School Year Just Begun, Teachers Strike Looms in Chicago

[AnneD]

1. The key point in the argument against a strike....

"a strike would leave many parent without childcare."

Education cuts have left teachers with overcrowded classes, and test preparation and benchmark testing has reduced both the quality and substance of what is being taught. Teacher feel that they have been reduced to baby sitters. The children are being cheated out of their education.

Teachers are so denigrated by politicians, media, and by RW conservatives. The talk in our break room (not in Chicago) is that Obama has betrayed teachers by appointed a numbskull like Duncan that knows diddly squat about teaching and only promotes vouchers which takes additional money from education. All teachers are getting is lip service and chump change. And after a lifetime of sacrifice, their meager pensions are now under attack. Many of the teachers still support Obama (because they know it will be worse under Romney), but they are tired of being the whipping boys.