By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

GRAYSLAKE, Ill. – Some 300 Illinois teachers are spending the day on the picket line instead in the classroom where they belong.

The Lake County Federation of Teachers, representing teachers in the Grayslake District 46, officially declared a teachers’ strike late Tuesday night after the union failed to reach a new contract agreement with the school board.

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The strike is disrupting the education of 4,000 elementary and middle school students, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.

The teachers reportedly want a larger pay raise than the district is offering.

But given the school district’s dire financial condition, the union may as well be protesting gravity or some other immutable law of nature.

District 46 is running a $1.2 million deficit for the current school year, and its future financial prospects seem equally bleak.

The Daily Herald reports that district leaders are considering a wide variety of options to stem the financial losses, everything from closing a school to reducing employee mileage reimbursements.

Not only are staff reductions in the mix, one school board member says they are a certainty.

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The teachers union is unmoved by those financial realities. The union’s latest two-year contract offer called for a 4.68 percent raise, which the union president described as a “lean proposal.”

When district leaders countered with a 1.75 percent raise – along with cuts in retirement and extra duty pay – the union rejected it and decided to strike. The average teacher salary in District 46 is $57,000, the Sun-Times reports.

It’s unclear how Grayslake’s young teachers feel about their union’s demand for a pay raise that could result in low-seniority staff members being laid off.