maybe you should consider running for school board next April!

Woohoo, Bob (AKA nice Bob)!

Hey COB I love the corn you're serving! Keep it up!

Thanks for the comment! I'd shy away from calling anyone "evil." I'm sure you meant that in jest, right? :-)

Here are the results of your FOIA...
Teachers are underpaid. ( if they were providing the same value as Doctors, and job creating entrepreneurs-WHICH THEY'RE NOT!)
Teachers pay into their own pensions. (but not enough to be paying their fair share for the golden level of retirement benefits they receive)
Teachers have a right to fight for their raises and health care. (but families and students should ALSO have a right to demand that they deliver services that DESERVE those raises (A right Boards routinely deny them)...if you want a 6% raise, you need to be 6% better at the job or be 6% more productive!)
Teachers create jobs (but only for teachers to "reteach" the high school level learning at college that public K-12 teachers FAILED to teach them in public school!)
Teachers have advanced degrees (but often low level teaching skills)
Teachers help fight child abuse (except when THEY are the abusers!See 230 Basketball coach)
Teachers are professionals(but professional what? Educrats?)
Teachers help raise your kids (they didn't help raise mine. That was OUR job!)
Teachers wipe your kids noses, tie their shoes and console them when they cry... (so do their friends, siblings, and neighbors. We don't pay them $120K per year to do that, though!).
So there, now you have it... Feeing better now...(So am I)

Someone owns a thesaurus!

A thesaurus of course! That suggestion would have been much more appreciated 3 hours ago Nick! My list was from memory. Hope I didn't miss any!

Your list is pretty comprehensive. But, in all seriousness, I would prefer that name calling by anyone not be a part of the conversation on the site. You understand. Lively and vigorous discussion of the issues is, of course, welcome.

Truly amazing, TOUGH! You spew out dozens of insulitng adjectives without contributing a single coherent thought or idea! Congratulations! You win today's "Obama Hate and Divisiveness Award" for a hatefull, mindless post!

COB...and if YOUR kids' teachers were the primary source of nurturing and raising your kids...THEN YOU'RE A LOUSEY PARENT, which is MUCH worse than being a fool.

I won't diminish the positive role GOOD teachers play in developing young minds when they contribute to unbiased, logical reasoning. The problem is that if you trust the state run eduocracy to form your childrens morals and value base, THEN YOU ARE TRULY A FOOL!

Let's also not forget that teachers don't have pensions reduced for wages they make after often all too early retirements as do SSC retirees. They also shirk their responsiblity for subsidizing welfare and disability payments to the poor and indigient who may have never contributed a NICKEL to SSC, and are ENTIRELY subsidized by SSC contributing companies and individuals.

When will public employees pay their fair share to take care of the poor and disadvantaged as SSC participants do?

Akin's gaffe is what happens when you have idiots as spokepersons for just causes.

Kinda like that idiot Preckwinkle reserving a "special place in hell" for Reagan for trying to save our kids from a wasted life on drugs adn reduce the associated violence.

If we could interdict drugs from getting into the US gang activity, and violence, would drop off to nothing. Unfortunately law enforcement was never that enthused to really shutoff the spigot. Cops KNOW where drugs are being sold and who's selling them. There's just not the political will to stop it.

As far as public teachers going to "add just as much to society as a Doctor or lawyer", how do you explaing that the US is the destination of choice worldwide for getting the best care for the best doctors? I won't defend the lawyers, but most of the advances in science and technology come from American engineers. By most international measures, however, public education in America is the laughingstock of the world, spending more and paying more fro teachers than cirtually anywhere else in the world, yet failing MISERABLY to make our kids globally competitive.

Failing CEOs get fired by their Boards. Tenured failing teachers cannot by LAW!

Thanks for reminding me about stopping off at Wal Mart after work...outside Cook County of course so I won't be subsidizing corrupt Cook politicians through sales taxes!

Want to know the "qualifications" of teaching undergraduates compared to other professionals? Check out your alma mater and you'll likely find that the colleges of education have the lowest student average ACTs and class ranks compared to business and engineering. In fact, few ed majors could even get accepted into other professional schools. Comparing the skill and accountability of public education to the other professions is simply ludicrous!

Actually, I WAS, at least concerning the NCLB. I don't think the Federal government has any business being involved in education at all. Taking tax dollars from parents, redistributing it to different states based upon politics and taking 10-20% for Federal "Administration" was never a good idea, and we'd be better off killing the Department of Education, and it's mandates, ASAP!

Seems you're misquoting me again, COB. I DIDN'T say people come from all over the world for our K-12 PUBLIC education system. Concerning engineers and doctors, many of them DID get their education overseas! FYI I've spoken to a number of foreign exchange students, and most think our K-12 public education system is largely an undisciplined, underachieving, backward mess. They come here to learn to speak English well and learn about our culture. Many find themselves far behind their classamtes when they return to their native countries like Germany or Korea.

You also need to know that manystudents succeed IN SPITE of the education system, NOT BECAUSE OF IT.

For example, the first two years of instruction at UI Urbana is of FAR less quality than most JCs. It's mostly delivered by foreign grad students with little professional experience and NO interest in teaching and poor communication skills.

In the first two years and U of I, the university is testing you to see if you can teach yourself the material with minimal support. If you can, then they let you take classes with REAL professors as upper classmen. They're great researchers, but most rely on their TAs to deal with students. Students learn self reliance which serves them well as professionals.

Stop lying about that "women gettng stabbed is their own fault" BS. what I said was it was stupid, and dangerous, of women to couple with violent, drug dealing scum. It puts them at risk. If you don't agree with that, well, you don't know what's going on ont he streets. Get out of your Mama's basement sometime and see what's happening in the real world!

If you have any self respect, stop lying about saying Akins comment was "GOP policy" Here's the challenge, COB. Find ANYWHERE in GOP policy that it says a women can't get pregnant from rape.

Put up or shut up!

Source, please? And I'd like to know where you found that claim in GOP policy that women who've had sex forced on them can't get pregnant from it. Not there, is it COB?

Thank you for bringing the discussion back to the topic of the article.

You're right, Nick, we did get off base by quite a bit.

RE, I STILL can't get the cost impact data out of the district. Have you seen what the budget and program impacts will be over the four year term?

According to report card data, the district has been overtaxing the community by about $7 million per year (the annual surplus), yet they keep on gouging students and families for pretty steep fees. How much of that surplus that could be gvien for fee elimination and tax reduction will be eaten up by these contract increases?

We alos haven't heard any details on the costs of the other staff's contracts. Any word there?

You are welcome, Nick. I agree that lively and vigorous discussion of the article subject should be encouraged. Most people can't attend public meetings and if they do, it is intentionally difficult for them to be heard. Forums like this give people a chance to make pertinent comment. It's when individuals go off the reservation with personal attacks and unrelated political talking points that most folk get discouraged. I have found that if you call someone out for not being relavent to topic or failing to contribute to the actual discussion, that person usually drops out of the conversation. I, for one, will treat fellow posters the way that I expect to be treated, and that is with polite respect.

ROCK, if d218 is stonewalling you on your FOIA request, you are probably aware of a couple of options for reporting the district's lack of response. Another option would be to call Burt Odelson's office and ask what the problem is with your request.

You raise a good point about overtaxing and how any surplus should be spent. I think the school board should be pressured to respond. Board President Randy Heuiser should schedule a Town Hall type meeting to address concerns. We all anticipate the elections that will be held next spring.