Teachers benefit from protection
To the editor: We have many District 211 teachers making well over $100,000 for a 10-month work period. They work in on isolated/protected economy with guaranteed job security.
Why some of these individuals as shepherded by their union leadership think they're not adequately compensated/fairly stepped and CPI rate increased may only speak of their overall arrogance and limited real work world exposure.
The Social Security increase this year was 2.3 percent. Get real work real world, come out of your protected surroundings, Individuals in private business with similar education and work experience for their specific occupational specialty in an employed at will status are shocked to earn the real salary and pension benefits of District 211 and District 214 teachers.
In my district and similar surrounding suburban school districts, the teachers union plays upon the perception teachers are underpaid. Farther outside Chicagoland they are, but definitely not here.
It's hard to feel sorry for a District 211 Teachers Union president who made over $113,000 for a 10-month period in 2006 teaching geography. His salary is probably in the $125,000 10-month range for 2007.
Company downsizing, relocation, poor business conditions don't threaten his continued employment or pension.
Public schools exist to educate children, not to provide overly generous careers for tenure protected unionized teachers. Plus, the formation and reality of a very liberal pension system that has become a financially unsustainable burden on business and personal taxpayers via the Illinois General Revenue Budget.
District 211 Teachers Union must be bound by the same economies facing us all, Everyone and all of our jobs are important. We fund the system. No occupational group should think of themselves as singularly special and exempted.
Shawn Lazier
Schaumburg