This morning, instead of heading into work, 29,000 members of the Chicago Teachers Union began a strike. This means nearly 400,000 children will have nowhere to go, and working parents will have to scramble to find daycare for them until the strike is resolved. With obvious crime issues rampant in Chicago, it is clear the streets are the last place any parent would want their child wandering when they should be in the classroom.

Teachers began picketing this morning, despite being offered a 16% pay raise over four years, doubling a previous offer. Additionally, Chicago Public Schools president David Vitale said the Teachers union and the district were very close to cutting a deal before the teachers went on strike.

“It was a strike of choice … it’s unnecessary, it’s avoidable and it’s wrong,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said of the strike.

One of the teachers’ biggest concerns was a new evaluation system. Teachers are portraying the evaluation as a witch-hunt, with the goal of firing higher paid teachers. In reality, Emanuel said the evaluation would not even count the first year as kinks are worked out, and that the evaluation is only meant to help teachers, and therefore students, improve.

With the quality of education in America average at best in comparison to other nations, we need to focus on improving the quality of teachers. However, it is clear that unions create an environment of greed, not improved education.