Salon.com > Teachers Unions

Chicago’s schools won’t close quietly

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 13:00:00 +0000

This afternoon at 4 p.m., a coalition of Chicago teachers, parents, students and community members will meet at Daley Plaza to voice their displeasure with the announcement last week by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett that 61 Chicago Public Schools will be closed before the opening of the 2013–2014 school year.

Byrd-Bennett is the latest in a long line of well-compensated mayoral proxies pushing forward the slow and steady destruction of Chicago schools, a process that has been going on for decades. In 1995, the Illinois general assembly passed an omnibus of reactionary school reforms, called the “Amendatory Act,” that restructured the governance of CPS. Under the new system, the Mayor of Chicago was given the power to appoint the entire Board of Education without any community oversight, the union’s ability to bargain over classroom issues was tossed out, and the superintendent was replaced with a “Chief Executive Officer,” mimicking the corporate structure of the business interests that pushed for these reforms.

Teach for America’s hidden curriculum

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 14:00:00 +0000

The job of the American public school teacher has never been so thankless. In states across America, cutting teacher salaries and pensions has become the most popular method for fixing budget deficits. New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie’s deep cuts, for instance, force teachers to contribute a much higher percentage of their salaries to their pensions, while doubling or even tripling their health care contributions and eliminating cost-of-living adjustments. Republican Governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin and John Kasich of Ohio took their austerity measures a step further by abolishing collective bargaining rights for teachers. Such legislation is possible because the image of teachers has never been so degraded, especially of unionized teachers, whom Christie routinely refers to as “thugs” and “bullies.”

Wisconsin’s GOP warrior gov tones it down

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 21:12:00 +0000

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Scott Walker became a conservative darling when, as a new Republican governor, he launched a bold -- and successful -- effort to break the power of public employee unions in his traditionally pro-labor state, and then survived a union-led campaign to recall him. Clearly, he was a man on a mission.

But now as Republican governors stake out a new array of conservative goals in the dozens of state legislatures the party controls, Walker has decided to lay low in Wisconsin. Instead of taking what many see as the next steps on a likely to-do list, such as making Wisconsin a right-to-work state or pushing tougher immigration laws, Walker is preaching moderation and calm. He has also backed away from proposals like eliminating the state's same-day voter registration.

"We're not going to do things that are going to bring 80,000 or 100,000 people into the Capitol," Walker told the Wisconsin State Journal shortly before the legislative session began. "It's just not going to happen again."

Michelle Rhee’s right turn

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 18:00:00 +0000

Nov. 6 was a good day for Michelle Rhee. The former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor, through her organization StudentsFirst, poured money into state-level campaigns nationwide, winning 86 of 105 races and flipping a net 33 seats to advocates of so-called school reform, a movement that advocates expanding privately run public charter schools, weakening teachers' unions, increasing the weight of high-stakes standardized tests and, in some cases, using taxpayer dollars to fund private tuition through vouchers as the keys to improving public education.

Rhee makes a point of applauding “leaders in both parties and across the ideological spectrum” because her own political success -- and the success of school reform -- depends upon the bipartisan reputation she has fashioned. But 90 of the 105 candidates backed by StudentsFirst were Republicans, including Tea Party enthusiasts and staunch abortion opponents. And Rhee's above-the-fray bona fides have come under heavy fire as progressives and teachers unions increasingly cast the school reform movement, which has become virtually synonymous with Rhee's name, as politically conservative and corporate-funded.

Randi Weingarten answers “anything”

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 22:01:00 +0000

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, took to Reddit to discuss the federation, her salary and public sector unions. Reddit's Ask Me Anything ("AMA,") is a popular feature where anonymous users can pose questions to notable people.

Weingarten was writing from the back of a tour bus between stops in Florida, where she is campaigning for President Obama. Here are a few highlights:

bobman15: I hear a lot of people slamming teachers unions because of how easy it is to get tenure and how hard it is to fire bad teachers. Are they correct or not and why?

Teacher unions represent teachers. And it’s management (e.g. principals, school boards, superintendents) who hire and evaluate teachers and grant tenure – not teachers unions...Tenure should be about fairness and not an excuse for managers not to manage or an inadvertent cloak of incompetence.

fejorama: FDR warnd against allowing government employees to unionize, because of the large potential for a conflict of interest. Why do you believe he was incorrect?

“Won’t Back Down”: Why do teachers’ unions hate America?

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 11:45:00 +0000

So teachers’ unions don’t care about kids. Oh, and luck is a foxy lady. This is what I took away from the inept and bizarre “Won’t Back Down,” a set of right-wing anti-union talking points disguised (with very limited success) as a mainstream motion-picture-type product. Someone needs to launch an investigation into what combination of crimes, dares, alcoholic binges and lapses in judgment got Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal into this movie. Neither of them seems likely to sympathize with its thinly veiled labor-bashing agenda and, way more to the point, I thought they had better taste. Maybe it was that actor-y thing where they saw potential in their characters – a feisty, working-class single mom for Gyllenhaal, a sober middle-class schoolteacher for Davis – liked the idea of working together and didn’t think too much about the big picture.

Chicago teachers go back to school

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 14:07:00 +0000

It’s back to school Wednesday for 29,000 Chicago teachers after their week-long strike. Following a two-hour meeting Tuesday, 800 delegates representing the Chicago Teachers Union voted to end the strike, agreeing to a compromise deal with the school system. The agreement now awaits ratification from rank and file union members.

According to the firsthand account of one delegate, posted at the Daily Kos, “an overwhelming majority” voted to end the strike in the packed, “standing room only” meeting.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel called the deal an “honest compromise," CNN reported. Meanwhile an announcement from the CTU (which outlines how key contract issues fare in the deal) stated, “We have tremendous victories in this contract; however, it is by no means perfect.”

Chicago teachers’ strike in pictures

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 19:50:00 +0000

After a week on strike, delegates from the Chicago Teachers Union will meet today to consider a compromise deal and potentially go back to the classrooms. The strike, which began last Monday, pits thousands of teachers against Mayor Rahm Emanuel's sweeping education reform plans. As the New York Times reported Tuesday:

Though a tentative settlement was reached between the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools negotiators, it is anyone's call whether the deal will be accepted Tuesday afternoon by union delegates who chose not to do so when they were first presented with the plan on Sunday night.

This slide show takes you through the strike so far.

[slide_show id=13015062]

Chicago teacher strike enters its second week

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 12:53:00 +0000

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago teachers uncomfortable with a tentative contract offer decided Sunday to remain on strike, insisting they need more time before deciding whether to end an acrimonious standoff with Mayor Rahm Emanuel that will keep 350,000 students out of class for at least two more days.

Emanuel fired back Sunday night by instructing city attorneys to seek a court order forcing Chicago Teachers Union members back into the classroom. "This was a strike of choice and is now a delay of choice that is wrong for our children," he said in a statement.

Presented with a choice on whether to ask members to vote on a contract that union president Karen Lewis had at one point called "a fight for the very soul of public education," the union's 800-member House of Delegates told their leaders they needed more time to talk to the rank and file before ending the city's first teachers strike in 25 years.

Teachers had only a few hours to review a summary of a proposed settlement worked out over the weekend with officials from the nation's third largest school district. That wasn't enough time, they said, to digest a complicated contract that addresses two issues central to the debate over the future of public education across the United States: teacher evaluations and job security.

Chicago teachers move toward resolution

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 22:04:00 +0000

After a few days of talks between the union and city officials, Chicago School Board president David Vitale announced today that a "framework" is now in place, and the "heavy lifting" is over. "Parents should prepare their children to return to school Monday," Vitale said. However, as CBS/AP reports, it's unclear what the framework entails, and if the union has accepted the district's proposal:

The union is trying to win assurances that laid-off but qualified teachers get dibs on jobs anywhere in the district. But Illinois law gives individual principals in Chicago the right to hire the teachers they want, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel argues it's unfair to hold principals accountable for their schools' performance if they can't pick their own teams.

The district has offered a compromise. If schools close, teachers would have the first right to jobs matching their qualifications at schools that absorb the children from the closed school. The proposal also includes provisions for teachers who aren't hired, including severance.

It wasn't clear if the union had accepted the proposal, but Lewis said it "did not intend to sign an agreement until these matters are addressed."

Union leaders and district officials were in talks for more than 15 hours yesterday, and union leaders held another meeting this afternoon. Though it was closed to journalists, CBS reports that "delegates could be seen through the windows cheering and applauding, some on them on their feet and pumping their fists in the air."

Teacher evaluations at center of Chicago strike

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 07:16:00 +0000

CHICAGO (AP) — Educators in Los Angeles just signed a new contract with the city's school district. So, too, did teachers in Boston. Both require performance evaluations based in part on how well students succeed, a system that's making its debut in Cleveland.

So what's the problem in Chicago, where 25,000 teachers in the nation's third-largest district have responded to an impatient mayor's demand that teacher evaluations be tied to student performance by walking off the job for the first time in 25 years?

To start, while Chicago's teachers have drawn the hardest line in recent memory against using student test scores to rate teacher performance, contract agreements in other cities — including those reached this week in Boston and Los Angeles — have hardly come quickly or with ease. They were often signed grudgingly, at the direction of a court or following negotiations that took years. And mayors and school officials have also won over reluctant teachers by promising to first launch pilot projects aimed at proving a concept many believe is inherently unfair.

Chicago teachers’ strike grinds into third day

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 19:00:00 +0000

The public exchanges between striking Chicago teachers and the school district grew more personal Wednesday as negotiators returned to the bargaining table on the walkout's third day.

A top district negotiator, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, criticized teachers union President Karen Lewis for using the word "silly" when describing the negotiations to a crowd of adoring teachers a day earlier.

"It is not silly that we spent over 10 hours yesterday attempting to bridge the gap," Byrd-Bennett said just before the talks resumed. "We take these negotiations incredibly serious."

The strike has canceled classes for more than 350,000 students.

Union officials continued to play down the chances of a quick resolution to the dispute, which centers on the district's proposed new teacher evaluation process and a policy on rehiring teachers that have been laid off. The district said it had presented the union with a new comprehensive proposal Tuesday and was demanding either a response in writing or a comprehensive counter-proposal.

"It's going to take time to work things out," Lewis said. "It's also going to take the will to make compromises. We have made quite a few. We would like to see more on their side."

Stand against Rahm!

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 11:45:00 +0000

CHICAGO — I was awoken by honking car horns yesterday morning, and couldn't have been happier for the fact. Chicago's public schoolteachers are on strike against the city government and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. And while no one likes the budget crisis that forms the strike's fiscal context, nor the fact that 350,000 students aren't at school, much of Chicago is finding joy in the municipal impasse — which is why, anywhere within earshot of the schools where the Chicago Teachers Union's 25,500 members are picketing in front of their workplaces, solidarity car horns are blasting away.

Since Rahm Emanuel's election in the spring of 2011, Chicago's teachers have been asked to eat shit by a mayor obsessed with displaying to the universe his "toughness" — toughness with the working-class people that make the city tick; toughness with the protesters standing up to say "no"; but never, ever toughness with the vested interests, including anti-union charter school advocates, who poured $12 million into his coffers to elect him mayor (his closet competitor raised $2.5 million). The roots of the strike began when Emanuel announced his signature education initiative: extending Chicago's school day. Overwhelmingly, Chicago's teachers support lengthening the day, which is the shortest of any major district in the country. Just not the way Rahm wanted to ram it down their throats: 20 percent more work; 2 percent more pay.

Standing up to Rahm

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 16:17:00 +0000

When I was a kid, teachers were like gods. In eighth grade, my school had a day where students got to take over and make lesson plans, teach a class or two, try and get our fellow students to pay attention. After being selected to teach English, I still remember the thrill of going in the teachers' lounge for lunch — a place that usually only the most special people got to go.

Those special people called teachers didn’t get paid very well, particularly when you factored in the long hours grading papers and prepping, but they got our gratitude. And that, plus a decent pension, was enough.

When I was a kid, having a good teacher was the key ingredient to getting a good education, just as it is now. And when I was a kid my teachers were unionized, just as they are now. But now the same teachers who want the same decent wages and working conditions and the same promise of a reasonably secure retirement are accused of being the problem in our schools today. Special interests who want to push standardized testing and privatize our nation’s public schools are demonizing the teachers who oppose these measures.