Why Sneering at Public Servants Comes So Naturally to Many of America's Richest Citizens

By Sam Pizzigati

September 18, 2012  |  Last year state lawmakers in Illinois did their best to make a Chicago teacher strike impossible. They passed a new law that required at least 75 percent of the city’s teachers to okay any walkout in advance.

How did Chicago teachers respond? In advance balloting early this June, 92 percent of the city’s teachers voted, and 98 percent of those teachers voted [3] to strike if contract negotiations broke down.
This near-total teacher support for the walkout that began last week shows just how intensely frustrated the city’s teachers have become. They’ve been teaching for years in schools woefully ill-equipped to serve the city’s students.

The vast majority of these students, 87 percent [4], rate as “low income.” Many have no books in their homes and no quiet place to study. Some — over 15,000 — have no homes [5] at all.