LOWER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Striking Chicago Teachers Already Doing Awfully Well: “Chicago teachers have the highest average salary of any city at $76,000 a year before benefits. The average family in the city only earns $47,000 a year. Yet the teachers rejected a 16 percent salary increase over four years at a time when most families are not getting any raises or are looking for work.”
UPDATE: Romney: Chicago Teachers Turning Backs On Students.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Jeff Brown writes: “How could a motivated Chicago kid or parent try to limit the damage of the teachers’ strike to their education? My first thought, is Khan Academy? I would recommend students coming together online or in person into “study groups” that can overcome the lack of a teacher. Are their other resources out there?”
Khan is good. I don’t know if there are free public online schools in Cook County, but if so that’s another option.
MORE: Ask and ye shall receive: Reader Austin Walne writes: “We provide free online study groups for students all over the world. www.openstudy.com.”
MORE STILL: Reader Michael Cummins writes: “In Florida, the state itself runs an accredited virtual school.”
Plus, the blog comment of the day: “The teachers are upset because they must be (gasp!) evaluated on their work. The parents are upset, not because their kids’ educations are impacted, but because they don’t have a place to drop off their kid. The only people cited as having any concerns whatsoever about education were 16 and 17 year old students.”
Also, Sarah Hoyt emails: “During the year we homeschooled, younger son took classes here: http://lukeion.org/ It’s not free but it’s very, very good, and a classical education never hurt anyone.”
STILL MORE: Reader Michelle Orwick writes: “Any child in Illinois can enroll in Chicago Virtual Charter School. It’s a full-time, tuition free public school option that uses the award-winning (for-profit) K-12 curriculum. We use the K-12 curriculum through our children’s enrollment in the Colorado Virtual Academy, and we love it. It has a far more advanced curriculum in math, science, and history than our public brick-and-mortar school.”