UPDATED: Chicago's teachers, and a time for choosing
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UPDATED: Chicago's teachers, and a time for choosing
It's always Chicago, isn't it?
You've probably heard by now that 25,000 school teachers walked off the job in Chicago this morning. That is undeniably true -- but probably close to everything else you've heard in the last 24 hours about what's going down in the Windy City is complete and utter baloney.
This should be a "tell": The speed with which both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan were willing to jump into to bed with Mayor Rahm Emanuel (whom I thought was "the Godfather" of "Chicagoland" -- at least that's what Matt Drudge told me). By that I mean it's a "tell" that they are desperate to change the conversation about their fast-sinking campaign, and what better boogeyman than "greedy teachers" -- in President Obama's hometown, no less!
And you know, as recently as a few years ago I might have might have been an easy mark for that argument. Look, like any institution, large teacher unions have flaws. Occasionally, like pretty much every labor union ever, they can defend folks who aren't that easily defensible (see, "Police, Fraternal Order of" for a similar example). But the 21st-Century hating on teacher unions is a national disgrace, and today I'm sick of it.
Teachers are generally the folks who get the same education, at the same ridiculous tuition, as the "job creators" on Wall Street, but they use their sheepskin not to think up Ponzi schemes but to educate young people, for less pay, sometimes in dangerous neighborhoods. They shouldn't get everything they ask for -- and they won't, not in 2012. But for the most part, when they demand better working conditions, that means they want better schools -- which would be better for the kids. It's not rocket science.
The misconceptions about what's happening in Chicago are growing more absurd. It's definitely not about greed. Of course, pay is on the table, but the reality is that the Emanuel administration is proposing to give teachers a fairly paltry increase to work a much-longer school day, which sounds to me like a pay cut. As a wise man once said...arithmetic!
But that's not even what this strike is about, anyway. At its core, the teachers in Chicago are fighting the same bullcrap we're fighting in Philadelphia and in New York and in most other big cities -- the corporatization of American schools by the same geniuses who brought us the housing bubble and the student loan bubble.. We're talking about the hedge-fund know-it-alls and charter school charlatans and campaign-cash-craving politicians who for a variety of reasons -- some perhaps naive, others intentionally corrupt -- want to blow up the thing that made America the envy of the world back in the 20th Century, our system of public education for all.
Don't listen to me. For God's sake, don't listen to most media. Listen to a Chicago teacher: (h/t Diane Ravitch)
When you support Mayor Emanuel’s TIF program in diverting hundreds of millions of dollars of school funds into to the pockets of wealthy developers like billionaire member of your school board, Penny Pritzker so she can build more hotels, that not only hurts kids, but somebody should be going to jail. When you close and turnaround schools disrupting thousands of kids’ lives and educations and often plunging them into violence and have no data to support your practice, that hurts our kids. When you leave thousands of kids in classrooms with no teacher for weeks and months on end due to central office bureaucracy trumping basic needs of students, that not only hurts our kids, it basically ruins the whole idea of why we have a district at all.
So I stand with Xian Barrett when he says, "I’m striking to restore some semblance of reasonable care for students to this system. I’m doing it to tell you, 'No, YOU are the one hurting our children.' As a union member myself, I hope that not just every union, but everyone who supports progressive ideals in this country will stand with all of the Chicago teachers. It was Ronald Reagan, of all people, who first spoke of a time for choosing.
In Chicago, it's time to choose.
And while this is about schools, it's also about something bigger. There's a reason why 2011 was the year of the protest, not just around the world but here in the United States -- because everyday people had been so let down by our corrupt institutions, and had nowhere to go but the streets. People are finally starting to realize that not only do the Republicans want to trash public education , but so do hedge-fund, cash-addled Democrats like Cory Booker, Michael Nutter, Rahm Emanuel, and, yes, Barack Obama. When you fight for Chicago's teachers, you're fighting a system that needs to be fixed, the system of the 1 Percent.
UPDATE: Several folks wanted more background: Here's a great analysis from Reuters:
She urged them to use aggressive tactics to resist a reform agenda that pins much of the blame for poor student achievement on bad teachers. In Chicago and elsewhere, teachers respond that the main problem is poverty; they say their students do poorly because they're hungry, because their lives are chaotic, because they don't have the eyeglasses they need or quiet places to do their homework.
"We say no, teachers are not the root of the problem," Pope told the group gathered in the bar. "The root of the problem is the way capitalism is destroying public schools."
It was 42 years ago that Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young asked everyone to please come to Chicago. Today, it's as good a place as any to change the world.
Thank you Will! It seems like most of the Know Nothings didn't even read your column. It's called willful ignorance.— tom-104- Exactly, tom-104. Not only did they not read his article, they've not read anything valid regarding public education - for example, the correlation between poverty and education, or the fact that "failing" schools aren't failing at all, but rather skewed data is used to perpetuate lies that allow for union busting.
You want affordable and quality education? Pay your professionals a professional wage! You want private education? I laugh - because once all public schools are privatized, YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO AFFORD IT.
Don't be a sheeple!— Kate_the_Teacher - Funny, I send my kids to a private school and can afford that along with your wages. — RG
- ///Pay your professionals a professional wage!///
You're not going to hear many people say that $76,000 a year on average with full benefits is not a good professional wage. Especially for 10 months a year of work with 10 sick days and a pension.
CTU members pay on average 1.8%-2.5% of their health plan costs -- THAT'S IT -- while most private sector employees, even those in unions, pay 10-20%. (pg 200 of the CTU agreement http://www.ctunet.com/grievances/text/2007-2012-CPS-CTU-Collective-Bargaining-Agreement.pdf?1294199486)
Face it, Chicago teachers are paid well.
- Wow I love the link to Politico, the media outlet that started the false media narrative that an Obama re-election is inevitable. Of course you don't mention that this narrative was written to distract from Obama bombing his nomination speech, the infighting over the DNC platform, and dismal job reports. Unless the economy turns around an Obama re-election is anything but inevitable. And as for Chicago teachers, $70K+ annually plus benefits and what have they done to earn that? Take a look at America's education system, which spends more per pupil than any country except Canada, and the answer is absolutely nothing.— freethinker88
- Teachers average about 56,000 a year. Most of them have master's degrees. Other professions with master's degrees often make twice that. They work long days, starting before 7 AM and often staying after school, without overtime, to help students. When they do go home, they still have to grade tests and papers, study syllabi, and prepare coursework. Their "summers off" are often spent pursuing mandatory continuing education courses, and working second jobs to get through 3 months of no paychecks.
It really comes down to a simple question. If you expect your kids to be educated by competent professionals, why don't you want their teachers to be paid like competent professionals with masters degrees?— Pelti - I live in philly so don't know the Chicago details, but apparently they are changing the amount of hours the teachers work with any additional pay. also that average scale is misleading. it is averaging the highest paid teachers with Phd. to the average teacher. And might I add, education is not a business, it is a civil duty to future generations. look to Sweden and South Korea if you want quality schools that produce valuable citizens. america needs to value education.
- Will you really buy that "were doing it for the students"? If so you are even more gullible than I suspected. The fact that 40% of Chicongo teachers send their own kids to private school speaks volumes.— MilesLong1
- If that is true (and you probably made it up) it would be because they know what conditions the politicians have put the schools in with underfunding and they are striking to change that. — tom-104
- http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/sep/22/20040922-122847-5968r/
Fourth paragraph of the article.
"Nationwide, public school teachers are almost twice as likely as other parents to choose private schools for their own children, the study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute found."
"In Philadelphia, 44 percent of the teachers put their children in private schools; in Cincinnati, 41 percent; Chicago, 39 percent; Rochester, N.Y., 38 percent. The same trends showed up in the San Francisco-Oakland area, where 34 percent of public school teachers chose private schools for their children; 33 percent in New York City and New Jersey suburbs; and 29 percent in Milwaukee and New Orleans."
- This is all a big show. Its a setup for Obama to come in and save the day just before the election. He needs the moderate vote which he's lost for the most part. In politics its called "Triangulation". This will be his "Sista Soulja" moment like the one Clinton had. You can count on it.— Phishface
- Another day, another conspiracy theory by the wannabe blogger. When you're theory doesn't come to fruition, will you and georgel offer the rest of us sane people an apology?
— wokmaster - Bunchie boy....I do not know what is going on up there on planet Bunchatron in the distant Leftwinglooney galaxy, but down her eon planet earth...unions are dead and getting more dead with each passing minute. Consumers & taxpayers have woken to the scam of unions extorting artifically inflated compensation...and consumers & taxpayers are saying "no more". You still have unions up on Bunchatron??? If so, who is dumb enough to keep willingly overpaying those thugs????— kelprod2-freemarket
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