Ontario Teams in Jeopardy for 2012/2013?

[F22Rapture]

Originally Posted by Ether

Chicago. Average teacher salary: $76,000.00, not including benefits. Offered 16% pay raise. Went on strike.

It's far, far more complex than that.

Many Chicago classes had 40-50 students to a room, many had no air conditioning, the city broke their 4% contractual pay raise, and from what it looks like has been trying to sweep all the widespread and deep systemic problems under the rug by throwing money on the teachers to keep them complacent. They went on strike despite being offered 16% because the 16% was never what they wanted in the first place, and Emmanuel appears to be the one trying to make it about money to avoid dealing with the real issues.

Here's a 1-page summary of the Union demands, and none of them involve paychecks.

I agree with Tom Line though, let's try to keep politics out of this.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by F22Rapture

I agree with Tom Line though, let's try to keep politics out of this.

Well you just threw the door wide open with your post. But I will refrain.

[F22Rapture]

Originally Posted by Ether

Well you just threw the door wide open with your post. But I will refrain.

I don't think it's ever a fair representation to boil an entire issue down to 2 sentences. Chicago politics is unrelated to the topic at hand.

Back to the topic at hand, I very much hope it doesn't come down to this. The team358 statistics suggest that FIRST Canada represents a solid 6+% of the community, or almost a year's growth in teams.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by F22Rapture

I don't think it's ever a fair representation to boil an entire issue down to 2 sentences. Chicago politics is unrelated to the topic at hand.

Please stop tempting me.

[KelliV]

I don't know much about the government in Ontario, but I know that Chicago kids are effected kind of in the same way due to the strike this week. I am not sure about what they are doing for clubs but I know the schools went to IHSA (the Illinois High School Athletic Assoc.) and asked for permission to hold practices and games with back up coaches/volunteers (which would work for FRC). Is there a governing body in Ontario that you would be able to go to in order to request the same type of thing? Does this only effect the public schools or are private schools striking too? Could you partner with a private or magnet school and share facilities?

As far as the information posted on the Chicago Teacher's strikes, and any strikes, I encourage you all to look into both sides of the stories, not just what the union one sheet says.

At the end of the day I just wish everyone would remember that education isn't about what you get paid or how many hours you work, it's about the kids. Some kids just want to go to school and play with robots, I don't think this is too much to ask. A huge thank you goes out to all the volunteers that don't get paid a dime to teach kids STEM.