After over 25 years of relative peace, the Chicago Teachers Union and the City of Chicago are at odds, tangled in a wrestling match for higher wages, shorter working hours and changes to teacher evaluations. On Monday, the Chicago Teachers Union launched a city-wide strike. The CTU, “unable to reach an agreement” that would prevent the strike, has effectively shut down 675 schools and locked the doors on over 400,000 students in the greater Chicago area.
Many wonder on what grounds Chicago Public School teachers — currently some of the highest-paid educators in the nation — are pushing for a 30 percent pay raise over two years. When countered with an offer of a 16 percent raise over four years (worth over $400 million), the CTU refused.
In a city with a median annual salary of $48,886, the average CPS teacher rakes in over $76,000 a year — not including their lavish benefits.
With 97 percent of health-care costs provided for, a salary higher than the majority of fellow public educators (and Chicagoans) and a retirement fund that is guzzling three quarters of all new education spending, Chicago educators clamoring for more is coming across as ridiculously greedy to city officials and many others around the country.
The CTU’s plea for shorter working hours may seem like a reasonable enough request. After all, who wouldn’t like to work less? But Chicago teachers are already working, by a wide margin, the least amount of hours in any large city school system in America, according to data gathered by CPS.