Is the Chicago Teachers Strike Helping or Hurting the Education System?

Definately helping....while on strike, the students aren't being indoctrinated, manipulated, or lied to by the so called "teachers".....

Everybody has the right to strike for better conditions,money,etc,just because the parents have to look for new Babysitters has nothing to do with the Teachers!

They got their 24.5% salary increase and 33% total increase with benefits over the term of the contract which continues the ridiculous 50% over staffing and compensation plus their fraudulent millionaire pensions...but nothing to improve their failed operations or education system...this is the Public Sector in its glory as it rapes and pillages the taxpayers and the collusion between the Politicians and the unions...that is why this nation will shortly default like the EU....

People are seeing what is going on. What they are getting paid for what lenght of time. Besides that crap those kids are taught is useless anyway. Does it make our kids job ready upon graduation? NO! See it did help.

Obviously it is showing where the priority of most of the teachers lie - and it ain't with the students!

hurting the childrens education for the time being but they will make up for it in the summer.The strick will help the teachers paycheck!

Public education is dead in the US. Many good teachers are swallowed up by the left leaning, Obama loving, student hating teachers unions. Teachers are now expected to be political acivist. And the most disgraceful and shameless thing of all is that the teachers unions will fight like hell to save incompetent teachers. And if a teacher is so bad that even the union can't prop them up, they are transferred to the state education departments. without standards, our children are floundering in a petri dish of liberal experimentaion. It's OK to grade the students but don't dare question the copetency of a teacher. The schools belong to the people, not the unions.

At the moment, the kids in Chicago aren't being spoon fed liberal drivel. These teachers being on strike may be the best thing that could happen to these kids.

Close to 50% of their kids graduate. They need to put the kids first, not their contracts, and go back to work. Although, the less time these teachers spend with those kids is probably better for them; maybe a lot of the parents will send them to a charter or home school them....

On the surface it looks like hurting and it is hurting those students who want to learn. But given the dismal educational statistics of the Chicago school system, is it really hurting the students anymore than if the teachers were on the job? I don't think so.

BTW, will somebody please buy that big cow Karen Lewis a bra? The last time I saw udders hanging that close to the ground was at a agricultural fair.

What nonsense !! Our schools aren't educational institutions anymore. Rather they are institutions of propaganda and brain-washing. Their focus is to dumb down our kids and turn them into global citizens, not patriotic Americans.

In the private sector, employees are held to some level of performance standards or you have no job. Why or why should employees who perform at a sub-par level be granted exorbitant wages, guaranteed jobs, health care as long as they draw a breath and a retirement that almost equals their pay? Why??? Why???

In my opinion, they don't deserve what they are getting and when the stats for the performance of their students is plastered all over the country and publicized, they should be hanging their heads in shame, not making fools of themselves by drawing attention to their academic failures.

Oh... you wonder why college costs are so high? Just think about professors knocking down salaries of a quarter of a million dollars or half a million dollars a year. That is a large part of the problem.

Really the only ones getting hurt are the students. But hey if this is what they wanna do then thats what they wanna do.

They are acting like spoiled children. The average Chicagoan makes about $40,000. per year working 12 months. The average Chicago teacher is presently making approx. $70,000. with a summer vacation and all sorts of holidays. Our State is in debt up to our ears because of the many years that we gave in to them. I say that we "home school" the kids for awhile and hire only non union teachers. (they teach in private, small schools here). With so many people out of work I'll bet we could fill up their positions very quickly. They think that their raise comes before the education of our children. Well just look where Illinois' children score !

It truly depends on the outcome, and the solidarity (despite corporate media spin)
But what is good for educators is good for education

A Bra and mask would help that lady

Check these that protest! Light your imagination, this is extreme protesting and those teachers striking are doing the same with the imagination of the children they are neglecting, that is child abuse in the worst way! They should all be charged accordingly and if not returning to work, fired! I would fire all of them if they did not return to word within 24 hours! Zap their pension like ours got zapped and that would fix them! Oh, did that get your attention?

The main argument is that teachers are not being treated fairly. What is fair. How much should they make? How and what standards should be set to gauge performance? Long story short, either do your job or you won't have one. when did that stop applying to teachers?

In China teachers are respected and valued. They even have Teachers Day. In America Teachers are not respected, they are throwaways. There is no Teachers Day in America, and the only time they celebrate in America is when they convict the kid to life in prison for bringing a hand gun to school, after he killed all his classmates and teachers.

By all means I agree with Chicago Teachers Strike. This strike is in my opinion America's First Teachers Day.

Bunch of nitwits. Good old Chicago. I don't know which is worse, Frisco, or Chi Town..

Neither. There wasn't much of an education system to harm, by the looks of Chicago...

Teachers have a right to stand up for what they think is right just like everyone else. Just because there are kids involved does not make a difference. The administration and mayor should think about the kids too before they start imposing unfair practices and policies on teachers.

Not that they do much when they are not striking.

The USA has lazy teachers and it is showing up in are children that teachers are not living up to their profession, not all are lazy but lack of supervision of teachers has down graded our children ability, this strike will not help our children get a better education, lack of educators will continue to down graded our children!

Didn't they learn anything from the statewide teachers strike involving their Wisconsin neighbors last year?

It isn't about the money! They are striking for a better method of grading their teaching abilities besides standardized tests. The less funded, overcrowded schools can't compete with the better off schools. 20 students in a class that can take home their books has a higher chance of doing well than a class of 40 who share books and can't take them home.

I say let them strike. It will show that tbey care not a whit for the kids,and everythig for themselves and the union...scum.

Greedy bastards. Your a teacher, not a world-renowned doctor. You don't deserve $100,000. Most of the years spent at school are unnecessary for most.

If you do not make teaching worthwhile, we will have no teachers in the future. A few days of freedom wont hurt any pupils either.

By encouraging similar behavour in other school districts.

Chicago teachers are already one of the highest paid teachers in the entire US. This is a pure act of greed on the part of the teachers and the teacher union. And who suffers from it all? The children. If your school isn't reaching the educational goals it needs to meet, perhaps you should change your ways on how you teach. Money isn't the issue with the quality of education. I know a great deal of people that were home-schooled who did vastly better than most public schooled children. That there should tell you something.

What is this behavior showing the kids ?

Answer : Their Teachers Are GREEDY PARASITES ! - They Are The Highest Paid Teachers In The Country , In A City Run By SOCIALISTS on one side - and Organized Crime on the other . The children are VICTIMS caught in the middle !

These Thug Teachers are pissed because they Know they Don't Pass under Scrutiny!! Where in Jobs are you Not Reviewed?? Sheesh, Moochell Should start Preaching to their Thug Union Teachers, cuz that is a Lot of Lard in this photo!! lol....

Should be a "Neither" option in the question. The current education system in the USA is so lame that a strike neither adds nor detracts little, if anything.

the whole public school system is hurting education...it doesnt mater how much you pay them, it is still junk

WTF ???????????

Could you be a bit more specific ? You wouldn't happen to be Rham Emannuel ? the biggest jerk in Chicago .

Rham can kiss my ass !

Cool!