Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
CPS Parent Matt Farmer Puts Penny Pritzker on Trial at CTU’s Stands Strong Rally
Rahm Emanuel promised to “shake up the Windy City’s schools” when he campaigned for mayor of Chicago in 2011. One of his main goals was to change the teacher evaluation process. He is a big proponent of using students’ standardized test scores in determining the effectiveness of classroom practitioners.
On September 12th, Mike Klonsky wrote the following on his blog SmallTalk:
It appears this morning that our autocrat mayor has decided to stonewall the negotiations. While he’s moved on compensation issues, he’s refusing to even discuss teacher evaluation and the power of principals to hire and fire teachers at will.
Rahm is operating here without the benefit of knowing much about education. He’s that just-right combination of street-thug ward politician and Wall St. hustler who thinks that because he believes something to be true, he has the right (power) to force it on the public. First case in point was his notion that more seat time in school necessarily produces better results. It doesn’t. Now he’s convinced that you can evaluate a teacher based wholly or largely on their student’s score on a standardized test. You can’t.
Yesterday Rahm hauled a few of his pet principals, (including Ethan Netterstrom, principal at Skinner North) in front of the TV cameras, to claim that in order to be “successful” they need the unchecked power to hire and fire whoever they choose, regardless of qualifications and experience and without any due process. This is a recipe for City Hall-style patronage and going back to the days when teachers (and principals) worked at the pleasure of ward politicians. It is also a recipe for principals getting rid of teachers who may be the wrong color or political persuasion. It’s interesting to note here that principals already have lots of authority over faculty hiring and that black and Latino teachers have been the victims of these kinds of hiring practices. Today, just 19 % of the teaching force in Chicago is African American, down from 45 % in 1995.
This is what happens when you make the school system a wing of City Hall, weaken collective bargaining, take power away from popularly-elected school boards and Local School Councils, and dismantle public space and public decision making.
This strike really represents a last stand for teachers and all public employees against moves by Tea Party governors and their Democratic Party counterparts in urban districts like Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit, to eliminate teachers collective bargaining rights altogether. This was the original idea behind SB7 which made it illegal for teachers in Chicago (nowhere else in the state) to bargain over anything except salary and benefits — two issues that could easily be reneged on after the contract was signed for budgetary reasons. Remember, the board agreed to a 4% raise in the last contract only to take it back once the contract was signed.
All this leaves Chicago’s teachers with only one option. Dig in and fight back with the only tactic left to them under SB7 — the power to withhold their labor and put their bodies on the line in defense of their profession and of democracy. What happens here in Chicago will ultimately determine the fate of teachers and public worker unions everywhere.
Emanuel’s children do not attend public schools. They are enrolled at an elite private school—the University of Chicago Lab School, where the tuition is said to be more than $20,000 a year. According to Mike Elk, the conditions at the school Emanuel’s children attend are far different from those one finds in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS).
Elk provided information about the U of C Lab School:
The Lab School has seven full-time art teachers to serve a student population of 1,700. By contrast, only 25% of Chicago’s “neighborhood elementary schools” have both a full-time art and music instructor. The Lab School has three different libraries, while 160 Chicago public elementary schools do not have a library.
“Physical education, world languages, libraries and the arts are not frills. They are an essential piece of a well-rounded education,” wrote University of Chicago Lab School Director David Magill on the school’s website in February 2009.
Magill also wrote the following in his Director’s Address to Returning Faculty in 2010:
I believe that the “business model” of improving education will fall on its own sword.
It is unfortunate that the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation developed primarily by politicians and enacted in 2002 morphed into what many refer to as a “business model” of improving education. Measuring outcomes through standardized testing and referring to those results as the evidence of learning and the bottom line is, in my opinion, misguided and, unfortunately, continues to be advocated under a new name and supported by the current administration.
In the past decade, there have been many critics of the educational policies promoted by the so-called corporate reformers. Only recently have some voices been taken seriously—in particular, the voice of educational historian Diane Ravitch. Her recent book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, provides a compelling argument to examine the data that tells us that reforms of the past ten years are not working and are actually degrading the intellectual potential of students. And this comes from one of the early architects of many of those reforms. This is a book worth reading, authored by a person who admits she was wrong yet is forceful when advocating for change. Listen to this from Ms. Ravitch:
“We must honor those teachers who awaken in their students a passionate interest in history, science, the arts, literature, and foreign language. Such teachers (if acting today under NCLB) would be stifled not only by the data mania of their supervisors, but by the jargon, the indifference to classical literature, and the hostility to their manner of teaching that now prevails in our schools.
“Without a comprehensive liberal arts education, our students will not be prepared for the responsibilities of citizenship in a democracy, nor will they be equipped to make decisions based on knowledge, thoughtful debate, and reason. . . . Not everything that matters can be quantified. What is tested may ultimately be less important than what is untested, such as a student’s ability to seek alternative explanations, to raise questions, to pursue knowledge on his own, and to think differently.”
And to that, I say AMEN and thank you, Ms. Ravitch, for seeing the light and for cracking the armor of the “business model.” Because of her and others like her, I believe this disturbing chapter in American education history is coming to a close.
I must admit that I am not as hopeful as Mr. Magill is that this chapter in American education history is coming to an end. What I hope is that the teachers’ strike in Chicago will awaken many Americans to what has been happening to our public schools over the past decade in the name of school reform…to how high stakes testing of students has perverted the educational process in this country…to the narrowing of the curriculum because everything is focused on prepping children for tests and not on helping them to become critical thinkers and doing what is best for each individual child…to the elimination of art and music teachers and school librarians.
Matt Farmer, the speaker in the first video that I posted, is a lawyer, musician, local school council member, and a CPS parent. He stands with and supports the striking teachers. He wrote the following in an article for the Huffington Post titled Teachers Don’t Like Bullies last May:
Teachers and their union representatives are simply gearing up — outside of the classroom, mind you — to fight for their professional lives this summer, and I’m glad they’re finally getting engaged.
I say that both as a longtime CPS parent and as a local school council member. I talk to a lot of teachers around the city, and from Rogers Park to Gage Park they’re angry.
They’re tired of being made scapegoats for the devastating effects of the generational urban poverty that Emanuel and his aides would rather not talk about. They’re tired of having their students used as over-tested lab rats by an ever-changing cast of out-of-touch, out-of-town “reformers” who specialize in “public education by press release.” But what really angers the teachers I’ve talked to is the absolute lack of respect that this mayor and his hand-picked team have shown them during the last year.
In fact, I’d fear for my fourth-grade daughter’s next eight years in the CPS system if her teachers were not mentally and emotionally invested in the ongoing contract negotiation process.
Make no mistake — I want my kid in class next September. But if her teachers ultimately vote to go on strike, my daughter will know why.
She may not have a deep understanding of tenure issues, pension contributions, or “step and lane” increases, but (like most kids I know) she has a solid grasp on the basic concept of “fairness.”
Even a 10-year-old can understand that if 75 percent of the CTU’s membership ultimately concludes that our charter-school-loving mayor is trying to give them (as Emanuel might say) “the shaft,” then those teachers need to stand up and fight, not only for their individual jobs and their profession, but also for the well-being of the kids in the classrooms in which they now teach.
The deck is undeniably stacked against the teachers in their current negotiations with the Board of Education, and a strike vote is the only leverage teachers have to secure a fair contract.
You want to call mock strike votes a scare tactic, be my guest. But don’t forget to call out Emanuel and his high-priced media machine the next time the mayor starts talking about putting 55 kids in a classroom, or complaining that CPS teachers enriched themselves for years while “cheating our children,” whom, he claims, teachers effectively “left on the side of the road.”
It’s easy, I suppose, to make a habit of dumping on CPS teachers if the only parent-teacher conferences you ever have to attend take place at a private school.
Chicago Public Teachers Stage Historic Strike in Clash with the Mayor on Education Reforms
Striking Teachers, Parents Join Forces to Oppose “Corporate” Education Model in Chicago
Chicago Teachers Strike Could Portend Referendum on Obama Admin’s Education Reform Approach
CTU President Karen GJ Lewis Speech May 23 Rally
Addendum: The Worst Teacher in Chicago (This is a true story.)
CHICAGO. In a poorer city school, one English teacher–I won’t use her name–who’d been cemented into the school system for over a decade, wouldn’t do a damn thing to lift test scores, yet had an annual salary level of close to $70,000 a year. Under Chicago’s new rules holding teachers accountable and allowing charter schools to compete, this seniority-bloated teacher was finally fired by the principal.
In a nearby neighborhood, a charter school, part of the city system, had complete freedom to hire. No teachers’ union interference. The charter school was able to bring in an innovative English teacher with advanced degrees and a national reputation in her field – for $29,000 a year less than was paid to the fired teacher.
You’ve guessed by now: It’s the same teacher.
It’s Back to School Time! Time for the editorialists and the Tea Party and Barack Obama’s Education Secretary Arne Duncan to rip into the people who dare teach in public schools.
And in Arne’s old stomping grounds, Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is stomping on the teachers, pushing them into the street.
Let’s stop kidding ourselves. This is what Mitt Romney and Obama and Arne Duncan and Paul Ryan have in mind when they promote charter schools and the right to fire teachers with tenure: slash teachers’ salaries, bust their unions.
NOTE: Chicago Teachers Strike May Near End As Union Releases Deal (Huffington Post)
SOURCES
Autocrat Rahm draws a line in the sand on test-based evaluation (SmallTalk)
Director’s Address to Returning Faculty 2010 (University of Chicago Lab School)
Director of Private School Where Rahm Sends His Kids Opposes Using Testing for Teacher Evaluations (In These Times)
Teachers Don’t Like Bullies (Huffington Post)
The Worst Teacher in Chicago (Chicago Tribune)
Off Topic:
Virginia Children Excused From School Last Year Due To Religious Exemptions From Education
Posted: 09/17/2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/17/more-than-7000-virginia-c_n_1890644.html?utm_hp_ref=education
Excerpt:
More than 7,000 Virginia children may not be getting any form of education as a result of a state law that permits religious exemptions, a recent study found.
Thousands of the state’s students were excused from mandatory school attendance during the 2010-11 school year due to religious exemptions, according to a study by the Child Advocacy Clinic at the University of Virginia law school. But once a family receives the exemption, parents are not required to show proof of alternative education.
Under state code, parents who believe their children’s enrollment in a secular school will contradict the family’s religious beliefs can seek an exemption from compulsory education.
The Daily Progress reports Virginia is one of four states that provides an explicit religious exemption, and is the only state that does not require exempted students to satisfy any educational requirements, such as enrollment in a home-schooling program.
Virginia Department of Education spokesman Charles Pyle said the department presumes that exempted students are receiving some sort of home instruction, though there is not any follow-up reporting to confirm this assumption, the Associated Press reports.
Yvonne Bunn of the Home Educators Association of Virginia told the AP parents who seek the exemption “would probably rather go to jail rather than put their children in school, because they have very strong convictions that they’re following what God has directed them to do.”
Elaine
From Andrew Sullivan and kinda interesting….
You won’t get rich as a teacher, right? That’s no longer true for a small but growing number of educators who are making big bucks selling their lesson plans online. On a peer-to-peer site called TeachersPayTeachers (TPT), Georgia kindergarten teacher Deanna Jump has earned more than $1 million selling lesson plans — with names like “Colorful Cats Math, Science and Literacy Fun!” — for about $9 a pop. Since the site launched in 2006, 26 teachers have each made more than $100,000 on TPT, which takes a 15% commission on most sales. In August, Jump became the first on TPT to reach $1 million. Her success has been aided by the thousands of followers of her personal blog who get notified each time she retails a new lesson.
************************************************************************
Doesn’t sound like a terrible idea to me, but I’m no teacher. How does it strike you?
Chicago Teachers Strike Shows Teacher Accountability At Charters Differs From Union-Contract Schools
By Chris Kirkham
Posted: 09/20/2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/chicago-teachers-strike-charter-schools_n_1900228.html?utm_hp_ref=education
Excerpt:
At the heart of the Chicago teachers strike, a historic rift that left 350,000 students in limbo for more than a week, was a question that school systems across the nation are confronting: How much should teachers be accountable for the performance of their students?
More rigorous evaluations of teacher performance, particularly those that tie teachers’ ratings to student improvement on standardized tests, have been a centerpiece of the Obama administration’s education reform plans. Nearly two-thirds of all states have made changes to their teacher evaluation policies since 2009, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality, and Illinois state law now requires districts to consider student growth measurements for a “significant portion” of a teacher’s rating.
The Chicago Teachers Union ultimately struck a deal Tuesday night that will phase in student test scores as part of a teacher’s evaluation, with scores eventually accounting for up to 30 percent of an evaluation within three years.
But at privately managed charter schools, another central prong of education reform efforts in Chicago and nationwide, those rigid standards for teacher evaluations don’t apply. Because non-union charter schools aren’t part of the contract between Chicago Public Schools and the teachers’ union, they are free to create their own guidelines for evaluating teachers.
Some charter networks in Chicago have no formal written evaluations at all, giving individual principals the discretion to hold teachers accountable as they choose. Charter operators say they still rely heavily on achievement data ranging from standardized test scores to college enrollment rates to attendance, and some factor test scores in for as much as 70 percent of a teacher’s assessment.
We just don’t stand a phucking chance.
Charter School Profiteer Attempts to Swiftboat Chicago Teachers Union
By Kenzo ShibataChicago–Educator, Writer, Public Schools Advocate
9/6/12
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kenzo-shibata/juan-rangel-ctu_b_1847620.html
Slick politicians know very well that it is best to use “proxies” to divide a community. Proxies are people who can say the things leaders cannot say. Remember the “Swiftboat Veterans for Truth” campaign that was launched during the 2004 presidential election? The GOP used a group of veterans to question candidate John Kerry’s war experience because his opponent, George W. Bush could not as he had none himself. When questioned about the attacks, Bush could deny having anything to do with them.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been quoted in the past as using a certain four-letter word to express his disdain for the United Auto Workers. He may have learned from that experience and now saves that language for union leaders behind closed doors.
It would not be acceptable for Mayor Emanuel to say, “I’m turning over public schools to the wealthiest 1% of Chicagoans and cutting middle-class jobs by busting the Chicago Teachers Union.” That’s why he has Juan Rangel, well-clouted CEO of the United Neighborhood Organization — a profitable charter school chain — at his side.
At a recent speech to the City Club of Chicago, Rangel went on a tirade about the CTU and defended Chicago’s billionaire elites in the face of criticism by Chicago’s hardworking taxpayers:
[CEO Rangel] praised the work of wealthy charter school supporters — and mayoral allies — like Bruce Rauner and the Pritzker family. “Do we have the resolve to embrace Chicago’s wealthy community… and support them as a focal source of energy that fuels the school reform movement with their money? Or will we shy away from them and allow the silly talk that currently passes for debate about the so-called one-percenters privatizing our schools?”
Why would he be kissing up to the wealthy that support the efforts to break the unions and privatize schools?
Rangel’s annual salary is around $266,000.
Although the charter school law explicitly states that charters are subject to Freedom of Information Act and Open Meetings laws, private citizens neither have the time nor money to fight UNO’s legal staff to see the records. Taxpayers do not know where money shifts to give Rangel a salary larger than the CEO of all 600+ Chicago Public Schools.
The more schools he opens, more state money is funneled into his system as his patronage chest bursts at the seams.
Actually, some of that money must go to lawyers who work their legal magic to ignore Freedom of Information Act requests from Chicago taxpayers. One of those lawyers left City employment over a “hiring scandal” prior to thwarting pleas for transparency.
But how does Chicago Teachers Union play into Rangel’s game?
Unions require management transparency. If Rangel’s staff were unionized and could negotiate over wages, benefits, and resources he would have to show the budgets of his schools to counter their proposals. Without the pressure of an organized workforce , he could do whatever he wants with that money like line his own pockets and the pockets of his connected friends.
When CTU started its push for smaller class sizes in 2010, Rangel called the move “racist.”
I’m not sure what was racist about wanting all children in Chicago to receive smaller class sizes — a proven reform that improves student learning, but he did his job of smearing the CTU for more clout points.
Rahm was shrewd to make Rangel his campaign co-chair mere days after meeting the man. In Chicago-machine fashion, Emanuel later appointed Rangel to the Public Buildings Commission. What get-rich-quick scheme needs public buildings to operate? Charter schools.
Now Rangel has the clout to push his schools through communities that do not even want them, which increases his market share of schools. His clout in city council comes from the connected 25th Ward Alderman Danny Solis who was the founder of the UNO.
UNO’s credibility comes from years as a true grassroots organization, but years later:
Organizers and reporters know UNO as a politically connected community group that traded its confrontation tactics of the 1980s for insider access at City Hall in the 1990s and today. It… now holds fundraising banquets to which the mayor lends his name.
Elaine
I think I have badly misunderstood Turley’s post that reported 80% of 8th grade CPS kids were “below proficient” in reading and math. My takeaway was that 80% weren’t at grade level. After complaining loudly to my kids about the eventual doom we faced, they sent me searching for more info which show much different results.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-07-16/news/ct-met-cps-isat-20120716_1_state-test-scores-ausl-noncharter
More than 70% MET state standards!
Seems like I need a little remedial reading help- starting with the meaning of “proficient”. I think I’ll slink back to my cave now.
Elaine,
Is there any way to get any stats on Rangel’s UNO? I didn’t see anything on their web site other than they are “outperforming”. I wonder what their drop-out rate is for their high school. And, of course, I’m interested in their 8th grade reading and math scores.
Elaine,
I had to regain some strength before returning…
Three thoughts:
The info on SB4277, Rangle and Burke wants to make me vomit.
I didn’t begrudge Rahm sending his kids to the Lab school. But now that he is so convinced that the charter schools are just great, there is every reason to demand that his kids enroll in one.
Farmer and Lewis would be very formidable opponents in a fight to reform the schools.
Eeyore,
The teachers can work with the LSC’s (Local School Councils). Matt Farmer, the man speaking in the first video I posted, is a member of an LSC in Chicago.
****
Local School Councils Say City Sabotages Community Control
03/22/2012
http://www.ctunet.com/blog/local-school-councils-say-city-sabotages-community-control
Local School Council supporters from across Chicago will be detailing ways the City has been undermining democratically run schools, at a news conference Thursday, March 22, at 11:30 pm, at Chicago Public Schools headquarters, 125 South Clark St. They will also encourage more LSC candidates to submit their nomination forms by the next day’s deadline, for April 19 elections.
The LSC members and candidates have different priorities – some fighting school closings, others longer school days. All dispute claims that outside, politically connected private managers can run schools better than parents, teachers and other local stakeholders.
Speakers are expected to tackle a broad range of topics, including legislation CPS has put forth to limit the power of LSCs and promote privatized education, civil rights complaints filed with the federal government on behalf of several schools, and how the city has used control of local school budgets to further other agendas.
Listen up Union Leaders … Eeyore’s ideas are well worth considering.
School and learning can be difficult for children who have had little brain stimulation when they were young. Their brains don’t develop in the same way as do the brains of children who are nurtured, spoken to, read to, taught words, have had lots of learning experiences, etc.
Regarding the development of children’s brains:
Understanding Brain Development in Young Children
APRIL 2005
Sean Brotherson, Family Science Specialist, NDSU Extension Service
http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/yf/famsci/fs609w.htm
This publication is intended to assist parents understand how a child’s brain develops and their important role in interacting with children to support brain development.
Excerpt:
A child’s first words. Grasping a spoon. Babies turning their head in recognition of a mother’s voice. What do these things have in common? All of them are examples of a young child’s developmental “steps” forward.
Perhaps no aspect of child development is so miraculous and transformative as the development of a child’s brain. Brain development allows a child to develop the abilities to crawl, speak, eat, laugh and walk. Healthy development of a child’s brain is built on the small moments that parents and caregivers experience as they interact with a child.
Think of some recent memories when you have watched a baby or toddler.
• As a mother feeds her child, she gazes lovingly into his eyes.
• A father talks gently to his daughter as she snuggles on his lap and he reads her a book.
• A caregiver sings a child to sleep.
These everyday moments, these simple loving encounters, provide essential nourishment.
What Do We Know About Brain Development?
As scientists learn more about how the human brain develops, many of our ideas about the brain are being challenged. We are learning that some old ideas actually were myths that are being replaced with new facts and understanding. Consider the following examples:
Brain Development – Myth or Fact?
Myth At birth the brain is fully developed, just like one’s heart or stomach.
Fact – Most of the brain’s cells are formed before birth, but most of the connections among cells are made during infancy and early childhood.
Myth The brain’s development depends entirely on the genes with which you are born.
Fact – Early experience and interaction with the environment are most critical in a child’s brain development.
Myth A toddler’s brain is less active than the brain of a college student.
Fact – A 3-year-old toddler’s brain is twice as active as an adult’s brain.
Myth Talking to a baby is not important because he or she can’t understand what you are saying.
Fact – Talking to young children establishes foundations for learning language during early critical periods when learning is easiest for a child.
Myth Children need special help and specific educational toys to develop their brainpower.
Fact – What children need most is loving care and new experiences, not special attention or costly toys. Talking, singing, playing and reading are some of the key activities that build a child’s brain.
How the Brain Develops
A number of factors influence early brain development. These important factors include genetics, food and nutrition, responsiveness of parents, daily experiences, physical activity and love. In particular, parents should be aware of the importance of furnishing a healthy and nutritious diet, giving love and nurturing, providing interesting and varied everyday experiences, and giving children positive and sensitive feedback.
In the past, some scientists thought the brain’s development was determined genetically and brain growth followed a biologically predetermined path. Now we know that early experiences impact the development of the brain and influence the specific way in which the circuits (or pathways) of the brain become “wired.” A baby’s brain is a work in progress. The outside world shapes its development through experiences that a child’s senses — vision, hearing, smell, touch and taste — absorb. For example:
• The scent of the mother’s skin (smell)
• The father’s voice (hearing)
• Seeing a face or brightly colored toy (vision)
• The feel of a hand gently caressing (touch)
• Drinking milk (taste)
Experiences that the five senses take in help build the connections that guide brain development. Early experiences have a decisive impact on the actual architecture of the brain.
Recent equipment and technological advances have allowed scientists to see the brain working. What scientists have found is that the brain continues to form after birth based on experiences. An infant’s mind is primed for learning, but it needs early experiences to wire the neural circuits of the brain that facilitate learning…
Conclusion
The development of a child’s brain holds the key to the child’s future. Although the “first years last forever” in terms of the rapid development of young children’s brains, the actual first years of a child’s life go by very quickly. So touch, talk, read, smile, sing, count and play with your children. It does more than make both of you feel good. It helps a child’s brain develop and nourishes the child’s potential for a lifetime.
Rahm Emanuel’s Financial Illogic
By Diane Ravitch
August 5, 2012
http://dianeravitch.net/2012/08/05/rahm-emanuels-financial-illogic/
Chicago Public Schools have a large deficit. Mayor Rahm Emanuel is responding to the deficit by encouraging the growth of charter schools to carry the burden of educating the city’s children.
One reason for the growing deficit is declining enrollment, caused in large part by the CPS promotion of charter schools. The more students leave the CPS system to enroll in charters, the less state aid CPS gets. As more charter schools open, the financial crisis gets worse. Thus, Mayor Emanuel’s policy makes the deficit worse by stimulating the exodus of students from the school system and reducing its revenues.
One of the mayor’s favorite charter chains is UNO, which is based in the Latino community. UNO just leased a historic Roman Catholic school, St. Scholastica Academy and is set to increase its enrollment. It is sad to see Catholic schools close in urban areas, especially one with such a long history of serving its community.
Both the city and state are pumping money into charter schools, both for operating costs and capital costs. This money is diverted from public schools to privately managed charters. UNO received a state grant of $98 million to expand, and the city adds to its capital costs. In effect, both the city and state are paying charters to drain students and revenues out of the public school system.
Mayor Emanuel is one of those new conservative Democratic mayors who attack the teachers’ union and work to privatize public education in his city. He is following the trail blazed by Arne Duncan in Chicago. If it was a successful policy, Chicago should be one of the nation’s top performing school systems. It is not. How many years will it take before the politicians begin to understand the futility of privatization and the harm they are doing to one of society’s important public institutions?
TIF’s = epic slush funds not being used as intended
http://chicago.everyblock.com/announcements/jun11-tifs-epic-slush-funds-not-being-used-intended-5032826/
If you don’t know Chicago Reader’s Ben Joravsky then you might not know that TIF’s are being diverted as detailed below:
As Mayor Emanuel was talking up the River Point deal, his General Assembly were helping continue the privatization of the Chicago Public Schools by proposing to divert tens of millions of public dollars to charter school operators—many of whom rank among the mayor’s closest allies, including Juan Rangel of the United Neighborhood Organization and Bruce Rauner of Noble Street. Hey, it’s all part of the reform agenda at City Hall.
The vehicle is House Bill 4277, sponsored by state rep Daniel Burke, younger brother of Alderman Ed Burke. In essence, Burke’s bill would hike the annual per-pupil allowance each charter school gets in public money, while providing no new money to the system as a whole. Since the public school system is already $600 million to $700 million in the red, diverting more money to the charters could force it to close regular schools, slash salaries, or fire unionized teachers. Which, come to think about it, may be the unspoken but underlying idea behind HB 4277 in the first place.
Don’t forget—there’s no credible evidence that charters do any better at educating students than public schools. Often, they do worse. So the practical effect of replacing public schools with charters is not to benefit large numbers of students, but to create a workforce of teachers that’s paid less. And that leaves more public money for . . . you guessed it—the charter school operators.
For his part, Rangel makes $266,000—more than anyone in the regular school system, including CEO Jean-Claude Brizard.
The house’s executive committee, chaired by state rep Burke, passed HB 4277 by a 10-to-1 vote.
Ironically, the bill faces opposition from downstate Republicans, who don’t want their own cash-starved systems to lose money to the charters.
Why Chicago Teachers Hate Rahm
By Ben Joravsky, Chicago Reader
13 September 2012
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/299-190/13456-why-chicago-teachers-hate-rahm
Excerpt:
Having spent the better part of a week asking teachers why they’d risk a public backlash by going on strike, I’ve concluded that the answer is best summed up by what one told me at their Labor Day rally: “Mayor Emanuel’s pushed us to the limit. He’s the world’s biggest asshole.”
Actually, I think he may have dropped the F-bomb once-or twice. But I’m trying to clean things up since this is a family newspaper, dammit!
But here’s the bottom line: so much of this fight is fueled by the animosity of thousands of teachers toward one man.
I know-I shouldn’t joke. A teachers’ strike is serious stuff: the lives, careers, and future plans of thousands of teachers, kids, and parents are at stake.
I just read an open letter “To the Leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union from Leaders of the Faith Community.” It’s an ad in the Sun-Times, published before the strike and signed by various clergymen with close ties to the city government, calling on teachers to do what’s right for the kids and call off their strike.
“We do not side with the Mayor, the Chicago Public Schools, or your organization,” the letter reads. “We side with the 350,000 students who will be placed in harm’s way if you lead Chicago teachers into a strike.”
Of course, by writing this letter they’re very much siding with the mayor. Because if the union calls off the strike they lose what little leverage they have to force the tough and powerful people who run this city to give them even a fraction of what they want.
Or as Frederick Douglass put it: “Power concedes nothing without a demand.”
Speaking of power, I’d like to say a word or two in defense of Mayor Emanuel. I know, you don’t hear me say that too often. But the truth is that this showdown has been brewing since long before he came on the scene.
Traditionally, CPS has been a top-down, vaguely militaristic system in which central-office bosses issue mandates like Zeus from above.
The teachers-you know, the folks doing the real work in the classroom-are supposed to do what they’re told as new dictates come and go. It’s like the weather. Don’t like the latest policy on curriculum or testing mandated by the board? Just wait-they’ll mandate something new in a day or two.
For better or worse-and many years it was worse-the union protected teachers from some of this nonsense. But in the last three years, Chicago mayors have started going after the union.
The assault began under Mayor Daley. Not sure why, though I’m starting to think the poor guy became a little unhinged in his last year in office after he didn’t get his Olympics.
In 2010 Ron Huberman, the guy Daley put in charge of the schools, circumvented the union contract by essentially declaring an end to teacher tenure. His weapon was a personnel policy called “redefinition.” So a principal could “redefine” an English teaching position into an English teaching position with a specialty in, say, basket weaving. Presto-out goes the old, “unqualified” English teacher and in comes a new one who’s generally younger, paid less, and well aware of the need to worship the principal. Because children won’t learn to become productive citizens without teachers who are afraid of their shadows.
Into this world marched Mayor Emanuel, like Napoleon invading Russia.
Emanuel will tell you that he knew what was wrong with Chicago’s public schools and was determined to change it, because that’s what strong leaders do.
My theory is that he knew next to nothing about the schools when he got elected. And what he did know was shaped by campaign rhetoric, which was itself largely based on his efforts to impress out-of-town pundits, who had themselves bought into the conventional wisdom that just about everything wrong with schools today can be blamed on bad teachers and the unions who protect them.
Whatever his motivation, Emanuel stepped up the war on the union, using the nonunion charter schools as his main weapon. In last year’s mayoral campaign, he insisted that the top-scoring high schools in Chicago are charters-even though no charters are in the top ten. In fact, there’s no strong evidence that charters are educating children any better than regular schools.
Once elected, Emanuel appointed charter advocates and charter funders to his schools transition team and then to the board of education. He supported efforts in the state general assembly to divert more state aid from regular unionized schools to the charters. He opened up more charters. And just in case somebody out there wasn’t paying attention, he started dropping by charter schools for visits and praising them for the cameras, saying it would be wonderful if all the schools could be just like them.
Meanwhile, his only official meeting with CTU president Karen Lewis was the one last August 2 when they had their infamous squabble. He wound up telling her “Fuck you, Lewis.” And she told him-well, we’re not sure what she told him. But I’m sure it wasn’t pretty.
“Chicago Teachers Take a Stand” (Including my two nieces who have been on the picket line every day!). President Obama finds a place to hide so he doesn’t have to support the Chicago Teachers UNION (a bad word for a man who stands for nothing and compromises on everything). The silence is deafening, Mr.President, just as it was during the Scott Walker recall.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-09-20/chicago-strike-deal-will-cost-many-teachers-their-jobs
Good article. Talks about the pension problems along with big warnings about school closings and lots teachers losing their jobs because there isn’t enough money.
Hmmmm. Teachers still have to vote to ratify the contract. They may not be terribly enthusiastic about that if they read the Businessweek article.
Indeed, the State Legislature granted the Chicago school district a break from its pension contributions, starting in 1995. Since then, the city has never contributed the required amount; for many years it put in nothing. All the while, the teachers’ benefits kept building up.
Pension fund documents say the teachers continuously made their share of the contributions, 9 percent of each paycheck. But in fact, the teachers have been putting in just 2 percent of their pay, while the school district has been making up the rest of what is called the “employee contribution” every year. The practice began under an agreement reached in the early 1980s that was supposed to reduce future pay raises, keep money in the fund and take advantage of a federal tax break. New York Times
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Raf,
I stand corrected. But I am absolutely mystified that the teachers aren’t screaming about their missing 7% and also the CPS share. I’m guessing they think they are protected by state law. Jeez. Part of what makes pension funds work is investment growth. As it happens that blew up in 2008, but why, oh why, oh why, is this not front and center? No way is Chicago going to be able to make triple payments starting this year.
By the way, this “pick up” practice is what got Scott Walker and WI into such a battle. So says the NYT.
Elaine,
You didn’t say anything about the election of judges. You mentioned school board elections. I’m pretty tired now, but I got the impression you thought it would be a good idea to elect the school board. It reminded me of the problem of electing judges in IL. It is a long list of people you have never heard of, you have no idea of what they want to do, you have been marking your ballot for 30 minutes, other people are waiting to vote, and I just have to finish this up and go home. Judges – school board – it’s the same damn thing. Who are these twenty people? Sandra Day O’Connor has been traveling the country saying we must NOT elect judges; it politicizes the office. The act of running for office (judge/school board) requires money, people give money and buy influence and power, yada, yada, yada. Citizens United is money and power unfettered. The Republicans are rather anxious to elect school boards and are not shy about throwing a few dollars (probably doesn’t take much) toward their candidates with disasterous results – see Texas. But I’m not crazy about some oligarch selecting them either. I wondered what you thought given the issue of campaign finance. And certainly anyone else on Turley’s blog. We should have a lot of good opinions.
No, no no. Teachers should not go to the board. Go directly to the citizens. No permission is needed. Teachers have three years to develop and take a reform plan directly to the citizens of Chicago the next time their contract runs out. That’s just what they did this time with the issues concerning this new contract. They were given lots of long radio forums and lots of articles on the web and stories in the Trib and Sun Times I must have listened to about four hours of discussion with teachers presenting their case (unfortunately it did not include a reading and math reform plan) on multiple programs on NPR last week. Most were local, some were national. People listened. People were on their side. This is Chicago – a union town. (But that only lasted ’til Monday. They pushed it by not voting until Tuesday). It was a national story. Karen Lewis could do this in her sleep. It’s PR. It’s politics. They’ll have incredible leverage if it is election time AND they have a plan. It’s what a union does. They’ll be phu*king heros if they stand up and shout that they have a plan to graduate every child in CPS at an 8th grade level and the rich basta*ds on the board won’t let them educate their children. It’s risky. But they had better do something before the pensions blow up. If that happens with these scores – I predict no more teacher’s unions.
Eeyore,
The teachers in Chicago honored their contractual obligations concerning their pensions, the City hasn’t. My wife does not teach in the City, but the pension problems are similar.
Raf,
What I have tried to say a dozen times (and I know the thread is long and people will not have read it all) is that I care only about reading and math (your favorite). I don’t care about the friggin’ tests. Stop them all. They ARE a terrible waste of money. Just be able to give me an honest assessment of the reading and math level of each 8th grader . My thought is that if the kids can’t reach an eighth grade proficiency by graduation time, the rest of their life is probably shot. By high school they start getting really ornery, hormones kick in, they think they are all grown up, they know they are failing, and they begin to fully recognize the social challenges they face on the street and maybe at home. Elaine is right – early education may work. (A kibbuz would be best, but..)
The pension problem…. This is the CPS pension and I don’t think any part of it is to be funded by the state . All the other schools in the state have the marvelous state government to thank for THAT mess and as far as I know the underfunding is entirely the fault of the government. The teachers are without fault. No so in Chicago.
Teachers in Chicago are to pay 9% towards their pensions. Some sort of deal was made (probably a combination of a favorable tax break and in lieu of some part of some raise) that CPS would pay 7% of the teachers required 9%. But CPS got some sort relief from that payment (they didn’t have the money) and haven’t made that payment for many years (could it be 1995?) I don’t think they were making THEIR payments either. The NYT article I linked is great on this info. I need to go back and read it and so do you. Most especially if you still live in the city.
Some may ask why I put some blame on the teachers. Because some damn person in the union has to be getting reports at least once a year (they should be quarterly) and their job is to understand that the funds are not going in. Sorta like the Madoff deal. Teachers with pensions should not have their head up their a**. And there is certainly no reason to trust the CPS.