With
a payout significantly higher than that being put in to Chicago’s Teacher’s
Pension fund, a major financial crisis is on the table to be dealt with after
the recent teacher’s union strike. With a requirement by state legislature for Chicago
employees and retirees to receive their pension with no reductions, the Chicago
School district faces the problem of where to pull the money from. Unable to
easily raise property taxes or borrow the money, they look to the State of
Illinois for help in this situation.
According
to the NY Times Article by Mary William Walsh, experts say the pension fund
will collapse in a matter of years unless something is done. Mayor Rahm Emanuel
attempts to fix this problem by trying to raise the retirement age, increase
the employee contribution rate and trip the yearly pension increases. State
Legislature, however, said that the pensions must wait until next year. In the
meantime, the benefits due to teachers continue to rise with funds not being
properly added to this required expense.
The
Chicago School District has now been granted a break from its obligation to
pension contributions, putting the responsibility on the State Legislature.
Government Pat Quinn and Mayor Emanuel are also calling for public workers to
increase the amount paid in to their pensions. While this is not a permanent
solution to the crisis in Chicago, it is a temporary fix to the problem.
I
believe that the Chicago School District, to the best of their abilities,
following the six rules of crisis management to rid the state of its issues.
They are aware of what is the issue is and the facts of the matter. They have
come up with a temporary solution and potential permanent fixes to the problem.
Because the law provides that a specific amount be paid in to pension and other
obligations exist that also need attention, I believe that the only possible
solution was to focus on the present issue of improving the quality of the
schools.
I agree with you that the best situation was to improve the quality of schools because teacher are being terribly overworked and undervalued. I think the best option is to reward and recognize good teachers and fire bad teachers. A system where all teachers get the same treatment based on tenure is not the way to go for our future. Like most professions today,rewards should be be based on results.
ReplyDeleteEducation builds up our society. It is the most important foundation for skills, employment and increased income and benefit for the society as a whole. Good teachers are the important aspect of improving the education system. Teachers should be given benefits so that they have an incentive to contribute more to built a better foundation.
ReplyDeleteI also read this article on NY times. I think this is a bad situation they have gotten themselves into. I think they handled it well but they need to think of a more permanent situation for their future pension fund savings. I liked what he said about improving the quality of the schools because its important to have good, deserving teachers as their staff.
ReplyDeleteThe best thing to thing in this scenario is to evaluate all the teachers in all districts and see which ones are competent and which ones are not. The teachers that are not skillful enough should not be offered jobs until they are highly trained and capable of teaching our youth. This is a problem because education in America is far below compared to other schooling systems around the world. A permanent and precise situation approach is the best option I see for this case.
ReplyDelete