Chicago teachers on strike, schools close

Published On September 10, 2012 | By Reading The Score | Politics

As Ed Morrissey said, this might be the best argument made for school choice in a long time:

The smartest parents in Chicago right now are those whose kids attend charter schools, private schools, or parochial schools. Those institutions don’t employ Chicago’s unionized public-school teachers, who went out on strike this morning for the first time in 25 years.

The coverage of the strike has obscured some basic facts. The money has continued to pour into Chicago’s failing public schools in recent years. Chicago teachers have the highest average salary of any city at $76,000 a year before benefits. The average family in the city only earns $47,000 a year. Yet the teachers rejected a 16 percent salary increase over four years at a time when most families are not getting any raises or are looking for work.

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"Shouldn't we expect government to Read The Score to us once in a while?” - Ronald Reagan