day. 14 x about 150 school days left = 2100 minutes. Dividing that by 60 gets 35 hours of added instructional time. That is way more than just December 23.
There are only 86 days this semester. With state eds new rule about passing time not counting as instructional time, majority of schools still be short minutes for science classes, because the lab day is Friday which doesn't count for instructional time for the class. Sooo the is a very easy solution, just change your master time in the stars client, remove the passing time and put it into the periods. It's that simple. Don't need to do anything else. They are not allowed to add more time to your periods without an sbo
ReplyDeleteWhere is the comment from the asshole saying we should drop union dues because of this? Go CTU.
ReplyDeleteIt should be noted for the right wingers out there that the Chicago Caucus running the union is left wing socialist led compared to our own center Democratic leadership. MORE aspired to be CORE but has failed miserably in influencing the UFT in the direction CORE has taken. CORE has led two previous strikes since it took power in 2010. Biden is speaking at UFT teacher day today, an indication of where the UFT is going. The CTU undoubtedly would support Bernie as does the similarly led Los Angeles teacher union which also went out on strike recently. Just sayin'.
ReplyDeleteThe right wing anti union assholes are in hiding after this strike.
ReplyDeleteCheck the 2 NY Post articles...1 is discussing how a student can never show up and pass if they "do the work." The other is about the city wasting $100M per year on ATRs who do nothing.
ReplyDeleteThat's bull. ATRs are not idle. Many have classes.
ReplyDeleteThe grade fraud certainly is not bull, it is actually the rule.
ReplyDeleteI went to a training today and one of the presenters said she tells first year teachers if they won't stay in the building after 2:20 then their school is not for them. She then said 8:00 to 2:20 may be the contract but she expects teachers to spend more time than that on their students to be good educators because "our children deserve the best". Her tone was incredibly dismissive and bullyish. She was applauded though because the majority of the room was educators from Georgia and South Carolina, and we know how weak their unions are.
ReplyDeleteI know to do all the work of teaching requires a lot of extra time. I give that time freely. I think to actively discourage new teachers though and create a culture of "you have to hang out in the building after 2:20" is wrong. You can go home to your own children at 2:20 and still be a good teacher. You might have to lesson plan at 8PM, but so what? Also we should be encouraging first year teachers, not laying down blanket statements of "you don't belong" for things that are so unreasonable. First year teachers can be amazing and still leave the building at 2:20.
I also don't appreciate hearing someone blatently disrespecting our contract. There are protections for us in it that we fought for and we should honor it. The hours that we are mandated to be in school are just for our presence. Does physically being in the building for longer hours guarantee our students better outcomes? I don't think so. I think when someone dismisses or ignores our contract it decreases the power of our union and devalues us as professionals. This presenter was not giving our union (and many of our peers) respect by encouraging this "with us or against us" attitude. I walked away from that training with a bad taste in my mouth and I certainly hope that presenter (who was a coach) is not representative of the culture of that school.
Many principals consider the provisions of the contract to be the minimum they expect of the teachers. Everything extra they consider to be indicative of your professionalism or dedication to the children.
ReplyDeleteAdministration can get away with ignoring the contract because the Union many times does not support teachers who try to enforce it.
ReplyDeleteBut the union is getting paid $62 per check to enforce that oh so important contract.
ReplyDelete“A whole generation of American teachers deserve a generous raise, and I’m going to make sure they get one,” said Biden to uft today...But I thought the uft said we already had great salaries based on their tremendous negotiating.
ReplyDeleteJames, you cant have it both ways. Dont tell me I must pay dues or it will get worse then say it is already worse by saying "the Union many times does not support teachers who try to enforce it." Those were your words. So you say whether I pay or not I get screwed. Might as well not pay.
ReplyDeleteLet us once again go to my friend Sam Lazarus who said, "The two problems with the UFT are the leadership and the membership." I have done more than enough documenting here about less than stellar UFT support when some members, particularly individuals more than chapters, step up and fight. However, the solution if your step 2 is turned down by UFT is not to cry about union dues or to say, screw it, I give up. The answer is to push harder and not give up.
ReplyDeleteWe need to do the impossible and change UFT leadership for sure as they did in Chicago and LA but before that, members need to stand up for themselves and each other in their schools. Not just in schools that are fortunate enough to have a strong chapter or a DR who will back people up. I mean everyone.
The CTU elected CORE to throw out their entrenched Unity style leadership in 2010. Then, they organized for the 2012 strike and again for the current strike after being reelected three times. It can happen here too but it's up to all of us. That is my basic thesis for 14 years of writing here. People like 5:16 should try to be part of the solution since you are obviously here often.
Been tried, too many times. No result. Same result. My ONLY option is to pull out. There is nothing else I can do.
ReplyDeleteNot true. Persisting is a much better alternative. Tired of saying same things. Chicago makes my point much better than I can. LA too. I am an eternal optimist as Jeff Kaufman tells me. It will happen in NYC. I just hope I am alive to see it.
ReplyDeleteTweet from Chicago:
ReplyDeleteWe were humming the Rocky Theme Song as we were coming out of the door [from a bargaining session]. Your bargaining team feels fully supported by the rank and file and your power in the picket lines and on the street.
But they found money to put tampons in every school in the city.
ReplyDeleteNo comment on everybody passes even with zero attendance?
ReplyDeleteHaha...Biden said today to the uft that we deserve generous raises. I guess that 1.3% a year for 7 years wasn't so good after all. I thought Mulgrew said we got a great deal.
ReplyDeleteThink about that, last two contracts we got 17% for 11 years. How sad. Anybody endorsing that kind of representation is insane.
ReplyDeleteCombine together a d get them out.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea to pull out 6:41 to pull out. We don't want to be saddled with your progeny.
ReplyDeleteSorry Norm I lost your comment but I did save the text. It is published here
ReplyDeleteEd Notes Online:
James, you know full well that we can't be compared to Chicago or LA where the rules are open enough for these groups to win. Here in NYC Unity has made it impossible. So when you say it can happen here without changing the constitution which Unity will never allow you are misleading people. At least when we had a viable opposition we could hope to win the 23 school based Ex Bd seats which would have created enough pressure on the leadership to force some changed. Now there is no way and no signs of a valid CORE Like group forming. CORE was smarter than MORE - they were more inclusive even when the same issues arose there but CORE had a better history of democracy from the beginning and not so big an ISO presence as MORE did. The late George Schmidt used to tell me that ISO in Chicago was not as destructive as they were here.
The cat is out of the bag. It isn't changing. We disagree on how to protest only because the way I have protested doesn't work. I have emailed, called, complained, spoken to other teachers voicing my grievances. Nobody gives a shit. So, may as well get the same treatment and save the $1600. Remember, the 2014 deal got almost 80%. I'm gonna fight that?
ReplyDeleteNorm, I said I hope to see the change in my lifetime. I know I am not a kid but I hope to be around for many years. One never knows what the future holds but UFT cannot go on like it has forever when militancy is around us everywhere. MORE was one of many attempts to be opposition. There will be others at some point and maybe MORE will change.
ReplyDeleteTo the guy who cursed out my wife and me: I didn't post your comment because you attributed to me things I did not say. I take the insults but not making up things.
ReplyDeleteJames
ReplyDeleteYour response reminds me of Eliz Warren when asked for details of health plan. Show me any kind of road map to reform. I had one - which was winning all 3 divisions and then going after the functional chapters. But as you know you need a massive opposition united and determined to put politics aside. In my 50 years we've never seen anything get close other than in high schools and even that was not massive with only 25% even voting. That was why you and others floated an idea of splitting out the high schools from the rest of the union.
But back to reality. MORE ideologues proved to me once and for all that people like that will be involved in any opposition movement and will play the same divisive role - that is as inevitable as the sun coming up. So with no chance to form a true opposition, the only hope you have would be for internal divisions in Unity. And the only way for that would be a massive crisis similar to 1975 with so many layoffs the central HQ is devastated and they start eating each other over jobs. Remember that CORE was only able to win due to a split in the Unity type leadership in 2010 though I believe CORE would have won the next election if that didn't happen.