The Teacher's Strike in Chicago

I am conflicted in my feelings for this strike. Apparently Chicago teachers have an average pay of $70,000 a year (for which they only work 9 months) and they want a 16% raise, and they want No Child Left Behind dropped.

Now, in the first place, anybody who has to deal with 20 - 30 kids in a classroom, five days a week for 9 months - especially in inner city Chicago or wherever where most kids have no desire to learn and are probably packing knives and guns to protect themselves from the gangs infesting the schools... they deserve a million dollars a year for putting up with that crap!

But can the city and state afford to pay these folks a million dollars a year, or even $70,000 a year, when half their students drop out of school and the other half graduate but can't read or write? (With just a small percentage intermixed there of folks who do succeed.)

I certainly could not be a teacher - and if I was a teacher I''d expect to be paid major bucks to deal with all those rotten little kids...

So, as I say, I'm conflicted.

The other thing of course is... why not bring in replacement teachers while the actual teachers are on their little strike? See if replacement teachers can do a better job - bring in Marine corps drill instructors and folks of that nature, instill a little discipline and ambition into the little monsters...