In Chicago, the teachers (who make an average of $76,000) are getting a 16-percent pay hike even though their results actually teaching kids are abysmal. They explain their failure by blaming the students and the parents. What do the Chicago parents do? They support the strikers. And why not? They aren’t the ones who are paying for all the largesse.
In Lake Forest, a tony suburb north of Chicago, the teachers (who make over $100,000 each on average) have turned down a 9-percent increase and have also formed picket lines. But parents in Lake Forest are holding rallies to get the teachers back on the job. They’re volunteering to teach today as the schools have opened their doors despite the strike. There is even talk of replacing the strikers, since Lake Forest schools get thousands of qualified teaching applicants every year.
Isn’t one reason for the differing approach that the parents in Lake Forest are paying the bills and expect accountability, and the parents in Chicago are expecting someone else to pay for their schools?