Chicago Teachers Strike

Who Can Democrats Trust About The Chicago Teachers Strike?

Jeff Bryant — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 00:45:02 -0400

"So much for Democratic harmony," is the way Herold Meyerson chose to start his op-ed in The Washington Post analyzing the ramifications of the current Chicago teachers strike on the well being of the Democratic party.

His conclusion is that there must be some kind of "win-win solution," but a meaningful compromise has been thwarted because Chicago mayor Rham Emanuel "from the start… had no interest in working with the teachers, and the teachers reacted as angry and aggrieved partisans."

Viewing the Chicago teachers strike from another point of view, "life-long Democrat" Eva Moskowitz, founder and chief executive of New York City charter school chain Success Academy Charter Schools, concluded something quite different. In her view, the Chicago teachers are afflicted with a "solution-phobia" against "reform measures," in particular, new standardized test-based teacher evaluation systems that "would help identify whether teachers are actually succeeding at elevating student achievement."

But what's important to note is that in both of these op-eds, regardless of their sympathies, each author gets crucial facts wrong.

In Myerson's sympathetic view of the Chicago Teachers Union, he can't help but repeat a patently untrue point that Chicago’s school day is "one of the nation’s shortest at six hours" and "should certainly be lengthened." Contrary to what Myerson wrote, the meme that Chicago's school day is one of the nation's shortest is a talking point that was made up by Stand For Children's Jonah Edelman and subsequently repeated by Rham Emanuel in his campaign to discredit the union. This was captured in a video of Edelman's presentation at the Aspen Institute.

Furthermore, research on the impact of lengthening the school day or year on student achievement is "inconclusive." Also commonsense strongly supports the conclusion that lengthening school time by itself is not as important as focusing on what students actually do during that time. And doesn't it strike people as bizarre that those who are the most critical of teachers and how they do their jobs assert that making our school children stay with teachers longer would instantly improve education?

Likewise, the test-based teacher evaluation systems that Eva Moskowitz believes are the "reasonable and necessary reforms that benefit children" are actually completely unreliable and inaccurate. "Junk science" is how education historian Diane Ravitch refers to them.

By now Democrats should be used to the fact that most of what their party's spokespeople tell them about education policy is a complete fabrication. This was especially true at the recently completed Democratic National Convention.

One of the most thrilling speeches of that event was delivered by Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick. In his soaring endorsement of president Obama, he stated that one example of the administration's "accomplishments" was a Boston-area school called Orchard Gardens Elementary School where "a host of new tools, many enacted with the help of the Obama administration," had taken a school that was "in trouble" with "its spirit broken, and its reputation… a wreck" to a situation where it was "turning itself around."

According to Patrick's accounting, due to the policies of the Obama administration, apparently, Orchard Gardens has now become a place transformed, where "teaching standards and accountabilities are higher. The school day is longer and filled with experiential learning, art, exercise and music." And "in less than a year, Orchard Gardens went from one of the worst schools in the district to one of the best in the state. The whole school community is engaged and proud."

In the giddy atmosphere of the DNC, this was well received by Democrats everywhere. And no one in the mainstream media bothered to fact-check it.

But Patrick's story, although stirring, isn't quite true. To disprove it, all it took was a lowly blogger to bother to look up the facts of the situation and find out that Orchard Gardens is anything but a shining example of "education reform."

In fact, after the grandiose "turnaround effort" trumpeted by Patrick, during which 80 percent of the teachers were fired, Orchard Gardens still has an academic proficiency level far below the rest of the state. Reading scores for third graders are 19 percent compared to statewide averages of 61 percent. Seventh grade math proficiency levels are 30 percent compared to statewide averages of 51 percent.

Republicans are of course no better. Right now, the education darling of the Republican party is Jeb Bush whose signature accomplishment, among many, is presiding over a voucher program that committed widespread fraud and chaos in Florida.

Such misleading representations from our political elite about the American education policy are unfortunately routine. And we should expect the same sort of misrepresentations coming out of the Chicago teachers strike.

If we had journalists who would help us cut through the confusion, that would be helpful. Alas, that's is anything but the case. Witness the most recent offerings.

The New York Times dismissed the teachers' grievances as "folly" and "hurtful to children and families," despite objective data showing that teacher strikes do not have a long-term hurtful impact on school children.

The editors' contention is that the teachers' objections to being subjected to unfair evaluations -- that certainly do students no good because of the likelihood of good teachers being fired -- are an affront to "sensible policy changes… that are increasingly popular across the country and are unlikely to be rolled back, no matter how long the union stays out." In other words, how dare anyone buck the conventional wisdom!

In other media channels, mainstream "journalists" made sure that the conventional wisdom critical of the teachers strike was strongly reinforced against any contrarian views coming from teachers.

On CNBC, an advocate for small class size -- an important bargaining point of Chicago teachers -- Leonie Haimson was pitted against three business-minded commentators who roundly denounced teachers, their unions, and public schools.

In similar vein, NPR's The Diane Rehm show featured Diane Ravitch against three school reform enthusiasts: Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute, Andrew Rotherham of an education business consultancy Bellweather Education Partners, and ex-mayor of Washington DC Adrian Fenty.

That any journalist would find these reports to be "balanced" is laughable.

So back to the question posed by this post's title: What's a Democrat to do?

Now that both Republicans and Democrats have resolved that education is the "civil rights issue of our time," perhaps we should recall what actually happened during that struggle when black Americans were fighting for their civil rights.

During that deeply conflicted period in our nation's history, the least dependable source of information was government officials. And representations of the truth in the broadcast media were spotty at best.

Instead, what served as the most accurate lenses to the reality of the times were those actors who were closest to the ground -- the ordinary civilians who experienced discrimination, spoke out against it, and bore the brunt of the backlash to preserve the status quo.

Now let's be clear: When it comes to understanding the reality of the situation in Chicago, Deval Patrick and Jeb Bush are not on the ground. Frederick Hess, Andrew Rotherham, and Adrian Fenty are not on the ground. Neither, for that matter, are Diane Ravitch and Leonie Haimson. But at least they are willing to listen to those on the ground.

Rham Emanuel is not on the ground either. From his elite perch in society, he can simply choose the kind of schooling he wants for his children while denying that choice for the citizens of Chicago.

Who is undoubtedly on the ground of course are the teachers, parents, school children, and citizens of Chicago. And it's instructive to note that 98 percent of the teachers, excluding abstentions, voted to strike. And in a recent survey of Chicago voters, only 39 percent of Chicago voters oppose the teachers strike, 47 percent back it, and only 6 percent strongly support mayor Emanuel.

Right now, President Obama, Congressional Democrats in Illinois, and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are opting out of taking a stand in this fight.

They aren't on the ground either, so they can afford to.

But everyone calling themselves Democrats needs to take especially seriously the need to stand up for those on the ground in any fight to preserve and expand our rights. Otherwise, they aren't really Democrats at all.

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If Politicians Think Teachers Have It So Easy, Why Do They All Become Bankers?

Richard Eskow — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 17:38:43 -0400

This week a lot of Democrats and "liberals" are attacking Chicago teachers for what they tell us are their extravagant and "unreasonable" demands. It's funny: If they think teaching's such a gravy train, why have they all become bankers instead?

These banker/politicians are usually spotted in the plush and well-appointed board rooms of America's richest corporations, not the overheated, overcrowded and poorly maintained class rooms of its public schools. But that doesn't stop them from passing judgment on those who labor there. In fact, to hear these politicians talk, you'd think that public school teachers - not their fellow bankers - are the pampered and privileged parasitical class that's ruining our economy.

It must be satisfying for these politico-financiers to finally have this opportunity to condemn the teaching profession. From the stockyards of Chicago to the storied streets of Philadelphia, it's given them a chance to wash down the fruits of non-productive wealth with the fine wine of moral certitude.

As another ambitious ex-progressive liked to say, "How good it is to be us!"

Bankers' Ed

Consider former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who said today that the Chicago strike is "an important issue, because Rahm Emanuel is showing again that Democrats can stand up to unions when their demands are unreasonable."

Banker/Democrats always need to show they're tough, since they're not willing to be do it where it's really needed - by prosecuting their colleagues. Who makes a better scapegoat than the teachers who educate our kids? And if teachers don't like the public bashing, hey -- it serves 'em right for causing the financial crisis with all those toxic derivatives.

Banker/Democrats are always practicing their "tough" lines in the mirror. I can see them now asking their advisors, How's this for tough? "Hey, kids! Ask your homeroom teacher if she's better off now than she was four years ago!"

Rendell's a folksy sounding guy with a flair for feisty, if nonspecific, leftish rhetoric. He came to the Governor's office by way of a Philadelphia law firm called Ballard Spahr. The firm was first established in 1885, right around the time that the phrase "Philadelphia lawyer" became a synonym for "moneyed elite" - and for good reason. It continues to specialize in real estate, mergers and acquisitions, municipal bonds, and other forms of high-finance law.

Ballard Spahr received $22 million in legal fees from the state of Pennsylvania while Rendell was Governor. And when he left office, our "Man of the People" went right back to Ballard Spahr. It's nice when things work out, isn't it?

There's no indication that Rendell ever applied for a job with the Philadelphia School District upon leaving the Governor's office. In addition to his post-gubernatorial Ballard Spahr partnership, however, Rendell is now a "Senior Advisor" with the investment banking firm of Greenhill & Co.

He is also a regular commentator for MSNBC - the "liberal" alternative to Fox News.

Qualified

Teachers in the Chicago School District need a four-year degree in their discipline. They also need a postgraduate teaching certificate, and in some cases are expected to be bilingual or have additional graduate training.

This was Rahm Emanuel's preparation for the mayoralty: He was a fundraiser and then an advisor to Bill Clinton. Then he got hired as a partner in an investment banking firm, where he made $16 million in two and half years despite having no background in banking or finance. Clinton then named him to the Board of Directors of Freddie Mac, where the Chicago Tribune reports he "made at least $320,000 for a 14-month stint ... that required little effort." During his tenure Freddie Mac's management practices became so abusive and corrupt that a government agency concluded that the Board which included Emanuel "failed in its duty" because it didn't "follow up on matters brought to its attention."

In Rahm's world teachers are graded for performance - but overpaid board members aren't.

Emanuel was elected to Congress on a strongly pro-Iraq War platform, calling for - we kid you not - a "muscular projection of force" into the region. (Paging Spinal Tap!) Later he culled many progressives from the House as the head of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, fighting Howard Dean's fifty-state strategy and then taking credit for it when it succeeded. He was also the House's top recipient of hedge fund contributions in 2008 - after the financial crisis was well underway. Emanuel became Chief of Staff in the Obama White House and was then granted the Democratic mayoral nomination in baronial, machine-politics fashion.

At no point during the accumulation of his millions did Emanuel apply for a job teaching packed classrooms of lower-income kids in the now-demolished Cabrini-Green projects - or in any other struggling Chicago neighborhood, for that matter.

Friends With Benefits

From the Chicago Sun-Times: "A clout-heavy contractor who made millions from former Mayor Richard M. Daley's affinity for wrought-iron fences has been awarded a $2.7 million airport contract by Mayor Rahm Emanuel for which the company was the lone bidder."

From local news station WGN: "Emanuel ally's client to get speed camera contract."

As the Wall Street Journal reports, Emanuel is privatizing the city's finances by turning to banking firms:

To pay for (new) projects, Mr. Emanuel is turning in part to private firms including Citibank and Citi Infrastructure Investors, Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets Inc., J.P. Morgan Asset Management Infrastructure Investment Group, and union-held Ullico. These firms say they are ready to provide at least $1.7 billion to help build the "new Chicago." (Though the details are not yet set, the likely arrangement would have the private firms putting up capital and then recouping their investments through user fees over a set period of years or decades.)

Yes, crime-ridden JPMorgan Chase is doing well under Mayor Emanuel. But why not? Bill Daley, son of one Mayor Daley and brother of another, was a JPMorgan Chase executive. That was before he went to the White House - to take Rahm's old job.

Emanuel's been giving waste disposal contracts to private firms like Waste Management Inc. instead of using city employees. And if Waste Management Inc. has been accused of antitrust violations and accounting improprieties, that just makes them appropriate bedfellows for fellow city contractors like JPMorgan Chase. (And like Chase and many other banks, the decidedly non-financial Waste Management Inc. was also allowed to settle that suit without criminal indictments.)

Breaking the Contract

What does all of this have to do with the teacher's strike? This:

Mayor Emanuel unilaterally voided a contract agreement between the teachers' union and the city which would have given teachers a pay increase of 4 percent. How would the politicos and their allies feel if he retroactively broke corporate contracts instead?

The Mayor expresses grave concerns for the fiscal health of the Chicago School District when the teachers' concerns are raised. But when the Mayor's often-abused "TIF" funds are mentioned, that concern seems to disappear. And when it comes to corporations ... well, imagine if the situation was reversed:

Think how much money could be saved if Mayor Emanuel told that "clout-heavy" airport contractor, "Thanks for the fence. Now we're cutting your payment by 4 percent." Or if he said, "Thanks for the stoplight cameras, client of my ally, but you're not getting what we promised you." Or "Here's your money, Waste Management - 96 percent of it. Now go trash yourself."

The entire city of Chicago would leap for joy if Emanuel told that parking meter company that there were now new rules in effect, and lower fees too - contract or no contract. And imagine how good it wold be for the city's economy if he wrote a letter like this: "Dear Citibank and Citi Infrastructure Investors, Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets Inc., and JP Morgan Chase: Shove your contract. The people of Chicago are not paying you nearly as much in user fees as we originally agreed to pay. We don't think it's in the best interests of our kids."

Wouldn't Ed Rendell be thrilled? "It's an important issue," he could say, "because Rahm Emanuel is showing again that Democrats can stand up to bankers when their demands are unreasonable."

Oh, wait ...

Reuters reported this week that as a result of the strike, "Emanuel canceled a trip to New York on Friday to speak to a group of bankers."

We're pretty sure it'll be rescheduled.

The Agenda

Emanuel wants to give standardized testing the lion's share of weighting in evaluating teachers. But teachers don't control most of the factors influencing test results. This change would let the city fire teachers at will, whenever they began to gain seniority and earn pay raises, and the union could do nothing to stop it.

That's the point.

Besides, why is $71,000 - an average which apparently also includes administrators - considered extravagant pay for a teaching job? It requires four years of college and calls for additional training too. It includes long hours of grading papers and other non-classroom work. The work is sometimes dangerous, often highly stressful, and always demanding.

Some observers have used local-area wage data to suggest that Chicago's teachers are overpaid compared to other college-educated workers. That argument ignores teachers' additional training requirements and their challenging working conditions. And the real message behind that logic is that teachers should be satisfied with the wage stagnation, financial insecurity, and dying way of life which has become the norm for the college-educated middled class.

Why won't these teachers accept the fate that's been decreed for them by their betters? Why aren't they willing to wallow in a mire of stagnant income like the rest of the middle class? They're trying to rise above their station. But then, that's why bankers hate unions. They encourage that sort of thing.

Matt Yglesias argues that the anti-teacher fight is not inherently anti-union or anti-middle class, because teachers work for the government. "if Chicago public school teachers get a better deal for themselves," he writes, "that may well mean a worse deal for Chicago taxpayers."

That argument creates a false zero-sum divide between the interests of "taxpayers" and the interests of teachers. It ignores the social benefit of placing well-paid teachers in safe and hospitable classrooms, where they're likely to produce better-educated and more productive graduates. It ignores the effect of added economic incentive for talented people to enter and stay in the teaching profession. It ignores the stimulus effect on the local economy when middle-class people receive decent wages.

And it ignores the fact that salary demands are not at the heart of the Chicago strike, which is centered around benefits and working conditions. Strikers also want to reinstate the terms of that already agreed-upon contract.

Which gets us back to the question: Why is a union contract considered any less binding in a banker/politician's eyes than a corporate one? That's a rhetorical question, of course: It's because their agenda is union-busting, not corporation-busting.

Both Sides Now

And all of this seems just fine with Rahm Emanuel, Ed Rendell, and all of the other Democratic banker/politicians who learned at the feet of the master - by which we mean President-turned-hedge-fund-millionaire Bill Clinton. When it comes to banking interests, nobody fetches like the Big Dog.

It's certainly fine with Mitt Romney, who was in full Eddie Haskell mode as he slammed the teachers in a bipartisan show of solidarity with his fellow bankers. Romney, who spoke of "the hundreds of thousands of children relying on the city's public schools to provide them a safe place to receive a strong education," is running on a platform which includes drastic cuts to education, child safety, and children's health programs.

"You look lovely today, Mrs. Cleaver," added the Republican Presidential hopeful.

That's how it's done, peons! Drinks in hand, the banker/politicians rise up to attack the strikers and defend their own way of life. On golf courses and in country clubs, their tans glistening in the early autumn sun, they sing out as if with one voice: How good it is to be us!

And if it sucks to be you - to spend your lives on the firing line, to go home each night with hours of homework to grade, to spend overheated fall days or freezing winter days in grim classrooms with a parsimonious nation's struggling schoolchildren, to try to do your job without supplies, support, safety, or respect -- well, say the banker/politicians, that's not our problem.

Sure, it's a drag, say the hedge-fund politicos, but c'mon, teachers: it's no reason to be unreasonable. Besides, you're not our end game. You're just the first step in our long-term plan to rescue the nation from a much more dangerous predator class:

Bus drivers.

(There's been some great commentary on the strike from Digby, Doug Henwood, Corey Robin, Mike Elk, and many others.)

Chicago Teacher Strike Not About Money

Dave Johnson — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 15:05:51 -0400

Teachers in Chicago are on strike. You will hear from the usual anti-government, anti-union crowd that this is another instance of greedy public employees trying to get more money, but that is just wrong and here's why.

The teachers say they are fighting for smaller class sizes, investments in neighborhood schools and additional services for students -- fighting for the tools they need to succeed. For so long school districts have been cutting budgets and then blaming the teachers when the students don't do as well.

Chicago teachers have been in negotiations since late 2011, fighting for many important things including art and music classes, playgrounds, libraries (160 schools in Chicago have no libraries and the city has cut back on Chicago Public Library hours, preventing students from internet access to do homework), maintaining a manageable class size, not closing inner city schools, among other very important issues.

Chicago is currently planning to close 60 local community schools (mostly in the inner city) and then open up 100 mostly non-union schools.

On money: Last year the city said they didn't have money and took away a 4% raise teachers were scheduled to receive. Later it was discovered the money was shifted to the Chicago Police.

Tools To Succeed

Many cities have been cutting budgets, increasing class size, cutting back on services for students and then blaming the teachers when the students don't do as well. The problem is that the teachers do not have the tools to succeed.

Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) writes in Treat teachers as equal partners at USA Today,

Mayor Rahm Emanuel came into office wanting to make major changes in Chicago's schools, and he wanted to do it quickly. For reform to work, changes must be done collaboratively and correctly, not just quickly. Chicago's teachers want to be treated as equal partners in this effort.

... Today, 42% of neighborhood elementary schools are not funded for a full-time art or music teacher; 160 Chicago elementary schools don't have libraries. Teachers report classes of more than 43 students and not even enough chairs for them all. And teachers often lack textbooks and other materials up to six weeks after the start of school.

Chicago teachers are calling for a better day, not just a longer day, by investing in art, music and libraries. They are calling for smaller class sizes, investments in neighborhood schools and health care, social workers, meal services and additional services for students.

They want to focus on teaching and learning, and have legitimately objected to the district's fixation on high-stakes testing that is narrowing the curriculum and being used to sanction teachers. And they are calling for a fair evaluation process and additional professional development to help all teachers improve.

Astroturf Billionaires

The next problem is the huge Wall Street-backed effort to privatize schools, for profit. The billionaires are able to pay for high-end PR campaigns, blaming teachers and diverting attention away form what they are really up to. Kenzo Shibata, a Chicago teacher, writes at HuffPo in The Battle of Chicago Teachers Union Vs. Out-of-Town Billionaires, hilites the following video:

Stop Hurting Kids

"Teacher X" writes Why I'm Striking,

When you make me cram 30-50 kids in my classroom with no air conditioning so that temperatures hit 96 degrees, that hurts our kids.

When you lock down our schools with metal detectors and arrest brothers for play fighting in the halls, that hurts our kids.

When you take 18-25 days out of the school year for high stakes testing that is not even scientifically applicable for many of our students, that hurts our kids.

When you spend millions on your pet programs, but there’s no money for school level repairs, so the roof leaks on my students at their desks when it rains, that hurts our kids.

When you unilaterally institute a longer school day, insult us by calling it a “full school day” and then provide no implementation support, throwing our schools into chaos, that hurts our kids.

Read the rest. it's good.

Sign Up

A SignOn petition started by a local parent: Stand with Chicago teachers,

To be delivered to: The Chicago Teachers' Union and Mayor Rahm Emanuel

I stand with the Chicago Teachers Union in their fight against school privatization, closures, and stagnant wages.
On Sunday, the Chicago Teachers Union announced the first Chicago teacher's strike in almost 25 years. They are fighting against school privatization, closures, and stagnant wages.

Ninety-eight of our Chicago schools don't have playgrounds, and 160 schools don't have libraries at all. Forty percent of our schools do not have full time art and music programs, and the entire system is desperately lacking support staff, including counselors and school nurses.

The lack of investment in schools is bad for teachers—but it's devastating for our children. As the parent of two children in the Chicago Public Schools, I stand with the Chicago public school teachers.