You can tell from blog comments that the Huntley teachers union wants to make the argument they are underpaid.

For a unit school district with K-12 grades, this is a strange argument.

Here’s the two words that explain why:

There is a huge oversupply of regular class room elementary teachers in this suburban area.

For every opening there are dozens of qualified certified teachers who can’t get one of these jobs.

In a normal market this huge oversupply would drive market salaries down.

It is likely that Huntley could hire as many regular classroom elementary teachers it wants if it were paying $3,000 or 5% less in salary for these jobs.

What props up the salaries for these teachers?

A union that negotiates salaries from school district to school district that are the same for these elementary school teachers as they are for higher demand special education and high school math and science teachers.

More than half the teachers in Huntley District 158 are elementary teachers. Given this fact, their unions’ “underpaid” argument doesn’t hold water.
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Or, as I’m told Huntley School District 158 Superintendent John Burkey once described the situation at a public meeting, elementary school teachers are “a dime a dozen.”

More tomorrow.