Good Times: Chicago Teachers Union Demands 30 Percent Pay Raise

Because working Americans are doing so well under the Obamaconomy.

It takes a lot of nerve to ask for a 30 percent pay raise. You’d better be sure you had a banner year. Yet in Chicago, where just 15 percent of fourth graders are proficient in reading (and just 56 percent of students graduate), the teachers union is set to strike if the district does not agree to a 30 percent increase in teachers’ salaries.



The average teacher in Chicago Public Schools—a district facing a $700 million deficit—makes $71,000 per year before benefits are included. If the district meets union demands and rewards teachers with the requested salary increase, education employees will receive compensation north of $92,000 per year.

According to the Illinois Policy Institute, the average annual income of a family in Chicago is $47,000 per year. If implemented, the 30 percent raise will mean that in nine months, a single teacher in the Chicago Public School system will take home nearly double what the average family in the city earns in a year.

According to the union, 91 percent of its members voted for the ability to strike. That vote gives the union the ability to walk out of public school classrooms as children return to school this fall... The union argues [that] the requested salary increase would compensate them for extending the school day from 5.5 hours—among the nation’s shortest school days—to 7.5 hours.

This is the liberal madness that Ace captions as follows: "The Public Sector Has, In Fact, Lost Jobs. But Does Obama Understand Why?

We're paying more than ever for public sector employees.

So why isn't employment in that sector going up?

Because each employee demands higher and higher raises (even in a recession) and greater and greater retirement benefits (even in a depression).


They will not permit the smallest adjustment in their steady march to become Bureaucrat Millionaires.

Ergo, states are finding that even with more money to pay them, they can't pay as many of them.

That's why, champ...

...Obama's prescription is not to reduce these ridiculous payments to Democratic Clients, of course. He simply wants to give state and local government more money, to pay for the same number of workers, to insure than public employees never have to modify their pigs-at-the-trough appetites for taxpayer dollars.

Not to mention the fact that most of these union members are compelled to pay dues, which are conveniently recycled into President Obama's campaign coffers.

As I said below, the level of wanton lawlessness of this administration -- borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars from future generations to pay off his favorite fundraisers and union bosses -- makes Bernard Madoff look like Mother Theresa.


Hat tip: BadBlue.com. Images: ABC-7 and Chicago Tribune.