I’ve been amazed—in a good way—at how positive is the media coverage of all these teacher wildcat strikes and actions in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Arizona. Particularly from liberal media outlets. I say this because it was just six years ago that the teachers in Chicago struck. Even though their cause was just as righteous as that of the teachers in these southern states, featuring many of the same grievances you see in the current moment—the Chicago teachers’ final contract included a guarantee of textbooks for all students on the first day of class; a doubling of funds for class supplies; $1.5 million for new special education teachers; and so on—the hostility from media outlets, including liberal media outlets, […]

Terry Moran makes $20-30 thousand every time he gives a talk on the East or West Coast. Two Terry talks = one Chicago teacher salary.

This morning, I had the following little Twitter exchange with Nightline host Terry Moran about the Chicago teachers strike. In our exchange, Moran links to this New York Times article to justify his claim that “teachers make an average of $74,000/school-year in Chicago and most were offered a 19 percent raise.” A few points, in no particular order. First, the Times piece doesn’t say the teachers were offered a 19 percent raise. It says: Late Sunday, Mr. Emanuel told reporters that school district officials had presented a strong offer to the union, including what some officials described as what would amount to a 16 percent raise for many teachers over four years. I’m not sure how Moran went from 16 […]