Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m still not getting it. Take this news item, for example:
City Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard vowed Tuesday to add 90 minutes a day and two weeks a year to the Chicago Public School calendar and offered an 11th-hour plan to get halfway to that goal this coming school year.
One day after the Chicago Teachers Union bailed out of talks over a rescinded 4 percent pay hike, Brizard said he would be willing to give elementary teachers a 2 percent raise worth $30 million if they agreed to work 90 extra minutes daily this coming school year. Classes start for most kids Sept. 6.
If this is described as “austerity” what is the operational definition of austerity? Giving a 2% raise rather than a 4% raise? Laying off non-tenured teachers so you can give the tenured teachers the raise their contract calls for? Austerity really doesn’t seem to cover this situation very well.
I like this approach. I’m going to apply it to my diet. I had been under the obviously false impression that I would actually have to lose weight in order to weigh less. Now I’m going to weigh less by adding 2% to my weight. So much easier.
“I’m Still Not Getting It”
Listen, man, you are the guy who votes for pols who think this nonsense makes sense………not me.
Thanks for the laugh Michael.
a 2% raise in exchange for 20% more work from teachers seems like a heck of a deal for the district to me. By my quick (and possibly quite wrong) estimate, teachers would make about $2.50 an hour for the additional time they’d put in. I already work an extended day and school year for a low paying charter school, but I don’t think the unionized teachers would agree.