New perk for Chicago teachers : House down payments

As reported by our local ABC affiliate, WLS, Chicago's Mayor Daley is proposing a special new perk for full-time teachers: a $7,500 subsidy from the city for any home mortgage they take out in the city's new mixed-income housing developments, or a $3,000 subsidy if they live anywhere else in the city. It's an interesting benefit to offer, I think, especially these days when the value of public teachers is doing nothing but going down and down in most city budgets. Let's see if it actually helps with recruiting and retaining talented teachers in this city - we're losing just as many of them as any other city, after all.