Last week we gave the positive view of the Chicago strike from Jackson Potter, a union activist. Today we present a far different analysis showing how senior teachers sacrificed greatly because of the strike. This is from Marguerite Roza and it is worth considering.
The Chicago Teachers Union leaders were adamant that they weren’t on strike over salaries, but rather were fighting for educational justice in the form of more staffing. Now that the dust has settled, the numbers support that claim. Teachers didn’t gain anything in terms of salary that wasn’t already offered before the strike started. Instead, they lost six days of pay for the missed school days. (They struck for 11 days, but will make up five of them.)
For the average teacher, the unpaid strike time amounts to $2,100 in lost wages. There goes most of this year’s raise.
But it’s the senior teachers nearing retirement that got hit with a double whammy. First, their salaries are higher (some as high as $111,000) so the lost wages can total as much as $3,200 per teacher. Then, for teachers retiring in the next four years, those lost salary dollars will result in lower pension payments. Because pension amounts are based on the last four years of salary, teacher pensions are highly sensitive to even modest changes in salary during any one of those final years. For the six lost days of work, retiring teachers should expect a dip of a little over $600 per year, but that loss affects every single year of retirement. Using standard assumptions of lifespan and discounting, it is clear that the effect on pension amounts to a loss for a retiring teacher of more than $9,500 in today’s dollars.
That means, for a teacher at the top of the pay scale retiring in the next four years, the strike meant walking away from salary and pension payments totaling nearly $13,000. Ouch.
The union did get an extra $5 million at the last minute for senior teachers to mitigate a little of the damage.
Ms. Roza makes a very good case that senior teachers near retirement didn't gain from the Chicago strike. However, Ms. Roza does not mention that without a legitimate threat of a strike, I think we can safely say there is no way management would have offered Chicago teachers 16% raises over five years. Absent any possibility of militancy, they more likely would have been offered the same meager raises that New York City teachers are presented with and accept without even the hint of a fight, except of course from us dissidents.
Ok, so how do we threaten a strike so we get a good raise in 2022?
ReplyDeleteMoney isn’t the real issue in NYC. It’s the total lack of respect from the admins, students, DOE and unbelievably the UFT. The UFT does not respect teachers and it’s evidenced by their lack of action over every nasty thing done to us.
ReplyDeleteOk, so pretty much all students are like this, but I will use 1 example...Student has 50% or lower attendance in every classes. Failed 1 class. Other grades include 90, 88, 75. I confront guidance. Well, if we enforced any rules we would be put of s job in Jaunary. Oh, ok. I got it. That makes sense. But these are really good kids who are really achieving, right?
ReplyDeleteChaz...With the high school graduation rate increasing yearly (75.9%) and more students attending college, has the college graduation rate improved? The answer is a disappointing not really. Based on the latest 2017 data he college graduation rate for NYC high school graduates is 22% for CUNY and 26% for SUNY. For two year associates degree from community college the graduation rate is a disappointing 32%.
ReplyDeleteThe reason for the disappointing college graduation rate is that colleges try to maintain high standards and unlike high school, there is no such thing as " credit recovery", scholarship requirements by principals to ensure more students graduate and administrative pressure to pass undeserving students. Just look at my academic fraud posts.
The bottom line is that less than one out of every four students who enter college will achieve a four year college degree and that is disappointing.
Years ago, the less experienced teachers sought advice and guidance from the old timers. Oh, how things have changed.
ReplyDeleteI am not Chaz but we have done pieces on colleges holding to some standards and how kids are victims of high school social promotion as they graduate totally unprepared for college or the real world. This is the inevitable result of mayoral control of pre k-12 education in NYC.
ReplyDelete