Why is that? States should provide proper public schooling at a set standard, available to every child.
Best States to Raise a Family
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Why is that? States should provide proper public schooling at a set standard, available to every child.
GON
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Speculation is that if Cook County doubled the amount it spends per student, which is already at some of the highest levels of any county in the Upper Midwest, the test scores in reading, writing, and math would not see a measurable increase. Wish I had better news to report, as with all the money spent per student in Cook County, so many of the students graduate high school without competencey in reading, writing, and math.
In Cook County, money is not the issue as to why so many students complete their public education without basic grasps of core competencies.
The schooling system in CPS specifically, is bottom of the barrel as Chicago pretty much wants to get rid of their schools. The schools in the poverty neighborhoods have no after school activities, no sports, and are pretty much forgotten by large. Most of the better off neighborhoods within CPS districts have lots of private schools. The suburbs outside Chicago have outstanding schools, including cook county. My younger sister has gone through 3 highschools, each one in a poorer district than the last and she has noted how each time the schooling gets easier. She was two years head of her classmates every time. I had the fortune of going to great public schools and I'm not going to pretend that other kids don't deserve a chance to have an equal chance at an education foundation as I did. But from this we know that school funding is not the issue.
We have Madigan to thank for destroying the teacher pension. Illinois and specifically Chicago have always been home to corruption, that's why we're the windy city. Adding that the leave no child left behind starting making schools care more about their rank in the school system instead of actually teaching and the palty wage, it's no wonder we're at where we are.
Somehow I doubt teachers unions are the most powerful political force in many states? If they were, the funding by school board would be much more equal in those states. Teacher are a political force, but far from the most powerful in Ontario at least...
Have you ever taught a course for adults? Coached a little league team? Now think about doing that all day, everyday. Teaching is not a job you can survive if you are just there for the money, or to "deliver as little as possible". With the amount of education a teacher needs, there are much easier jobs to make similar amounts of money, and kids, especially now, will eat up a teacher who isn't engaged and on the ball.
Go volunteer in a school in poorer district, see what its like, a decent school experience is what can help kids break out of the cycle of poverty. I don't know what other option society has to help kids who lost the parent lottery?
I assume the 4.5 day teaching week, is reserving the half day for preparation time? Not many people like to work for free in their evenings, so having some time during business hours to prep for the next day isn't a 4.5 day work week, its having a 5 day instead of a 5.5 day workweek.
GON
$150 Site Donor 2025
This article may have you take a second look at your assessment of teacher unions influence on elected officials, and educational outcomes:
https://capitalresearch.org/article/chicago-teachers-union-an-example-in-corruption/
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/chic...iliates-biggest-spenders-on-chicago-politics/
https://www.chalkbeat.org/chicago/2025/01/27/ctu-incs-spent-millions-on-school-board-races/
In the states, teachers unions not only provide a ton of cash for their preferred candidates, they also the most reliable and large source of campaign volunteers. When the teachers union lobbyists come knocking, their constituent legislators sit up and listen. Teachers unions are massively powerful.
I'm not saying teaching is a cushy job, but people who say that teacher's have the hardest job haven't driven long haul, cut lettuce, walked a beat or any of a thousand different thankless jobs.
I dunno, I think it proves the corruption and short sightiness of elected officials.
No problem, those who graduate not knowing how to read, write, or do basic math can always get a job teaching in New Jersey.
https://thecongressionalinsider.com/nj-ends-teacher-skill-tests-sparking-debate-over-standards
Ed
I can't decide which emoji to respond to your post with. It's funny-sad-mad all at the same time.
Interesting viewpoints and conclusions in those. Corruption and education/teacher quality have a connection, but its probably a better idea to get rid of corruption first, and then see what you are working with?
It seems the teacher union needs to spend silly amounts of money on their candidate in Chicago because everyone else is? $25 million spent in that race? $6M by a business man for himself?
IMHO the US in general needs to adopt election donation limits more like Canada, as huge donations basically invites political corruption. Election spending for a council candidate in a ward in Toronto is limited to $120,000, individual contributions limited to something like $2000. And the candidates for Mayor are limited to about $1.5M total spending and only $25k of their own money. So unions or wealthy individuals can't "buy" a win for a candidate and therefore the candidate doesn't owe 1 or 2 groups big "favors".
In a way that would empower big groups like unions who can provide volunteers and do 3rd party campaigning. We also have Supreme Court rulings that say that it's a violation of free speech to prevent people from participating in elections, so we can't do as you suggest.
NJ isn't bad - I'm 10 mins from Philly (great restaurants/medical hospitals), an hour from the NJ shore, top school system in US, 1.5 hours from NYC. Negatives are the high taxes, but sometimes you do get a bit what you pay for.
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Hmm, well I think there is a difference between a person participating in elections, vs their money participating. 1 person, 1 vote is good. 1 group or person spending 20 or 200 million dollars to buy an election leads to problems like corruption, nepotism.
What we also have is one teacher union for the whole province/state, so all school boards have teacher pay equity, and all school boards receive the same amount of money per student. So teachers aren't a factor in municipal politics at all.
In the provincial elections, IMO teachers haven't been able to influence the election out of proportion to their actual votes, and have "lost" the last two elections. Only 150k teachers in 16M people, and not many teachers are out there knocking on doors. The pay is good/reasonable, but more responsibilities is being downloaded into the classroom without more support, and social media has convinced some parents, and therefore their kids, its OK to be rude/disruptive/disrespectful to teachers or other public servants...
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