TEACHERS DESERVE TO GET PAID

Would you stay on a job in which your employer requires you to decorate your workspace but doesn't offer expense reimbursement?  No, you're not a Teacher.

Would you stay on a job in which you are required to provide your own supplies in order to do your job?  No, you're not a Teacher.

Would you stay on a job where you are promised a raise but you don't get it?    No, you're not a Teacher.

Notice what each question has in common, in each instance Teachers pockets are impacted.

One instance I remember from my teaching days that I found especially egregious.  First, I need to give a little background on one aspect of teacher pay.  Teachers get a salary for working the regular school year.  A portion of that salary is deducted from their pay each pay period to continue their salary during the summer break.

For example, assume you make $1200 per year for 10 months work; that's $120 per month.  But to provide equal pay each month your boss pays you $100 per month and keeps the extra $20 to pay you the two months you don't work.  This is how teachers in Chicago are paid.

A few years ago, while I was teaching, Chicago changed the date that teachers were paid.  To do so, they took a week from the teachers set aside salary to pay teachers for the pay date change.

Back to our example, $200 was taken from the teachers pay but they only received $195 back.

I'm a CPA, have a Masters in Finance and in Information Systems Management.  I worked in both Finance and Information Systems Management before becoming a High School Math teacher.  I can assure you it was not necessary either from a finance or technology standpoint to reduce the amount teachers were paid to make a pay date change.  Did you hear of protests when this happened?

Would YOU stay on a job in which your employer took money from your pay for their benefit?  No, you're not a Teacher.

Chicago Teachers are set to go on strike tomorrow because a contract cannot be reached.  Teacher pay is one of the items still outstanding.  Teachers have agreed to a longer school year and a longer school day, don't they deserve a decent increase in pay?  I say, TEACHERS DESERVE TO GET PAID.

While I can understand that striking and keeping kids out of school is not good, I also recognize that you can only beat someone up so much before they fight back.  Give 'em heck, Karen Lewis, CTU President, TEACHERS DESERVE TO GET PAID.