truth is always at the top..you did not know that trudat?

Haggisbingo, you mean Captain Corpulent of the Little Debbie Brigade, right?

Romney would rather double class size, half teachers pay and their numbers, because we don't need an educated electorate. It costs money at the expense of his base (the rich) and the last thing the neo-conservatives need is an educated electorate.

Besides his and his base's children and grand children go to private schools that have a lower student/teacher ratio than public schools have now.

"I am disappointed by the decision of the Chicago Teachers Union to turn its back on not only a city negotiating in good faith but also the hundreds of thousands of children relying on the city's public schools to provide them a safe place to receive a strong education," Romney said

This is the guy that had very little interest in higher ed. while he was governor of Massachusetts.

This is the guy that balanced Mass budget by cutting education budgets to pay for the tax cuts.

Romney trying to "make hay"?

More like he's grasping at straws....

Does anyone realize that the GOP has passed a bill in the House of Representatives to eliminate the caps on skilled foreign workers coming into this country?

It is now in the Senate. We need to speak up NOW and put a stop to this garbage! These are American jobs!

The United States House of Representatives passed this week a bill — House Resolution 3012 — which favors highly skilled workers by removing country-specific caps on immigrant engineers, computer scientists and other professionals.

House representatives voted 389 to 15 in favor of HR 3012 or the "Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act." The bill is also expected to pass in the Senate.

By eliminating the cap from each country on high-skilled working visa, talented immigrants from India, Philippines, China and other emerging economies can work in the US, the report said.

So much for the GOP's blathering about "illegals" taking American jobs. They just want to make them "legals" when it's cheaper for their corporate masters!

The Senate bill is S. 1983:

Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2011 - Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to: (1) eliminate the per country numerical limitation for employment-based immigrants, and (2) increase the per country numerical limitation for family based immigrants from 7% to 15% of the total number of family-sponsored visas.

Amends the Chinese Student Protection Act of 1992 to eliminate the provision requiring the reduction of annual Chinese (PRC) immigrant visas to offset status adjustments under such Act.

So more foreign workers to take American jobs. And many more Chinese by eliminating the offset reduction for foreign worker visas.

Does anyone here not see that this is just a ploy by American corporations to avoid raising wages for American workers? Companies can get these foreign workers at 1/3rd to 2/3rds the rate of qualified Americans.

STOP the GOP from offshoring our jobs here at home!

JS in SD - no President Obama is sitting on the sidelines because it would be inappropriate for him to stick his nose into a city problem - just like it is for Romney. Do you ACTUALLY believe the President should go around putting his 2 cents into every big city problem? We have mayors for that!

trudat - just totally stupid! Not even the biggest liars are claiming $91,000 per year for teacher's salaries. When you make up lies I guess you think the bigger the better, huh?

Obama/Biden 2012

So caesar - I guess you're all for giving American jobs to immigrants?

What the heck has the GOP been howling about for the last four years?

No use in building a wall if you're INVITING them in!

Union embracing ROMNEY. This is your guy REPUBLICANS!!! He loves unions and every corporation in AMERICA will now have one

Joe

Do you have any idea how many hours a teacher puts in. My wife starts class at 8:00, school's out at 3:15. Stays at school for meetings, helping students, meeting with parents until 5:00. Comes home and works on next day assignments or grades papers till midnight. Goes to bed and starts all over the next day. She has a BS with Honors from Notre Dame in Biology, a MS in Geology from U. of AZ, plus a teaching certificate in math. She makes about $33,000 a year.

Oh I see little jimmie has come out with lie after lie! I said nothing about what the unions were asking for but I have no problem talking about it. They are looking at keeping their benefits at the same level with no increase in their deductions.

They approved a 16% increase over 4 years - not exorbitant. They want classroom size decreased - right now a teacher can have over 30 students and no assistant - not optimal teaching environment. They want better classrooms - air conditioning for those days when classroom temps can top 90 degrees. They want to have a better way of policing their own teachers to decide who should be fired.

Jimmie - you probably should actually have a clue before you shoot off your mouth - although I guess I shouldn't expect you to change now!

Obama/Biden 2012

Anyone thinking of voting for Romney needs to watch the LORAX...

Sorry I'll be more serious.

THIS IS CLASS WARFARE.

Why do you begrudge the teachers for trying to earn the best living they can, but bow down to Mitt who sold people out so that he could turn a profit?

All of you who constantly defend business and capitalism and the free market, why isn't it the same when workers want, need, or feel they deserve more? Why is it okay for Mitt to make more? How much does he need? How much do the rich need? If your answer is something like: One dollar more, or as much as they want, or as much as they can make, then tell me why these teachers are any different?

Here's the real class warfare, too bad so many suckers keep falling all over themselves to cry for the poor rich people...

little ignorant jimmie - I didn't lie at all and this is the last time I'm responding to your stupidity. You and CA are two peas in a pod and the pod is rotting!

The 16% increase is spread over 4 years - not greedy by most standards. And, nowhere did I lie about it. This isn't what caused the strike as this amount was agreed on by both the city and the union.

Now go crawl back under your rock - your ignorance is staggering and your willingness to shout it - amazing!

Obama/Biden 2012

says the 22 y/o with little or zero life experience.

Ah nice ad hom Seizer ARGusting. I take it that's a standard line of yours, no?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcGxh-uTyto

There'a lot of truth to what Bill said last week.

Romney has never been in touch with the working men and women of America. I find it insulting that this man even comments on this teachers strike. His perspective on life in our country has been tainted by money, privilege and a closed and secretive religion. How can Romney even come close to understanding average Americans and the struggles they face everyday?

To all the "Romney Lovers" out there; Remember one thing, It doesn't matter if your a Republican or Democrat, if your a middle class American and you vote for this guy you will be casting a vote against your childrens future.

THIS IS CLASS WARFARE.

Why do you begrudge the teachers for trying to earn the best living they can,

Seizer, Seizer, Seizer... Why is it so hard for you to take the actual fact that the Middle Class income has fallen over the last few decades (Thanks Ron) while the wealthiest Americans have grown 275%?

Facts Seizer, not BS like you're trying to pass off as knowledge.

Here. Actual information.

The Great Divide. The divergence between the middle class and the rich has been stark, and it's most easily explained using a series of different metrics.

According to a recent Stanford University study, 44 percent of U.S. families lived in a middle-income neighborhood in 2007. In 1970, 65 percent of Americans lived in these neighborhoods. And while just 15 percent of families lived in affluent neighborhoods in 1970, 33 percent of Americans now reside in rich areas. Areas of poverty have grown significantly as well.

In other words, middle-class areas are shrinking, while poor and rich areas are growing.

But to best appreciate the income gap, it's helpful to look at actual changes in wages over the past 30 years. The Congressional Budget Office recently found that the income of the top 1 percent of earning households grew 275 percent from 1979 to 2007. At the same time, the income of other American households grew just 62 percent.

According to Census Bureau data, since 1980, some 5 percent of income has migrated from the middle class to the affluent. According to Bloomberg, this means that the 5,934 richest households in America saw an increase of $650 billion in income, or about $109 million per home.

Census data also indicate that the number of Americans living in poverty is growing. According to a report in the International Business Times, 6.3 percent of Americans live below the poverty line, or with an income of about $11,000 for a family of four, the highest level in the 36 years this statistic was tracked.

http://money.usnews.com/money/business-economy/articles/2012/01/04/breaking-down-the-income-gap-into-real-terms

Boy, if the Middle Class is at war they're losing bad...

Again and I quote: "The Congressional Budget Office recently found that the income of the top 1 percent of earning households grew 275 percent from 1979 to 2007."

So take your BS and put it where... well you know where I am sure.

Republicans are so short on facts but long on wind.

not normally but i bet you laughed at yourself when you typed all that.

Actually it's you I was laughing at my delusional troll. :)

Don't you think pretending to be a business owner is dishonest? I mean we all know you're a lackey and nothing more.

Last election it was the War on Xmas, then Christianity, now it's the War on the Rich... *facepalms*

Don't you Republitards have any other cards left to play?

TEACHER SPOUSE ... wonderful u stand up for your wife ... a teacher ... a person who has our future (doctors, lawyers, politicians, nurses, etc) and spends more time with those individuals than most parents do in any given day ... teachers are AMAZING !!!

JIM1455 .... U GET THE DUNCE HAT IN THE CORNER - i suspect u have no children or a significant other for that matter .... who would have u dummy ....

Seizer, Seizer, Seizer... Why is it so hard for you to take the actual fact that the Middle Class income has fallen over the last few decades (Thanks Ron) while the wealthiest Americans have grown 275%?

Facts Seizer, not BS like you're trying to pass off as knowledge

what was i passing off as BS? you quoted me quoting someone else. Delusional troll says the little cartoon egghead. Less time at starbucks more in the real world. Tell me jeff, these public teachers where is that money coming from again?

you expect the tax payers to foot the bill so they can have a 'living' wage. I'm all for people earning the best of their potential and elevating their careers but the teacher's union hardly rewards success. Can you say Tenure.

"what was i passing off as BS?"

Your gas Seizer. I can smell it from here. You either have your facts so turn around you're blind to your own lies now. OR you're a paid party hack, which there are a few known to peruse these forums. Either way you have nothing. No debating someone unwilling or unable to tell the truth.

Yowzaa!

Stereo-type much? lol

that is SO FUNNY coming from you!

You either have your facts so turn around you're blind to your own lies now

what facts again did I not provide?

No debating someone unwilling or unable to tell the truth

HAHA you first since you keep peddling the lie i didnt tell the truth.

WHERE DOES THE MONEY COME FROM TO PAY THE TEACHERS?

that is SO FUNNY coming from you!

Seizer: Blah, blah, blah...

There has to be something in the way of an original response in your head right? It seems you very quickly fall back on lame canned responses. Is this a lack of being prepared I sense? :)

Mitt Robme and the Republicans are ALWAYS against American Workers, don't want American Workers to have health care, don't want American Workers to earn a decent wage!

What corporate wackos like Mitt Robme want is for American Workers to be out there, on our own, so that they can take us down one-by-one, repeal the minimum wage, and reduce our pay, and take away our health care while corporations and the Stock Market continue to make record-making, skyrocketing profits!!!

This corporate loon should have kept his mouth shut and be thought of as being against American Workers, instead of opening his mouth and removing all dout!

Obama/Biden 2012

Jeff-1592116

that is SO FUNNY coming from you!

Seizer: Blah, blah, blah...

There has to be something in the way of an original response in your head right? It seems you very quickly fall back on lame canned responses. Is this a lack of being prepared I sense? :)

you got OWNED buh bye now

The teacher's union apparently is led by people too stupid to wait until November 7th to strike.

So what I get from this is that Romney would break the back fo the teacher's union given half a chance (as a Reagan wanna-be). He couldn't care less what they're really striking about and I doubt he knows. And trying to tie the strike to Obama? What an ass.

If anything, this shows that the Dems aren't so much in bed with the unions that they'll roll over for them. Obviously they stand up against them when needed.

But the union has every right to strike... it's part of our free-market processes.

Until Romney and Ryan state that they would like to bust the worst union in the country, the Congress, then they are truly just talking heads on this topic.

LIfe-time socialized healthcare, life-time pension for just a few years service. Yah, it's the teachers unions that need to change.

Your green crap has put us deeper into the red.

The volt is a drop in the buckey compared to when President Cheney kept giving Halliburton blank checks. Where the hell were you? With you head up the puppet's butt?

This is not good for Major "Rambo " "Dead Fish" Emmanuel, he is fighting with Obama base , it doesn't help very much. Obama will have to take side, support the union or throw Rambo under the bus, which is something Obama does all the time.

The volt is a drop in the buckey compared to when President Cheney kept giving Halliburton blank checks

Yep not cool, but crony capitalism in the gov sucks. But Cheney aint vp anymore we're onto current events, you know Obama the president.

Sorry, but we are well beyond buying into right wing rhetoric without evidence!

true Feisty, you won't buy into it, however you pass your garbage as fact everyday and belittle those who won't agree. KGB style

yash -- your opinion or fact? if fact, please provide your source

you got OWNED buh bye now

lolz. That's your response to me telling you your other response was lame? :D GD dude, now that's funny. :D

[you got OWNED buh bye now]

Doublespeak for:

I got my widdle heiney handed to me again, so I''ll just slink off quietly now.

Ain't that right, taxman?

Yeah, I'm right. Again.

PIZZA! PIZZA!

Romney and running mate Paul Ryan assailed teachers' unions, and sought to tie President Barack Obama to striking educators and divide him from Democratic Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

assailed = to attack somebody vigorously!!!

Is there anything not sacred to these hypocrites.

I hope the firefighters, police, EMS unions are paying attention to this hypocrite while he pays lip service to his dumb followers. Romney couldn't care less about these teachers or, underprivileged children. He's looking for votes!!!

OBAMA/BIDEN....2012!!!!

for a seasonal job where you only have to work nine months out of the year.

Nice work, if you can get it.

Joe- I am so pis_ed you said this. You have NO clue what it takes to be a teacher. It shows an ignorant lack of understanding, knowledge and comprehension that goes behind this career. I have been teaching 33 years and NEVER have I only worked 9 months out of a year. Most summers, I'm taking courses to keep my certificate current or I am researching the best practices in teaching to improve my classroom for my students.

Also, understand that most teachers only get paid for the days they work...no paid vacations or holidays. What?!, you say? It's true. Teachers who get paid over the summer have ALREADY earned that money and just haven't received it yet. When was the last time you worked and had to wait through a summer to get your pay? Yeah, I thought so.

In spite of all this, I love my job. The students keep me current and the path I have chosen is one I would pick again and again. But, it is hard work. My pay is frozen, my health care was severely eroded under GW Bush, and now, in Maine, we have a buffoon for a governor who is going after teachers to balance a budget. In my state, it is illegal for teachers to strike. We face harsh fines and possible incarceration, then termination. All we have to help our cause is 'work to rule' and other non-binding measures, mostly ineffective. So, I watch the brave Chicago teachers with interest. I wish them the best on their journey.

@"sandyshores10

To all you parents who have voted for democrats and want to pay more for your teachers YOU will pay at the stores haha hahaha hahahahaha keep voting The democrats they have you by your butt haha hahaha hahahahaha. Suckers! That is who and what the democrats are haha hahaha hahahahaha!"

To start with you sound nuts.

But you're right! We should just hire minimum wage workers from McDonald's to teach our kids? (that's sarcasm in case you didn't get it)

Silly do you really think lowering teachers pay is

1.. Good for the kids

2. Going to lower our food bill?

3. Your teachers were obviously underpaid and lacked any motivation to teach you anything.

[The moron couldnt debate, kept running its mouth on irrelevancy...]

WAH! You little whiner, you...buck up, little man...it only gets better...or worse, depending which side of stick you're holding.

You've got owned so many times today it's laughable. See...you think you're "debating"...what you're doing is "trolling"...there's a H-U-G-E huge difference, one that seems to escape your "big brain".

Poor poor Pizza boy...so, which do you like better:

PIZZA! PIZZA!

Pizza Boy, or

Taxman....

Oh wait...I forgot one...

Seizer...LoL...that's a keeper.

You know, you've been hanging around Spanky too much...you spew the same lame talking points, and think you're "debating".

Hey ma...LOOK AT MEEEEE! I'm debating!"

But hey...you gotta glom off of someone, right? No original thoughts of you;re own, right? But hey...you're just here to point out "hypocrisies", right?

Sure you are...

Oh, and as far as:

[you're like a flea. now find someone else to attach to.]

My my...got a bit of sand in your vagina, don't you...

You don't know me very well, taxman...you may want to slink back to Fox Nation or The Blaze, or whichever rock you crawled out from under, see 'cause it ain't gonna git any better for you.

Tah tah, Seizer....LoL...I love that one...Seizer...

Or we could just call you Seizure.....

I am so SICK of people bitching about teachers and their salaries and unions!!!! Romney jumped on this just to have a talking point. His kids, nor Ryan's ever went to a PUBLIC school. Teachers are some of the LOWEST paid and highly needed people in our infrastructure as a country!!! Get a grip! A better educated nation is one that can compete in a global environment.

Obama/Biden 2012 - and yes, climate change is REAL

Inside every screaming liberal is a calm cool headed conservative just waiting to get out....

Yes, Republicans have shown me how much they care for my kids by the amount of times THEY have cut education too. Can someone please tell Romney and the rest of the Republican Party what a HYPOCRITE is?

Pretty funny.......rt wingers brainwashed by Rove to hate their neighbors, friends, relatives that are Union Members. Then the same rt wingers gladly give up a couple thousand dollars of their middle class money to pay for the tax breaks Romney and Ryan are going to give the rich. Welfare for the rich, repubs need money for the starving billionaires to add to their offshore accounts. Bust the Unions to feed the billionaires. At the same time, since union jobs are used as the bench mark for pay raises, vacation, sick pay, health care, the repubs will be losing any chance of making better pay and benefits for themselves. Repubs brainwashed by Rove to vote against their own self interests...

The Republicans greatest fear is the lost of control, Unions are a collective voice which means no control, if they strike they shut down the company or example a whole school district, I my self don't like Unions even though I'm a Democrat, I don't like the way they can force an action, take for Example how the Republicans extort our government, they work on the exact same Principal so it's the same thing YES I know the Republicans are Hypocrites but I still don't like the idea of any sort of extortion even by Unions, and We all know this is just one of Romney's Flip Flop moments. I once had a group of my works pull a work stoppage, I just told them all to Pack their sh_t and get off the premises, that ended that real quick. They were back working in a blink of an eye. I don't take no BS it's either my way or the highway period, just because I'm a Democrat does not mean their is a Democracy when it comes to work.

Oh the Republicans would rather have some failed CEO get millions to move to another country so he can make it fail too but let a teacher who educates the future of this country dare ask for a penny and they have a hissy fit.

Of course when you want a totalitarian government it is much easier if the population is poorly educated or uneducated. They'll believe what they are told as they won't know any better.

RealAmerican-

Yes, real dumb American.

By all means, let's limit the influx of highly skilled and highly intelligent workers into our country. Continue to let the welfare state burgeon with south of the border new arrivals, all the while stopping foreigners with skill sets that can move our country forward.

There would be no place for the foreigners that are targeted by this legislation if our shores were replete with well-educated, highly skilled, technically savvy "Americans", but unfortunately that's just not the case.

This bill is smart for the country.

Your view holds no water. Xenophobic and myopic, quite the combo.

I read where the median salaries of these teachers is $75,000 a year. I had college professors who started at about that much. These were professors with PH.Ds. I don't think it is too much to ask that these teachers are held to the results of their students. Most of us have evaluations at work and have to make the grade or risk not getting a raise. Why should teachers not be held as accountable?

Remember Romney wants to cut jobs for teachers not everyone really needs an education. He breaks the unions and there goes the 40 hr week, overtime pay, raises, vacations, health care, restrictions on child labor. He wants to go back to business as described by Charles Dickens in Oliver Twist.

As if the problem is teachers, and not the 2 wars Bush forgot to pay for by doing the right thing.

Teachers ain't what's wrong with America.

Republicans kicking out the Bush neo-cons and remembering how to balance a budget, that might help. Obama's no better, but Republicans are SUPPOSED to be fiscally conservative.

Not to mention rekindling the cold war. This a$$clown Romney ain't gettin my vote.

Mitt we should understand that as the CEO you would have expected your workers to work without a contract or to use your famous words, " I love firing people!" As a former republican I have to say, " I Hate republicans!"

@ Joe in Albany-1902257 post 1.12

It's all most as nice as working for the government only teachers have to deal with your children not their idiot parents that can't fix our budget. It's not often you see kids leave a class room without having worked out a problem, you can't say that for congress yet they have everything you claim teachers have! Sounds like a little schooling might help some of you adults!

These clowns get paid an average of $69K per year and they were just offered a 16% raise and they turned it down. What else do these Union goons want?

From my understanding, some of the issues were that the teachers did not want their raises or jobs dependent upon the test scores of their students. The teachers are in fear of losing their jobs if the students do not do well.

When was the last time funding on the federal level for education EVER was reduced from the year before? It has doubled in the last 30 years...I would assume the grades have too?

Good for the teachers union! STRIKE! STRIKE!

They are doing it for the kids and mostly not for themselves.

Teachers have been demonized by the corporate media like MSNBC.

When states or cities shutdown schools and fire teachers they either express satisfaction or are neutral. The only time they care about the kids is when teachers go on strike.

Rahm Emanual and Arne Duncan are the ones responsible for the run down state of the Chicago school system not the teachers.

The Democrats have been exposed as just as hostile to working people as the Republicans.

Romney and Rahm, together at last.

'The simple fact of the matter is, people are coming back to President Obama's green pasture! ' - feistyfirebush

No, the fact is, people are drifting away from Oblabla's field of empty promises.

Rongme" Rongme" ought to get a rope and hang me" High from the highest treeeeee" everyone weep for me" Dee Dee Dee ta Dee Dee..

REMEMBER in NOVEMBER TEACHERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to laugh at this Republican, Romney. He, like a lot of others, is reponsible for getting rid of U.S. jobs and outsourcing to other countries and the effect of this is that we have less Americans with money to spend so of course that means less money for city, county, state, & federal coffers. (Since people can't spend as much money if they don't have jobs). So naturally, teachers are getting let go of left and right. Who cares if they work their butts off and often have to also be social workers since you have a lot of kids coming to school hunger and unsupervised (since their parents don't have those jobs that were cut by guys like Romey and there are no new jobs for the most part because the trickle down isn't happening). So teachers have to do more with less. And don't forget, most teachers make far below 50,000 a year. BUT, Romney and other like him, who were to blame for much of the ills of our economy, then have the nerve to complain because teacher just want to be fairly compensated for all their hard work. Romney, a man who made millions by cutting U.S. jobs, in other words, a man who did a job that any second class hack could do, a man who barely broke a sweat and made millions, is complaining about somebody who has a real job. God help us if Romney wins.

Here are a couple of items I thought my friends here on the vine might enjoy:

It only took two hours after the Paul Ryan vice presidential announcement for Republican congressional candidates to get their talking points on how to spin the Ryan budget and Medicare attacks.

“Do not say: ‘entitlement reform,’ ‘privatization,’ ‘every option is on the table,’” the National Republican Congressional Committee said in an email memo. “Do say: ‘strengthen,’ ‘secure,’ ‘save,’ ‘preserve, ‘protect.’”

and this:

Disillusioned "Obama Supporter" In Romney Ad Is Actually GOP Staffer

Republicans debuted a new ad Thursday in which a frustrated former "Obama supporter" expresses her disappointment with the president. The only problem: The woman in the video is actually an RNC staffer.

The new ad features Republican National Committee Director of Hispanic Outreach Bettina Inclan, who in the ad purports to be an average woman voter who supported Obama in 2008.

$74,000 a year for a teacher might sound high to some.

Until you realize Mitt Romney got $21.6 million last year for doing NOTHING.

Romney is so tone deaf it's frightening. Doesn't the maroon realize that vilifying the people who work to educate children doesn't play well with parents? Most parents who are actually involved with their children know how selfless most teachers are when it comes to educating their students. Alienating a huge demographic to play to your ignorant base is political suicide. Hmmm. On second thought, keep vilifying Mitttoast.

Obama 2012/Romney 1040

A 16% raise over four years (last offer by city to teachers) doesnt sound too bad.

Just a note to those who think Obama is for keeping jobs in the US. I had a job with a government contract to build panels to be used for wind generator blades. The contract was awarded by the Bush administration. Obama cancelled the contract and chose to have the blades made in China. Our president is saying one thing and doing just the opposite. Better wake up, he's not the savior some of you believe him to be.

I really don't thinkRomney has a right to talk when he makes in a day (maybe a week?) what teachers make in a year. How else are teachers supposed to get their voices heard?

This is a classic example of why a voucher system is the way to go. I have been fortunate enough to be able to send my children to a private school. Was it expensive, you bet? Did my wife and I sacrifice so we could afford their education, absolutely? The point being if we had a voucher for even close to the $17,000 the state pays for each child I could have sent both of them to school each year for that and have approximately 13,000 left over with no out of pocket expense. One of the BIG differences is NO UNION. I don't know the percentage of kids graduating from there that go on to college but it is extremely high. If I were to guess it would be in the 80 to 90 percent range. I went to high school there and graduated in 1975 and I received a top of the line education that prepared me for college. If private schools can produce kids of that caliber for $10,000 dollars per child why would we want our states to pay almost twice that for the current level of education those kids are receiving? Private schools are not required to keep teacher that aren't performing. There are a lot of advantages to private education if we only had a voucher system. ALL families could then get the kind of education for their children that those of us who were fortunate enough received. There are no strikes, there are no unions and we seldom loose teachers because they want to be there. What is happening in Chicago is a disgrace. My bet is many of the teachers that are on strike are there not because they want to but because the union requires it. Illinois should go down the same path that Scott Walker did in Wisconsin, that would be a big step in the right direction.

Romney is in Ohio talking about Chicago????? Can this man EVER pick a subject or topic that is relevant to his audience????

Nice trip through Fantasyland you conjured up there, Jon R. I'm a parent, and if I were Rahm, I'd fire every one of their asses, if for no other reason than being too damned dumb to realize that the entire state of Illinois is flat broke, and because of their miserable credit rating they can borrow no more. I know, it's too bad they can't get the Union Messiah, Obama, to simply print some more hollow dollars like he does to feed his federal spending addiction.

I'm all for the teachers and unions........ but going on strike and trying to negotate for more money in this recession in the mist of budget cuts? Too many families still struggling paycheck to paycheck while still losing jobs. Really really bad timing.

Kristen1991- $21.6 million (what Romney has 'estimated' his 2011 taxable income to be) would average out to $59,178 per DAY.

So a teacher's salary would be a day and a half of Mitt's 'work'.

spider,

I said parents who were actually involved with their children. Anyone who vilifies teachers in general didn't pay too much attention to their own education. Otherwise they would know generalizations are by their very nature seldom valid. Perhaps that explains why Mitt has no specifics to share on any of his "plans" only generalities.

Obama 2012/Romney 1040

Hmmm... I guess it's not really the "all about the children" BULLSH!T the teachers unions like to spew. It's ALL about full-time pay increases, full-time pension increases, and full-time free health insurance for life, for a seasonal job where you only have to work nine months out of the year.

I reckon anyone who thinks like that needs to question the education they received. Google is your friend. Internet 101. Get facts b4 posting. Learn something.

Teaching IS NOT *a seasonal job where you only have to work 9 mos of the year*!

Your 1st gr Math is off, for one, if mid-Aug thru June works out to be 9 for you. Yes, teachers have to come in & work b4 the children arrive for their *official* 1st day. Did you think those classrooms magically organized themselves & that tchrs walked thru the door at the same time the students do?

Tchrs also work after students are done for the yr b/c there are no classrm fairies to help dismantle it all then, either. No, they just can't leave it up; not only do the rms have to be thoroughly cleaned & supply inventory taken, that *have a nice summer & be patriotic* (Flag Day is June 14th, then there's Independence Day July 4th) decor theme looks pretty lame in Sept.

Tchrs also get moved around like chess pieces to different rms & bldgs at the convenience of the district. They don't always stay in the same place or at the same grade level.

Tchrs are also required to attend child abuse & neglect detection & reporting classes (they are mandated reporters, which means they can be sued if they fail to report, so that is also part of the job), get a master's degree (usually while tchg FT & at their own expense), & then rack up *continuing education* pts (continue to take courses & attend seminars) in order to keep their certification/licensing (some of that are those *tchr conference days* where your kids get to stay home but the tchrs don't b/c they are being educated).

Most tchrs either are pursuing their MSEd FT during the summer, taking additional courses to comply w/ state ed dept demands, & working on next yr's plans. Tchrs are the only profession that are never done going to schl themselves & they most definitely do NOT *get summers off*.

Tchrs also don't get to come in & leave on the student schedule. Even per diem PT substitute tchrs generally have to report at least half an hr b4 schl opens & remain the same time after dismissal; FT salaried tchrs often have to put in the equivalent of a full tchg period (30-45 min) both b4 & after schl. It is an 8 hr day & sometimes more for them, even tho your kids may only be there for 7 hrs of it.

Tchrs also have to plan what happens in the classrm. There's no genie that pops in to figure that out for them. These plans have to be in writing, detailed as to objectives, & submitted for approval to the principal on a wkly basis.

Tchrs also are expected to write long-term plans & submit them for approval at the start of ea semester. They also have to gather & set up materials to execute plans. Those tests & worksheets didn't Xerox themselves; a tchr stood in line at the copier & did it. That science experiment didn't set itself up; a tchr had to rummage in the storage rm for it, haul it to the classrm, & get it ready for the kids to use. Etc.

Tchrs take work home, like papers to grade, planning to do, educational periodicals to read, materials to transform into a display to delight your kids & help them learn. That's b/c they may not get the time to do it at schl b/c of dealing w/ parents, helping students, or attending mandatory mtgs during what are supposed to be their *prep periods* (not *free periods*).

Tchrs have supervisory duties beyond managing a classrm. They often lose prep time b/c they have bus duty, hall duty, or lunch duty. That means they are either outdoors (no matter what the weather), walking the halls, or in the cafeteria to make sure your little darlings behave & don't get hurt.

In the primary grades, tchrs spend an awful lot of time zipping, buttoning, & tying things for little ones, in addition to unpacking & packing backpacks.

The attendance register is sacred b/c that's where state aid comes from, so it needs to be completed very carefully.

When you send your kid in w/ lunch $, who do you think takes care of making sure your kid doesn't lose it, get it stolen, & gets counted as ordering a lunch? The tchr.

Tchrs are also the only profession who are expected to pay out of pocket as they go along.

Not just for continuing ed, but for basic classrm supplies that the district does not provide, & w/ budget cuts, districts provide less & less.

Those cute clasrm & hallway displays you see, a tchr pd for those, not the district. That classrm library in the corner, a tchr bought all those books & revolving stands on which to keep them, not the district. That cozy rdg area w/ the bright rug & beanbags & pillows, a tchr bought all that stuff, not the district. Those plastic boxes full of Math manipulatives, a tchr went shopping & pd for those, not the district. If it were left to the districts, tchrs would have nothing but books & paper.

Tchrs also pay for your kid's schl supplies. Yes, they do.

When your kid loses all his pencils, do you think he just gets to sit there & not do his Math? The tchr hands him a new pencil. When your kid is out of loose-leaf, he doesn't get to sit there twiddling his thumbs while everyone else takes a Spelling test, the tchr hands him more paper. When your kid decides it'd be fun to break all his crayons into little pieces, he doesn't get to lollygag when everyone else is coloring a USA map in Social Studies, the tchr hands him a box of crayons. The tchr pd for all that, you didn't.

Tchrs have bought kids mittens & hats in the winter when they repeatedly come to schl half-frozen b/c you can't be bothered to replace what they lost or you never could be bothered to buy your kids basic items to begin w/.

You'd be flipping out if you attended a parent-tchr conference & the tchr was sitting there in jeans, sneakers, & a T-shirt. Tchrs are bound to a dress code. Priced a dress shirt & tie lately, let alone a suit? How about a jacket dress? A blazer? A trench coat or wool coat for winter rather than some sloppy parka or fleece jacket? Comfortable to stand in for long periods but still dressy shoes? Replacing pantyhose all the time? Professional wardrobes are expensive. Even subs aren't allowed to come in wearing jeans, & they get pd much less. And your grubby kids sometimes ruin those clothes.

Tchrs do NOT have *free health care*. That's a total myth. Like everyone else's ins, it comes out of their paycheck & there are co-pays.

There are no nat'l federal standards for either education or tchrs. That is left up to the states to determine. In NY a freshly graduated tchr w/ a BSEd can expect to earn less than $30K/yr. That's considered borderline poor these days.

It takes 20-25 yrs to achieve *top salary*. Once a tchr has gotten there, there are no more raises to be had; they've *topped out*. No other profession stops giving raises to long-term employees like that.

The *average* tchr salary is just that. Thank a tchr if you know how to compute an avg, & think about what that means. If the avg salary in a district is $45K, half of the tchrs are earning less than that. No tchr is bringing home 6 figures. Not even if they grow up to be principals.

In NY a substitute tchr, w/ a college degree & state-certified (same qualifications as a FT tchr), can only expect to earn about $11/hr. They are often called in at the last min, bound to the same working hrs, & often have to fly by the seat of their pants w/o plans to be found, so $11/hr is a joke. After 6 wks in the same sub position (which doesn't happen all that often), subs get a bump up to $16/hr, but they are doing the exact same work as a salaried tchr would in that case.

As a society we do not pay the most important jobs (tchrs, tchr aides, firefighters, police, EMTs, nurses, health care aides) enough. (My SIL has been an RN for 30 yrs & still only makes $65K/yr, & that is now working as a supervisor.)

Many tchrs work 2nd or *seasonal* (ie, summer) jobs to get by b/c they are pd so little. Historically, tchrs have never made good $. They are in it b/c they love what they do.

We as a country end up going thru this BS every yr somewhere, where a schl district digs in their heels & refuses to adequately compensate tchrs for everything they do in educating the future of our nation....yet y'all seem to think it's the fault of the tchrs for not agreeing to work at a substandard rate of pay & take benefit cuts.

They have families, too. If tchrs, like Walmart workers, were pd so little that they were handed applications for Medicaid & SNAP when they signed their 1st contract, y'all would be screaming about that.

Ppl have to be able to earn a decent living in a profession, esp one for which 2 college degrees is a standard requirement. If they can't, & the opportunity arises to go elsewhere, they will. I know quite a few tchrs who have left & gone on to successful, better-paying careers elsewhere....but I also know a whole lot more who have stayed b/c they love what they do & they know they have one of the most important jobs in the world.

Don't give me this crap about *all about the children*....their own children naturally come 1st, no matter how much they (unlike most ppl) comprehend the importance of what they do every day.

Are you claiming you would put your job above the needs of your family? I don't think you would. You'd be screaming about federal & state education cuts making the districts tighten their belts if you were a tchr.

Pull your kids out of schl & educate them yourself if you think tchrs suck. It's not as EZ as you seem to think it is & you don't have the continuing knowledge base & resources that a tchr has at their fingertips. You won't be doing your kids any favors in the long run.

Rangercl1

I don't think it is too much to ask that these teachers are held to the results of their students. Most of us have evaluations at work and have to make the grade or risk not getting a raise. Why should teachers not be held as accountable? #1.86

From my understanding, some of the issues were that the teachers did not want their raises or jobs dependent upon the test scores of their students. The teachers are in fear of losing their jobs if the students do not do well. #1.93

Since the "No Child Left Behind" theory of measuring a teacher's ability/worth by having students take mandated tests, education has been reduced to teaching children how to take tests. There is no time for enrichment or encouraging students to pursue more knowledge. "Just make sure you know how to answer the test questions."

Adding to the problem of test scores are children who are dyslexic, have ADD, speak a foreign language at home, or are out to the grocery store or Walmart until 11:00 at night [rather than being at home, in bed], or who aren't properly nourished [don't have breakfast before coming to school].

Your comment "Most of us have evaluations at work and have to make the grade" might apply to your production of X number of widgets or the number of appliances that you sell.

Children are neither widgets nor appliances -- you are totally disregarding the human factor in your assessment. [Try using that assessment on a cancer doctor who is a last resort for stage 4 patients at death's door. Should his/her evaluation be based on how long he can keep a patient alive?

Seeking,

Sticking his nose into it would be inappropriate?? Really?? Just like that "beer summit", right?

Vote Romney!

The Mormon vs. The Moron

hey fiesty ??

the big fat dog with all the correct 411

where do you get you info from??

anti-republician hate e-mail ??

before you crawl back underneath your trailer for the evening, here some fact's for you to dream by:

-this is not good for the unions or this administration or the comments made by that mayor

-the pay rate for these teachers is 76K and they are wanting a 16% increase

-this school district has the worst rating in the nation, 46% of the kids entering high school drop out before grauation ( 4% percent more and that is 50%)

-in other words for evey one hundred kids 46 drop out; just 4 more kids will be one half (that good news for those paying for it)

-43% of the 8th grade has a 4th grade reading level

-the fiscal deficet for this city will be 1 billion dollers

-people dont need you or you ultra left wing radicial BS on who is to blame

-there is something radicaly wrong here and dumping a trillion dollers into this city or problem simply will not fix it

-your venum is enough for any one decide against your spewing manewsha

-the only one who dubbed you as the big dog, is you...and I am sure you are

sleep tite,dont let those bed bugs bite

XOX

Jim, suppose we tie your pay and job to the ability of the current Republican Congress to produce the jobs they promised.

Let's be brutally honest. The teachers are a scapegoat, it's the @!$%#ing Administrators who make 6 figure incomes that are the floating turds in that @!$%#stew called education. And as far as actually holding them accountable for what they teach, you do remember they are being held accountable for "No Child Left Behind" laws passed by a Republican President AND Republican Congress. And on a side note, they are forced to use books "Approved" by a Texas Educational System that "GASP" is run by @!$%#ing Republicans who probably couldn't even spell Science.

Joe from A. is suffering from FOX poisoning! I causes you to be brain dead!

If Romney can make money for the nation like he does for corporations then we better elect him! its obvious Obama only knows how to spend someone elsis money.

have you all noticed that the more social we become the more financially unstable we become. and its not just the US its everyone that embraces social programs and on the opposite countries that were totally social are becoming more capitalist are doing extremely better its a flip flop, socialism has a price tag that no civilization has ever been able to afford for any length of time, the oldest form of government and always destined to total failure, the only beneficiariesare the leaders. that's why it keeps coming back, and the common person is led to believe there is something there for them, and there is,its called servitude to the elite, you have a few very rich and a loot of very poor, nothing in between, a good example is North Korea, socialism in the long run always turns out that way, the only difference between communism and socialism is how much it has EVOLVED or how far FOREWARD it has PROGRESSED. those sound like Democrat campaign words. evolve into what? progress to what stage? foreward in what direction? are we talking cancer.

nooneyouknow If anyone is interested the NEA had donated $43,613,263 to democrates 1989 to 2010.

And Sheldon Adelson alone has given $36,500,000 to the RNC this election cycle.

ONE guy, one year.

Don't know what teachers you know, but my husband has been a teacher for 13 years and makes $38000 a year and his only health benefit it $200 towards his own health care premium. Then they take 6% of his gross pay for retirement. Mandatory. Oh and he is spending his own time and money on his masters degree, just to keep his job.

The teachers are doing a job just like anyone. Complete BS to say "If they love kids, they'll work for free". If that is how it works than why don't we say "If Apple loves computers, they'll build them and give them away for free", "If mechanics like fixing cars, they should fix them for free". Nonesense. If Romney loves Americans so much, why doesn't he give 1% of the millions he's costing taxpayers for Secret Service security to the Chicago Public Schools?

You people popped out those runts, it isn't the teacher's responsibility to raise them, it is yours. If you want them educated, pay for it and quit whining about teachers' pay.

Obama/Biden 2012!!!!

workingpoor-2370498

Romney would rather double class size, half teachers pay and their numbers, because we don't need an educated electorate. It costs money at the expense of his base (the rich) and the last thing the neo-conservatives need is an educated electorate.

Listen, the republicans are already at the uneducated electorate stage. A recent poll taken among republicans in North Caroline asked a simple question; Who should get credit fro getting Bin Laden, Obama or Romney.

The results:

38% -- Obama;

15% -- Romeny;

56% -- not sure.

Romney held no public office, nothing at all to do with the Government; was busy trying to figure out how he would win the republican primary, yet there are 15 out of 100 republicans in North Caroline that believe Romney should get credit for bringing down Bin laden. To top off that stupidity, 56 out of every 100 republicans in North Caroline have no clue whether Romney or Obama should get the credit.

So, would the republicans be thrilled if the electorate consists of a bunch of dumbA$$es -- YOU BETTCHA! Already, 61 out every 100 republicans are dumba$$es.

The real issue, over 600 million in budget shortfall for the city of Chicago and that is before any increase in wages. Pick any side you want the numbers say it all. There is no money, funny how 25,000 want to put the city into bankruptcy. This union would lose a lot of members if they could opt out like Wisconsin.

Lastly if you have four or five degrees good for you but that does not make you a good educator. I know some great ones and they only have one degree so enough of the I deserve more because I am overqualified for the job, it is bull.

Harley Chic ....

Just exactly how is Mitt responsible for ANY war?

So just how is Mitt is responsible for anything??? He's responsible for NOTHING. And needs to cork it about anything that has gone on in the last seven? years that he has been doing nothing but campaigning. By the by ... he's been unemployed for how many years and can still afford a $77 K write off for a horse??? Get a stinking grip .. we all know you've got a crush on Mitt ... and we all know you do NOT get the fact that he has no policy or plan!

Republicans, Romney, and Ryan have a common link of total Gestapo suppression with everyone (except the 2% wealthy elite without regulations). They've been doing everything possible to gain 100% control of all our needs, wages, health, education work, and eliminate our freedom of speech (or those who will help us), etc. But do the Republicans want to eliminate their special interests groups, lobbyists, frivolous money thrown into campaign funds, numerous existing tax loop holes, etc., etc.?????? They stand for more Government involvement. If you've followed their speeches this past year, you could not possible have missed all of Romney's daily, "flip-flopping" ideas of what he believes, or wants to do. He's worse than a 2 year old, who can;t make up their mind what they want. That is no way to run any Government.The team will stoop to any low level of telling you something just to pander for the votes. Romney goes overseas and insults the countries on the first, two of 3 stops. He obviously doesn't know anything about PR anymore than with Foreign policies. Then, Ann says (on 9-10-12 during a National TV interview by NBC's David Gregory) IT"S SO UNFAIR TO PICK ON ROMNEY, because we don't know anything about them, or their FINANCIAL STRUGGLES IN LIFE. LOL!! Yet, it is okay for them to pick on Obama and his Party. It took Bush 8 full years to financially devastate our Country and then turn around to bitterly complain that Obama didn't put all of "Humpty Dumpty's" pieces back together again in less than 4 years. But then, Republicans are never responsible for doing anything wrong. Wouldn't we all love to have their financial problems?? He's not a member of the middle class Main Street. Why else has he only shown officially 1 year of taxes?? They never have been, nor will they ever be a part of Main Street. He's so out of touch with reality and thinks it's imperative to go back to Bush's destructive financial days when Bush told us repeatedly,"That we will be told on a need to know basis." At the R.N.C., both Romney and Ryan never talked about the PEOPLE, MILITARY, OR THE VETS. They didn't even say, "Thanks" to the Vets for protecting them or their land! Shame on the R.N.C.!! The soldiers are and were "our brothers and sisters keepers". But you'd never know otherwise at the R.N.C. Both men spent their entire time during the speeches talking about businesses while hinting at another war with Iran and going back to a cold war with Russia even when there isn't the money available, because we'll be covering that with our own lives among the young, using our money, less benefits, higher taxes, etc. to pay for their war games. Just think about that Freudian slip. It's their usual way of saying the Republicans don't give a hoot about the people, or our Country. They were so willing to let the U.S. to be downgraded because the whiners did not get all their benefits for the wealthy elite (The elite are more beneficially important to their Party than our Nation or the vast majority of people). And did you know that Bain Capital is being investigated by the N.Y. Attorney General along with several other companies for illegal tax fraud??

Until the Republican Party can regroup with more dignity, maturity, honesty, deal with reality, and stop treating the daily workers as their slaves, then vote all of the Republicans out of office. Send them the message that we will not let them walk all over us with the Koch Brother's money dictating to us as to what we should do.

@RealAmericansFirst,
Did you ever hear the term "Ignorance is bliss". Well being an
ObozoRobot, you are obviously one of the most blissful people on the face of the Earth.
S1857 is a GOP bill? Really? Who is the sponsor of S1857?

Tell the truth now! The SPONSOR of S1857 is Senator Charles Shumer,
Democrat of NY. So now you are saying that Chuck Shumer, hater of everything GOP is really an undercover Republican! Won't that be upsetting to the people of NY who elected him?

Now lets look at the House Bill H.R.3012 which is the sister bill to
S1857. Who are the co-sponsors of that bill, titled "Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act of 2011". There are 11 co-sponsors of this bill, 6 Democrats and 5 Republicans.

Such uber conservative Democrats as Jesse Jackson Jr of
Congressional Dist 2 which is virtually 100% African American who will lose their jobs if this bill passes. Another co-sponsor is Illinois congressman Luis Gutierrez of Dist 4. Won't find too many high Skilled Immigrants in his district either.

GovTrack scores how Conservative or liberal each Rep is. Out of the 192
Dems in the house Luis ranks as the 35th most liberal, Jesse ranks as 28th most liberal. The most liberal by far is Rep Raul Grijalva AZ-7. He is at the far left edge of GovTrack's chart and most conservative is Rep Doug Lamborn CO-5.

Anyway, back to the other 4 Dem sponsors. Zoe Lofgren CA16 who ranks
the same distance to the left as Maxine Waters and Bobby Rush), Rush Holt NJ12 (who ranks to the LEFT of Chuck Rangel, Waters and Rush), Carolyn Maloney NY14 (who ranks 27th most liberal Rep out of the 192 Dems so 96% of the members of Congress are MORE Conservative than she is) and James "Jim" Moran VA8 who is also MORE left than Bobbie Rush, Maxine Watters, Chuck Rangel and Rush Holt.

The fact is that ALL of the 6 Democrat sponsors are in the 6% most
liberal Reps in Congress. Nancy Pelosi, who most GOP voters despise is actually one of the 28 most conservative Democrats in Congress. Out of 192 Democrats in the House, 164 of them are further Left than she is.

Now lets look at the 5 GOP sponsors of this bill. By the way, only 2%
of the Republicans in the house sponsored this bill while 3.12% of the Dems are sponsors, so how is a bill with over 50% more Democrats in Congress sponsoring it and only a Democrat Senator and NO GOP Senate sponsors make it a GOP bill?

As I said, Ignorance really is bliss "RealAmericansFirst". By the way, what is your definition of a "Real Americans First" person? Someone who lies about who created a bill you and I are both against... except I take the trouble of finding out who is actually writing and sponsoring the bill instead of making up fairy tales about it? Or is a Real Americans First a person who actually talked extesively with the 2nd most powerful Democrat in the Senate and he lied to me about his efforts to kill the bill when instead his party actually is the sponsor of the bill?

I think the readers would really like to know. I would be happy to post
Senator Dick Durbins response to me but having just moved it may take a while to find it and let you read his words for yourself and not my recollections of the conversation since most of it was over the telephone and at least 5 years ago.
The important point is that it had made enough of an impression upon him that he called to speak to ME about it, not me calling his offices to complain about it.

GOP sponsors are Lamar Smith TX21(71st most Conservative of 240 GOP
Reps), Tim Griffin AR2 (appx 100-105th most Conservative of 240 Reps), Robert Goodlatte VA6 (59th most Conservative), Glenn Thompson PA5 (appx 109th most Conservative)and Jeff Flake AZ6 (about the same rank of Conservatism as Glenn Thompson).

Now the real fact is that I spent about an hour talking to Dick
Durbin and his staff about the original bill that they were planning to
introduce about 5 years ago. I explained to him directly that companies were using the previous special work visas to get rid of American employees and replace them with lower priced foreign workers.

I was terminated from Computer Associates, at the time the largest 3rd party software company in the world, for this reason. I had worked for them for over 12 years, often leaving home on Sunday night flights and returning on Friday night. The VP of our department told me if I didn't resign voluntarily I would be moved to a department where I wouldn't know what to do and the first time I made a mistake I would be fired
with 2 weeks severance pay. If I voluntarily terminated myself they would give me six months severance pay. The reason they gave is that they could hire 2 foreign workers for the same pay I was getting. So knowing over 100 other employees were treated the same, I took the severance and quit.

Within one year my boss and the VP of our department were also
terminated the same way. The man who originally trained me was terminated a year after me with 14 years service using the same threat. He received one year severance for 14 years work. It was common knowledge that when you reached 10 years you received a Gold Rolex Watch and then kicked out.

The original Founder of Computer Associates, Charles Wang was cited
for eliminating older workers a few years before I was let go so his brother Anthony Wang (a lawyer) came up with this scheme to get rid of older workers without getting in trouble with the government.

It worked great for the company and along with another scheme they
dreamed up to "cook the books", Charles left the company with over $1 BILLION and is now the owner of the New York Islanders NHL team.

A VP of the company, Sanjay Kumar was then made President and he
ended up holding the bag when the SEC discovered the cooked books. Sanjay was sentenced to 12 years in a Federal Prison and fined almost 3/4 of a Billion Dollars while Charles Wang got away scot free.

I don't know what political party the Wangs or Kumars support but
they did these crimes against the shareholders of Computer Associates from when I began at Computer Associates in 1980 until I left in 1993. That is the Reagan, GHW Bush and Clinton Administrations. The termination of workers after 10 years occurred during all of that time and continued at least until GW Bush became President without the government even once challenging these practices. I told Senator Dick Durbin and his aides all of this and he still went forward developing what is now S1983 and H.R.3012.

So if you believe this is a GOP bill then there is no hope for you
because you haven't the slightest idea how it was originally developed, why Dick Durbin didn't examine the pattern of terminations at Computer Associates and who was hired to replace those terminated workers and why he didn't write a law preventing these special work visas when the Democrats had control of BOTH houses of Congress and a Democrat President who would have signed this law.

All of these positions have American workers fully capable of filling these
positions. There are NO positions in American businesses that American workers are less able to handle than foreign workers can. It is a matter that American workers can do them BETTER but expect to be fairly compensated for doing those jobs.

Yes, in 1993 I was being paid $73,000 per year. BUT there were years when I was in the office only 43 days out of the 240 work days. I was in hotel rooms sometimes 150-175 days a year, logged millions of air miles, 100's of thousands of road miles. I missed my children's birthdays, graduations, special events and even family funerals in order to fulfill my job. When I
worked in an office as Dept Manager I would often arrive at 8:00 AM and have to run to catch the 12:15AM last train home or else if I missed it I would be stuck in the office all night. On a per hour basis, being paid $40,000 in 1978 would actually work out to $2.38 per hour as a Manager, half of what minimum wages were for hourly workers and 1/3 of what minimum wages are today.

So all of you who think that Managers and executives are overpaid (and some really are) for the most part, they are actually making less money per hour than you do. It is because they work far more hours than the normal 40 hour week.

As far as unions are concerned. I worked for one union shop. I got very sick and because I had only been working there one month I was terminated. The union did nothing for me but take my dues. That was the first and last time I ever worked in a union shop. When I left my last job I had accumulated almost 3 months in sick days because I never take time off for being sick except that one time when I was so sick I couldn't even get out of bed. Maybe it was food poisoning since we were newly married and my wife didn't know how to cook.

Anyway, the bottom line is that you couldn't be more wrong about this bill. It was designed by Democrats led by Dick Durbin, sponsored by Chuck Shumer in the Senate and 6 of the 11 House sponsors are Democrats from the far left of the Democrat Party that make Nancy Pelosi look like an Ultra Conservative.

THAT IS THE REAL TRUTH that everyone except Obamarobots know.

It is a shame how much disrespect and un-appreciated the teachers got in the postings. Our children are left in their care about 6-7 hours a day, you expect them to educate your children, help them grow up to be good responsible citizens and yet, you treat teachers like trash.

They may work 10 months of the year, but for many, summers are without pay, so they take part time jobs to make ends meet. They do not have regular 9-5 jobs like many of you. They prepare for the next day's lesson, they bring home test papers to grade, they bring home reports and essays your children write to read, review and grade. So please do not disrespect the teacher.

Like you, they are also entitled to negotiate for a better pay, benefits, job security, so butt the he*** out of their business to strike.

Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan.... stay out of the chicago teacher's strike. You have not walked on a teacher's shoes, you have not earned the right to criticize what they are fighting for.

Oh my! Romney, trying to make hay?

It seems the wooden liar 'Pinocchio' Romney has his fairy tales confused...it was Rumplestiltskin who spun straw into gold.

Go home to Switzerland, Mitt. We don't want or need your sorry a$$ in the White House.

What I find amazing is that there is a lot of back and forth arguments, but no one has addressed the various comments from those in this thread who are/are involved with teachers (eg Beth above). They have explained simply that the generalisations fired out here are ridiculous.

I used to be a teacher, I loved most of what I did. I'd work 16-18 hour days, 7 days a week, and just 1 good lesson could keep me motivated another month of nightmare students etc. Frankly, the students were not the main problem. I left because parents, and society as a whole, made the job untenable.

Reading a lot of these posts here re-affirm why I left. Let's just use a hypothetical situation here:

If the government did what the more extreme libertarians (ergo Randian social engineering) suggested, and limit their influence to defense and smaller policing, along with prisons, then we can have a situation where all other areas can be privatised. In a situation where you have to buy fire insurance for a response, sanitation would have to be paid for as required, and all schools were private, what do you think the average teacher wage would be? I guarantee it would be much higher than it is now.

It's astounding that some treat the most essential elements in maintaining a society with such contempt and derision. I hate to burst your bubble here, but if a serious world disaster were to occur, the chances are the first people you'd look for are those in the vocations or with usable skills, NOT a pro football player, an actor, a venture capitalist or the CEO of a fortune 500 company.

The reason I left the profession was that I was constrained in a job I studied hard to get, with relatively low pay (believe me, colleagues of mine have worked and studied less and get payed 5-10 times more) and the prevailing attitude that teachers should be 'Parents 2.0'. It's the steady erosion of responsibility by the individual, even in regards their offspring. Teachers see a lot of your kids, you want them to be effective. How about helping us out and it can be a real partnership.

You look at the unions, scoff and expel scorn at the teachers for what you think they don't do, well, try doing their job. I don't mean just for your own kid, I mean day in, day out, for 30+ teenagers from seriously dysfunctional family backgrounds. Try to engage them with topics even you find boring, provide a safe and stable environment, even when you have had a terrible day. Listen to a myriad of problems, and walk a tentative line to resolve without interfering too much. Watch powerlessly as some come in beat up, bruised and know you can only offer perfunctory support. Sit and swallow your pride and instinctive reaction to object as parents scream and vent their own frustrations at you, knowing that if they only helped a little their child might get the grade they wanted.

Do all this, say you still love the job, and come back here and tell us that they are highly overpaid and how easy it is. You on the right never want to pay for the essentials, health, education, policing etc, but want as much as you possibly can in tax cuts for the disposable income to buy a much nicer car, a huge TV or the latest ipad etc. If you ask me, priorities are skewed here, I just hope your kids won't look back and curse you for the decisions some in this generation made.

Romney is a blatant hypocrite for turning on teachers. After raiding numerous companies and ruining the lives of their employees so he could be Mr. Super-Rich, he criticizes a profession that actually does good for society?

Who decides how much one profession is worth compared to another? Who decreed that Tiger Woods, for example, should be paid $100 million a year for shilling for Nike (a situation that destroyed his moral compass and ended up ruining his marriage and his family)?

America needs to get its priorities in order.

All of you people defending teachers have NO clue how bad it has gotten in many major cities. From my experience as a teacher, it is truly a tragedy. Many do NOT spend countless hours getting ready for class. They use lesson plans developed YEARS ago and teach the same tired curricullum. My first year of teaching, I was voted the best teacher in the school by the students. I was one of the few teachers willing to actually work with my students after school. I finally changed professions after my principal decided to pass through ALL students that had failed their classes. A few could not even read. No wonder we are so behind other countries in education. The teachers union needs to GO! Fire em all!

Don't let the Mega Rich buy our democracy, America is having a bad overdose of Tea. Romney & Ryan would be Pimps for their 1% buddies !!!

LvingBarefoot'

Do you know how to keep oil prices down. We use 24% of the world's oil (down from 25% in 2008). We produce 11% (up from 10% in 2008). The world's population will double by 2060 and increasing standards of living worldwide will increase world oil consumption even more.

Green energy solutions will reduce our consumption of world oil supply and will also reduce other country's consumption of world oil supply. Disruptions in world oil supply due to wars and political crises have always caused oil prices to spike sometimes driving our economy into recession or producing runaway inflation (1973-1983). Our dependence on oil to fuel our transportation has made our demand inflexible. In other words, prices have to go up a lot before we reduce our demand a little. Green energy will make our demand for oil more flexible meaning prices of oil will not jump as much when their are oil supply disruptions.

Green solutions to our energy needs take time to become cost competitive, but eventually they will. But even before they are cost competitive, we have to work on getting them there. This takes investment and tax credits, but all the while we will see the %age of our energy needs met by green energy increase while our consumption of oil will decrease. This lowers the upward pressure on oil prices caused by increasing energy use.

To look at it another way, the more green energy we use, the less oil we will use and the lower the price of oil will be. This saves us all money when we gas up our cars. And it pushes off the year when world oil demand exceeds world oil supply and that time will certainly arrive before 2060.

Last time I looked no president has gotten involved in local school contracts and I would hope that republican'ts who claim to want less "GOVERNMENT" would remember their familiar words. Mitt and Paul, why would you expect the president to get involved verbally or in anyway in Chicago? Of course! You want votes so the great Devil of a liar , Ryan, has to lie some more!

A few comments:

These teachers already have the second highest average salaries in the country - they are not underpaid.

At some point we need to realize money doesn't solve everything. We already spend far more per student than any other country in the world, but our students rank in the 20's and 30's in most comparative studies. It seems to me, throwing money at the problem may actually be hurting, not helping.

We need to get a lot smarter about how we approach education - which means making changes. From what I've seen, teachers unions are highly resistant to change - that attitude needs to stop, or the unions need to be broken. Some of the rules under "debate" seem absurd to me. Forget about the merit based pay discussion, my understanding is, in Chicago the unions decide which schools teachers are at - not the principle. Imagine if you ran a company, but someone else told you who your employees would be - that's a crazy way to run any organization.

clwyd-2621393

Last time I looked no president has gotten involved in local school contracts and I would hope that republican'ts who claim to want less "GOVERNMENT" would remember their familiar words.

While I agree with your sentiment, Obama has gotten involved in several local issues in the past (remember the "beer summit" after he got involved in the Harvard prof & police officer issue?).

I also think this issue does have national implications. Many of us feel public employee unions have been abusing their power for a number of years, and in these hard times, it is highly annoying for them to be asking for more of my tax dollars - when I have to stomach pay cuts and reduced benefits. (especially knowing they often have guaranteed retirement payments - and I have to save and hope the markets don't crash again).

I would love to get into this argument with a conservative if they would actually acknowledge when a prudent argument was put forth with merit. Unfortunately when I get into this discussion with people from my state (NJ) they seem to always resort to rhetoric and never address the issues which truly affect teachers. I'm a tax accountant who works at the largest accounting firm in the world with a teacher for a wife. She does roughly the same amount of work as I do (public accountants work a lot!) when it comes to lesson planning and grading papers. Not all of her time is spent "teaching" per se but the planning work in her job is more than most jobs to which I've had exposure. She unfortunately (in NJ the 2nd highest paid teachers in the nation) can NEVER make more than our 3rd year accountants. Ever. And this includes the cost of her benefits. Additionally just doing the math she will earn less (total compensation plus pension) than people at my firm after year 4. So even when you include her pension and benefits with her salary she will make less than my employees after year4. In full disclosure prior to year 4 she makes more. So when I present these facts to people in NJ related to the "cost" of her being a teacher to the state there can be no argument. BTW she has a mathematics degree and a masters in math which is far far more difficult to obtain than an accounting degree such as mine.

As to "judging" her on her "results" her students last year scored an average of 4.3 on the AP Calculus exam. But if her students this year aren't as diligent and end up with a 4.2 or less you want her to take LESS money? That logic just doesn't hold up.

Ron, and you feed yourself a steady diet of FOX! Right! So now that you feel unions have been abusing power you think it is OK to let employers begin to abuse it? Contracts are made to be kept even when it is with union or non-union employees. Your tax dollars bailed out business and Wall -Street my friend and there was not outcry. ( Too many people didn't want their banks to collapse!) Where is the concern for schools? I know a beginning teacher in Chicago who will earn a starting salary of $43,000 full-time. After spending $100,000 to get her degree she gets about what a non-educated worker would get. They wanted the help and got it without the hassle of teaching 200 kids a day. A local issue of schools in Chicago is not part of the presidents job description and it shouldn't be except in Romney's and Ryan's minds. We can't be the world's policeman and we can't step into local issues union or non!

clwyd,

I get my news from a variety of sources, including liberal, conservative and moderate sources. I believe very strongly that it's important to listen to everyone since you never know when someone will have a valid point to consider. I also take everything I hear with a large grain of salt.

A difference with public sector unions is they are living off my tax dollars. My preference is the unions would be reasonable, but in a number of recent cases, that does not appear to be the case. If they will not be reasonable, then I think we should do what Reagan did with the air traffic controllers, and fire them all.

$43k/year for a starting teacher is a great salary. When I graduated with a masters degree and CPA certificate, I only made $23k/year. Even adjusting for inflation, the starting teacher you mentioned is making much more than I did.

Has Obama put on that "comfortable pair of shoes" to "walk on that picket line" with the Chicago teachers like he promised unions if he was elected president; or is he giving them the finger by ignoring them like he did to the unions in Wisconsin?

Ron,

I'm also an accountant and I work at a public accounting firm. A teacher in NJ starts at about $40k (depending on the jurisdiction) and 5 years later is still not earning 45k. That includes taking increases related to the costs they need to pay for their benefits. Do you mind telling us what your salary was (after inflationary adjustments) after 5 years? I'm willing to bet it was much much more than that of the teachers. I know I made more than any teacher in NJ was able to make after about 3 years at PwC.

Would a Republican please explain to me why folks who are trying to provide kids with better education through smaller class size (the main point of disagreement in this strike) should be castigated?

Or, if the strike were about pay, would a Republican please explain to me why promoting one's self-interest in seeking more money is not beneficial to the improvement of the economy? The accumulation of wealth defines capitalism.

Republicans opposed to collective bargaining are seeking to imposed high-handed government restrictions/regulations on the free enterprise of those who earn a living by honest labor.

For those who believe that all children in America already have everything they need:

Last night my daughter told me that one of her good friends has just lost her free lunch status because her mom remarried. With 4 children in the house, they can't afford the cost of lunch, and this friend is worried about what they're going to do.

My daughter went on to say that last year another of her friends lost her lunch coverage when her dad got disability payments. That put her family $2 a month over the limit. So for the rest of the year, the child did not eat lunch.

For those who don't understand how this could happen, the guidelines for free lunch require that a family of 4 have income of less than $29,965 a year (gross) to qualify. Think about it - could you feed, clothe, house, provide medical care for and transport four people off less that $2500 a month?

Is this the best the richest country in the world can do? It sickens me that people like Mitt Romney take home $21.6 million a year without even working, and these children go hungry. If we can't at least feed and educate our kids, something is wrong.

Who is conjecturing that?

Were you wearing a tin foil hat when you wrote that? I haven't heard anyone saying that.

Yep. This is all political theater to set it all up for Obama.

Just like Obama was going to swoop in and take all your guns away the moment he got in to office.

No, wait! I forgot! His secret plan was to take the chance that he might get reelected, and THEN take all the guns away. Oooo, Oooo, even better! Maybe his double-secret plan is to change the constitution (which he hates, BTW) so he can get a THIRD term, and THEN he's going to take all your guns away!!!!

edit: !#$&@#$ it! My mouse slipped when I was going for the reply button and I accidentally upvoted grouchypatch. Take one off that Like list!

Next up;

Romney reshuffles campaign staff...

Somebody is giving the candidate bad advice today...

dangerfield - you mean like they have done every day so far????

Obama/Biden 2012

Romney doesn't really understand the problem. He believes that everyone should just send their children to private school!

Let's just look at the RED STATES to see how WONDERFUL THEY ARE DOING IN EDUCATION: they are at the bottom of the barrel, and it is because the teachers have ZERO protection from being fired, or not being payed a fair salary.

The GOP wants to have SLAVES all over again by the way of salaries!!!

Once Romney is in charge we will have a union in every company in AMERICA. Welcome to Romney's dream a union in every corporation

Negotiating in good faith?

Is this the same negotiators that voted to rescind a 4% raise on the last year of their contract after the teachers agreed to no raises for the first three?

Romney will never know what it is like for a common man. He also knows less than I do about the situation, and I first heard of it this morning. Pathetic excuse for a politician.

Maybe mitt should focus on coming up with a plan of his own, instead of worrying about teachers.

Rush Limpbals or Faux News conjecture possibly... sounds about right ...LOL

The level of ignorance, sheer stupidity, and lack of information is just appalling. 2 cases in point:

1. "$91K after benefits a 9 month year, keep supporting that you dolts, they are nearly the 1%," The bottom of the 1% income scale is somewhat north of $350,000. You can't even see $350K from $91K (benefits included).

2. "Teachers are state government employees;" No Mary, they are not state government employees. They are employees of the local school district which may or may not be under the purview of the local city government.

Dangerfield post 2.4

Your absolutely right except maybe it should be; "Someone is giving a BAD candidate even worse advice today".

WAIT.... Isn't Barry FROM CHICAGO? Didn't he SAVE ILLINOIS before moving on to SAVE AMERICA?

Guess we can expect the same for the US....

trudat6445:

Are you kidding? Do you even spend a single minute researching? 91k... I wish. The highest teachers go are in the 70k range and that's after 20-25 years. Most start out in the 30k and 40k range.

Try to educate yourself before you make yourself look stupid.

Maybe the union was taking note on how our Republican congress compromises so they do the same.

Remember, it was Rahm who said "Never let a good crisis go to waste". This would be perfectly in character for him to create this crisis so Obama can swoop in and save the day.

President Obama should refuse to take the bait, and state that this is a matter between the teacher's union and the City of Chicago.

Romney, Ryan and the GOP are firmly anti-labor as proven in Wisconsin. If he wants to insert himself into an anti-labor movement in Chicago let him spend his time there showing himself to be the anti-union, anti-labor, anti-middle class person he is and party they are. President Obama should not get distracted from the campaign. The Federal Government has no business involving itself in local government issues.

crosspatch

Neither Mayor Emanuel nor President Obama really have any say in the matter of negotiations between the Chicago School Board and the Teacher's Union.

However, I did find Mayor Emanuel's comment about Mitt Romney "enlightening".

But Emanuel himself lashed out at Romney during a press availability in Chicago this afternoon, accusing the Republican presidential hopeful of political opportunism.

"While I appreciate Mitt Romney’s statement, on behalf of the kids and the parents of the city of Chicago, if he wants to help, he could then determine that when it comes to his tax cut, he will never cut the Department of Education and the funding that’s necessary and he will make sure that there will never be a cut in any education to pay for his tax cuts for the most fortunate," the first-term mayor said.

"So while I appreciate his lip service, what really counts is what we’re doing here. And I don’t really give two hoots about national comments scoring political points or trying to embarrass -- or whatever -- the president."

Or Romney should just explain why he thinks the teachers union is wrong. So far he has only complained, no solutions.

Since the union took over education America has fallen from first in the world to 20th.

Feisty Redhead Roselle, IL

You really are out of touch with reality but I guess you jave to post what Obama pays you to post. Liberal Propaganda

Some people actually look up the facts and can do math.

Obama has lost 4.3 million jobs since he took over and wasted 5 trillion dollars of taxpayer money. Not very impressive.

Nathan,

An article in the USA Today just stated that the average teacher in Chicago makes around $76,000 per year. Please do a little research before telling other people to do research and calling them stupid for it. It makes you look pretty @!$%#ing stupid.

Strange Unions support Democrats and this is a election year, What kind of backstabing game is this or is it, oh I get it Obama set this up so he could run to the rescue more Chicago politics. the demons will save the day and the election as always in Illinois will go to the Jackass's. and the state will go broke. I saw that picket line of overweight unatractive lazy looking people are the teachers hiring people off the street to do their picket duty for them?

Frank-

On what are you basing the assertion that President Obama has lost 4.3 million jobs? If that were the case, don't you think that piece of information would be front and center with the GOP? You're the only person I've heard say that. Congress can vote themselves a raise anytime they want: they have the best health insurance and the best retirement plan in the nation. If anybody's a union - they certainly are! And if Ryan's plan is so great, why isn't he defending it? I haven't heard a word.

workingpoor-2370498

Romney would rather double class size, half teachers pay and their numbers, because we don't need an educated electorate. It costs money at the expense of his base (the rich) and the last thing the neo-conservatives need is an educated electorate.

Listen, the republicans are already at the uneducated electorate stage. A recent poll take among republicans in North Caroline asked a simple question; Who should get credit fro getting Bin Laden, Obama or Romney.

The results:

38% -- Obama;

15% -- Romeny;

56% -- not sure.

Romney held no public office, nothing at all to do with the Government; was busy trying to figure out how he would win the republican primary, yet there are 15 out of 100 republicans in North Caroline that believe Romney should get credit for bringing down Bin laden. To top off that stupidity, 56 out of every 100 republicans in North Caroline have no clue whether Romney or Obama should get the credit.

So, would the republicans be thrilled if the electorate consists of a bunch of dumbA$$es -- YOU BETTCHA! Already, 61 out every 100 republicans are dumba$$es.

Romney doesn't believe in anyone in the middle class or poor income brackets having their freedom of speech, or a Representation to speak, except his wealthy buddies, the SuperPacs, lobbyists, and Special Interest Groups and the Republican Party. But, We the People do not have those same rights as the Corporate Elite and wealthy. Why else have they pushed so diligently for VOTERS SUPPRESSION and ELIMINATE ALL THE UNIONS ???? Next will be medicare for vouchers followed with no SS. It's time to wise up voters as to what the Republicans are up to and to stand up against to their policies.

The average family in Chicago earns 46,000.00 per year, and here we have teachers earning 76,000.00 that work 180 student days per year crammed into 9 months. They were offered a 16% salary and benefits increase, but decided it was not enough and went out on strike. They are demanding more because the 50% graduation rate in Chicago stands in the balance. Greedy teachers, represented by unions that could careless about the quality of the employee or the work they perform. All at taxpayer expense. Any place but Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, Obama, and this might have been believable. But coming from the man that said never let a good crisis go to waste, so the opportunity to manufacture one.

Don't believe a thing Romney spits out, he's a Pathological Liar !!!!!

Simple fact is this is a STATE ISSUE. Romney stuck his big FLIP FLOPPING NOSE in a STATE ISSUE. Let me be clear this is a STATE ISSUE. Shame on Romney

Romney is embracing unions? As an outsourcer? 44 million dollar bailout? God there is no boundary flip flop Romney will not cross

Romney came down against the unions. They had a contract, and the Dept. of Ed. voted to back out after 4 years - just when the teachers were going to get a raise.

Was this a flip, or a flop...

A flippity-flop. Then again maybe it was a floppity-flip.

Governor Twinkie from NJ is calling: he wants to "weigh in" on the Chicago Teacher situation, all 400 lbs of him .... says he want to sit on them to demonstrate their over-indulgence ....LOL

lvingbarefoot

Let me get this straight are you one of those people that believes that it's good thing for Wall Street bankers to steal billions of dollars but it's a bad thing for teachers to ask for a livable wage............. I'll never be able to understand why right wing Republicans in this country are so ignorant and greedy.

The greed is one thing I can say is true I know a few Republicans and yes they would steal the teeth out of your mouth while you were talking if they thought you would not notice ....

most teachers in this nation make between 30 and 45,000 plus benefits to start and are going without pay increases.

BS.

Most tchrs make less than $30K to start.

You do realize they have a bachelor's degree for such a low salary....right? They went to college to earn a salary equivalent to that of a mgr at Target who didn't need to go to college at all.

These teachers make over 70,000 plus benefits and are crying.

No, they don't. The only tchrs who earn anywhere near $70K have been tchg for 20-25 yrs or more to get to that salary peak. And since when is *plus benefits* a bad thing? Every job should have those.

they don't want to pay any money toward their medical like everyone else, they don't want to be rated because they don't want everyone to know how bad at teaching they are.

Excuse me, but tchrs are evaluated a minimum of 2x/yr.

Trust me, the *bad* ones are weeded out very early on. Even a bad substitute tchr will quickly find that the phone isn't ringing anymore. There is *quality control* in the profession.

How many Congresspersons would lose their cushy, highly pd jobs w/ free health care & huge pensions (way more than tchrs will ever get, & on your tax dollar) if we evaluated them 2x/yr?

What was their latest approval rating again? 12%? Fire those jerks.

And tchrs get payroll deductions for their health care ins taken out just like you do, so quit whining about their *free ins*. They're not getting it for free.

They make more than me and I have at least twice the education they do and I have to pay toward my medical.

BS.

Tchrs are required to have a master's degree. Some of them have PhDs. All of them are required to take continuing education courses in order to maintain their certification/license to teach.

I highly doubt that you have *twice the education* as a tchr, b/c tchrs are the only profession required to never stop going to schl.

Tchrs are not just educators, they are also required to be lifelong learners. This is so that they are equipped to give your kids the best education possible.

Fire the jerks

Great idea....what's your alternative plan to keep those thousands of kids in Chicago occupied for the schl yr, let alone educated?

*crickets*

If teachers are evaluated twice a year the bar must be set pretty low. Just have to watch Leno doing a Jay Walking segment to see the pathetic people supposedly educating our children. There are some good teachers but they are few and the ones not doing their job cause problems for the ones that are.

They (Romney & Ryan) have "HAY for brains", too!!!

Romney was rejected by the GOP in 2000, don't vote for a Loser !!!!

Salaries (annual average)

Teachers: $74,839

Administrators: $120,659

Student racial breakdown

African-American: 41.6%

Latino: 44.1%

Would you teach a class of 37 teenagers who didn't want to be there??

I wonder what is the worth of someone with whom we entrust about a 1/3 of our children's waking hours giving them knowledge by which to face their lives.

From my point of view (I'm not anywhere close to being a teacher or educator of any kind), my children's education is the most important thing I do with my life, and I'm willing to pay well for whatever assistance I can get in that life-defining task.

You get what you pay for - and if cheap is what you pay for your teachers, cheap is what you'll get for your children's education. Why not pay enough to attract the very best?

Would you teach a class of 37 teenagers who didn't want to be there??

AND THE PARENTS OF THOSE STUDENTS JUST waiting FOR THE TEACHER TO SAY ANYTHING TO THOSE LITTLE "DARLINGS" TO GO AFTER HER, THREAT TO SUE, ETC. The students can't bring a pencil to school, and they expect the TEACHERS to supply everything 'because the parents are broke"

The same students that are "so broke" are wearing the latest fashion of tennis shoes and cell phones, but the "parents" are so poor. Especially in the Red States. All of them have guns, but the parents are "too poor"to buy them school supplies

PFFT!

Teachers after benefits make $91k average, they also know the pay scale when before they even get to college.

Oh Sure they know. Except that you overlook the fact that teachers have not had raises in many years, teachers keep taking furlough days (no pay days, and still working) and their benefits keep being cut away every year.

I am sure that if you had the same problem you would be out there protesting too. Especially when teaching is a job that does not give people time TO GO OUT AND PRETEND TO BE WORKING!!!! LIKE MANY OF YOU DO.

All I know Republicans is here comes union loving ROMNEY

If you are joking about Romney eventually flipflopping, you are probably right.

However, here, he slams them."Teachers unions have too often made plain that their interests conflict with those of our children, and today we are seeing one of the clearest examples yet," Romney added in his statement Monday. "I choose to side with the parents and students depending on public schools to give them the skills to succeed, and my plan for education reform will do exactly that."

Exactly HOW, Romney? That's when he starts talking about how much he loves America.

you understand that the 74k pre-benefits is an average right? based on different pay scales. a teacher with a bachelors degree is in the 47k range and a teacher with a doctorate is in the 88k range.

so pretend that its excessive, but people with doctoral degrees command larger salaries.

using the average, and adding benefits to make your argument is at least in part disingenuous.

Tracey - well said. We always find the radical righties exaggerating to fit their purposes!

Obama/Biden 2012

from now on im gunna think about my salary as if the cost of benefits are included. IM RICH!!!!

Romney Hood.... Take everything from average Americans and give it to the rich. Romney is a Washington lobbists dream. Any average American that votes for this crook is ether under informed, mean spirited or just plain crazy.

What would happen if, all the teachers were fired and the district had to hire all new? Where would the "new" teachers come from? What if all public education was ended and each family had to provide an education for their children without assistance? A limited number of children would receive an education just as it happens in third world countries. The argument in Chicago should be, "how can we provide a excellent salary with excellent benefits which will attract excellent teachers?" That will not happen because people thinks they are overpaid already!

I think you are a student with no Teacher in the class.it sound's this way,not educated,Try History,reading a Book know some Math''''

sorry you are a Moron

These teachers are a disgrace making an actual $91k a year average and striking in todays economy when they have the worst school system at the highest expense, fire them all.

Yeah, they are such a disgrace!!!! God forbid they went to school to learn how to teach your children. I've volunteered a lot with my children's teachers, given kleenex, crayons, etc. They deserve the monies they are paid and while you might think it obsessive, please tell me how much time you've spent/invested in teaching the future generation???? They instill values in the future engineers, scientists, and Presidents.

Fire them all!

Bring in the lunch ladies to teach!!! GAH!!!! Do you even think before you post?????

Teachers after benefits make $91k average, they also know the pay scale before they even get to college.

This is total bull@!$%#. My wife is a teacher and it will take 30 years for her to break 50k/year. A LOT of schools are like this. On top of it, teachers are insisted upon to work 10+ hour days, support after school activities, and do all sorts of things for the kids including spending their own money. It's just silly to sit here and try and make teachers out to be the enemy. My wife is one of the hardest working people I know. She works 50% more than I do but makes far less than 50% of my pay. I think your comment just shows your ignorance to what teachers actually have to go through.

Romney & Ryan GOP TeaReTards say Trickle down is working for the 1% !!!

@nuclear, I'm surprised that people even want to be teachers anymore with all the crap that they have to go through. And your right, teachers have to put in alot of unpaid overtime and are expected to spend their own money, yet we vilify them.