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

Per usual, you righties have no idea what you're talking about, so here's the facts (I know, you have great difficulty with facts):
1. America spends 60% of its federal tax dollars on funding the military and approximately 10% on education. Translation...
2. With little money available in the school systems for salaries, who do you think ends up teaching our kids? Certainly not people who are intelligent enough to become doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. No, it's generally people graduating toward the bottom of their classes in college. Translation...
3. We have a glut of average teachers trying to do the most important job in the country: educating our youth. Not only that, but these teachers are stuck with over-sized classrooms, diverse student populations, extremes in learning levels within their own classrooms, often incompetent administrators, uninterested/uninvolved youth and parents, constant issues with behavior management, etc. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, the job isn't exactly easy nor is it fruitful. If you don't believe me, YOU try it. And the end result...
4. We have fallen to the #17 spot world-wide in academic achievement. The solution:
5. Reverse the percentages in #1 and follow the Finnish model of education which has catapulted them to #1 status in the world. Finland makes damn sure that ONLY the best and brightest of their population receive the high honor of becoming a qualified teacher. And guess what? Their teachers are rewarded handsomely. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Go figure.

Many Teachers run their own government and in some places like the worst big school system in the US are paid almost twice what the average household earns. This glut of average lack-lustre teachers doesn't challenge student and breeds that attitude in the underachievers who see bigger bucks for doing a half-ass job. Obama a Chicago product? Perhaps that is why his records (especially at all three known colleges) are sealed as if he was a juvenile offender! Did he violate their constitutions, too?

Teacher's unions have a structure that taxpayers pay heavily for before even one student sits at her desk. The only way to fire a bad or even corrupt teachers seems to be with a bullet and that is not the way it should be. It should never take decades to get rid of garbage teachers. Unions use the same model as President Obama with a government that is over paid to regulate America to its knees, dispite and beneath the law.

You want a translation to #2? "If you paid me better I'd do a better job!" mentality of unions. 50 years ago imported cars were rare, but overpaid unions just put out poorer quality than the Japanese and they swamped us with quality. Then all seemed in need of bailouts. When GM was put on life support, the unions got the deal while stockholders lost their life's savings. Have teachers been any different? Did you celebrate Labor Day? How many hours did you have to work to pay for a bad teacher's higher union wages?

You said, "Finland makes damn sure that ONLY the best and brightest of their population receive the high honor of becoming a qualified teacher". The U.S. believes in using the "Deli-counter" (capitalism) method where you go in a get a short term, try the product and if you like it, come back with the same enthusiasm. The Chicago method, you load up the students at the deli with teachers who are still passing out the bad, 'rotted "education", high priced product' from the same piece of meat, and they are asking to be paid more for it AND THEY DON'T WANT TO BE SCORED, EITHER! The only thing the teachers are really angry about is that they didn't become police for in some cities make over $200K per year. With the skill that the poor teachers exhibit in the classroom, what would it be like if they were armed police officers. Yes, today's Chicago!

Do you want to borrow from China to pay the "one way" unions? Or perhaps you want Bernanke to legally 'counterfeit" our currency by flooding the market with folding money that cheapens the U.S. dollar to prop up the waste created by those elected and those unelected to play with the rules!

The Cubs have been long beloved for their efforts in each of their baseball seasons, yet they have come up short, having perhaps 80 losses in a season. Chicago loves their Cubs. Does any other community love their teachers for similar losses? Can anyone community or nation excuse 200,000 losses in a union teaching season?