Health & Fitness
Common cry: Allow strike to occur; dismiss importance of football
If Board 115 were really interested in holding the line on salaries, they should be mobilizing substitute teachers now. But are they?
Common cry: Allow strike to occur; dismiss importance of football
With the opening of Lake Forest High School just around the corner, Lake Forest Patch editor, Steve Sadin, posted an article today (8/23) which created enough interest for sixteen posts to have been made by concerned citizen by mid- afternoon. "What would the teacher strike mean to football season?"
http://lakeforest.patch.com/articles/if-lake-forest-teachers-strike-ques...
Not surprising is that not one of the sixteen comments made were favorable toward the LFHS teachers.
The common cry was that the focus should not be on football, but instead on the demands of the teachers that are unrealistic in this economic environment.
One concerned citizens even posted the very generous salaries of LFHS teachers.
I have likewise shared the same information in previous Lake Forest Patch articles, reminding readers that the posted figures only represent base salaries. Not counted are perks like Family Health Care Insurance coverage and payments for extra duties teachers might be involved in like coaching or the supervision of clubs.
If Board 115 were really interested in holding the line, they should be mobilizing substitute teachers now. But are they?
Hopefully the board is not just feigning holding the line momentarily on teacher salaries, with no intention of allowing a strike to happen, because they know cuts in teacher salaries would affect the very generous salaries administrators and staff members also receive."
The following suggestions came from a staff member at the Illinois Policy Institute in Chicago who called the idea of a strike "outrageous." Nancy Thorner is a designated Liberty Leader at the IPI, which is a nonpartisan research organization dedicated to supporting free market principles and liberty-based public policy initiatives.
Much research is shared by the Illinois Policy Institute on education and other issues with General Assembly members through its policy position publications. http://illinoispolicy.org/
Find out what's happening in Lake Forest-Lake Bluffwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
- Give individual teachers the choice to be in union or not.
- Hire replacement teachers for those who refuse to work.
- Give opportunity scholarships to all students.
- Take away the power of teachers to strike (they can still always quit individually if they don't like the terms of employment).
Will reason prevail? It is difficult to believe that most teacher really want to strike. They must surely know that their employment at LFHS reflects highly desirable teaching positions with their generous salaries and their state-of-the-art high school in which to teach.
Could it be that many LFHS teachers were fearful of voting "no" on an impasse?
Perhaps an open vote was called for rather than a closed one?
