(Photo credit: Flickr user Bonnie Brown)
The nation’s eyes are focused on Chicago as 29,000 teachers and support staff remain on strike in a protest against substandard schools and reneged pay raises.
As the Chicago Teachers Union soldiers on, it’s important to remember the plight of teachers nationwide. The New York Time’s Catherine Rampell has put together a few charts showing that American teachers work longer for less pay than teachers in most other developed countries.
Rampell notes that the “average primary-school teacher in the United States earns about 67 percent of the salary of a average college-educated worker in the United States. The comparable figure is 82 percent across the overall O.E.C.D. [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development].”
Here’s a chart showing the ratio of salary between middle school teachers compared to full-time, full-year college-educated workers. American teachers fair better than those in Estonia, but are worse off than the average of rich countries in the OECD:
Next, let’s take a look at teaching hours. As you can see, Chile and Argentina are the only countries where teachers work longer hours:
If Chicago’s teachers succeed, they may inspire other educators to follow suit. By the looks of these numbers, they certainly have something to protest over.
I stand with the striking teacher in Chicago.
I stand with the striking teachers in Chicago. Sorry for the typo and double posting.
Again not relevant. Chicago’s salary’s are far above the average for the U.S.
Also, for something that is supposedly not about compensation you sure are posting a lot of articles on compensation.
David, while I would really like to see an equal livable income accorded to every resident and worker in America, Chicago teachers really need to earn more than the average because they must spend more for the same resources. A small two-bedroom apartment where I live costs around $700 a month, but in Chicago this is probably $1500 a month. I spend a little over $100 a week on “organic” groceries, but I guarantee a Chicagoan would spend $300 for the same food.
Agreed, but that does not change the fact that these charts do not show the whole picture. Whole picture is despite making $70,000, good for second in the nation (CTU’s numbers), CTU was asking for 30% increases. That is absurd at best. Again, for something that is not a major concern, we sure are talking a lot about compensation. If this was really not about compensation, take half of what Rahm is suggesting (comes to 8% over 4 years) and hire social workers, nurses, reinstate after school programs, etc with the savings. Get rid of tenure (name one other profession that has a tenure system), and create a comprehensive evaluation system (part principal evaluation, part seniority, part test scores, whatever it may be).
Those teachers in other countries are probably BETTER teachers as well. Their students aren’t dropouts and can read at an adult level. Chicago test scores are very low and the dropout rate high.
Elizabeth, do you have a clue what the Chicago public schools students are like? The other countries only educate the best students after elementary school and continue to weed them out as the years advance. United States educates all and works hard to get them all graduated from high school. This is a difficult task unless they provide them with alternative tracks instead of college-prep.