As the CPS / CTU contract fight moves into the uneasy ground of an incomplete truce, the question remains - what is education worth? Not "What are teachers worth?" No. The question we have to ask ourselves is broader and more important. What is it worth to us to have a well-educated populace, capable of critical thinking and discourse? Do we believe that being thoughtful people is good for our society?

I contend that it is.

We have to start talking about what young people need in order to become engaged, thoughtful citizens. They don't just need to learn to read and write and do math. They also need to grow up in homes in neighborhoods where they can spend time thinking about the Pythagorean Theorum instead of whether they might get shot on the way to school. They need to be healthy enough to keep attending school, which means their families need jobs which provide adequate insurance and supportive family leave policies. They need chances to practice being good citizens - working with others, compromising, considering other people's viewpoints, and being held accountable for their words and actions - whether that's in an extra-curricular, a sport, or a program outside of school, which means their schools and communities need to staff, materials, supports, and spaces to offer these programs.

Then, we have to ask the next question - what is it we want these citizens to know about? Do we want them to be highly literate? What does that mean? Does it mean understanding the patterns of history and being able to find news ways to solve problems and avoid pitfalls? Does it mean the type of disciplined and logical thinking that scientific and mathematical literacy are based on? Does it mean understanding math, science, and engineering at a technical level so they have the ability to apply that knowledge to developing medicine, transportation, and communication? Does it mean having an extensive and nuanced vocabulary with which to communicate ideas and understand the ideas of others?

Only now are we in a position to discuss what teachers are worth, because we have defined what being educated means and why that is important to us. If we concur that a high level of literacy in STEM, humanities, and the arts will allow us to construct and maintain the world we want to live in, then we have to give those who spend their lives teaching this knowledge and these skills a level of compensation commensurate with the work they do. The fabric of our society rests on their success.