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Chicago-Will
<span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-09-20T00:00:00-05:00">September 20, 2012</span>
By [node:field-author]
[node:field-name-of-source] (Thu, 2012-09-20 00:00)
<ul>
<li>
<a href="#Ravitch">Chicago Teacher Strike Ends - Diane Ravitch </a></li>
<li>
<a href="#Jackson">Important School Issues Are `Off the Table' - Jesse Jackson</a></li>
<li>
<a href="#Gonzalez">Chicago Teachers Union Leader Karen Lewis Pushed Back - and Won - Juan Gonzalez</a></li>
</ul>
<p><strong><a name="Ravitch">Chicago Teacher Strike Ends</a></strong><br />
<br />
by Diane Ravitch<br />
<br />
Diane Ravitch's blog September 18, 2012<br />
<br />
<a href="http://dianeravitch.net/2012/09/18/chicago-teacher- strike-ends/">http://dianeravitch.net/2012/09/18/chicago-teacher-<br />
strike-ends/</a><br />
<br />
You have heard the news by now that the strike is over.<br />
I was lecturing in Chattanooga and meeting with leaders<br />
of the community from 2 pm until now. My brother<br />
tweeted to ask why I was behind the curve. Oops,<br />
offline.<br />
<br />
Pundits and commentators will be poring over the Deep<br />
Meaning of all this for weeks and months to come. There<br />
will be countless articles about Lessons Learned.<br />
<br />
Personally, I think we have a good idea already about<br />
why the teachers went on strike. No, it wasn't greed or<br />
money. The compensation piece was more or less settled<br />
before the strike. Pundits and talk-show hosts who take<br />
home hundreds of thousands a year will express outrage<br />
that teachers - teachers! - might make $80,000. I ask<br />
you, who adds more social value - a first grade teacher<br />
in Chicago or a talk show host on national radio or TV?<br />
<br />
Why did they strike? After 17 years of reform and<br />
disrespect, they were fed up with the bullying. They<br />
were tired of the non-educators and politicians telling<br />
them how to teach and imposing their remedies. Reform<br />
after reform, and children in Chicago still don't have<br />
the rich curriculum, the facilities, and the social<br />
services they need.<br />
<br />
They were sick of the incessant school closings. They<br />
were sick of seeing charter schools open that get<br />
wildly uneven results yet are praised to the skies by<br />
Arne Duncan and now Rahm Emanuel. They knew that the<br />
charter schools are non-union and that the Mayor will<br />
use them to break the union.<br />
<br />
In the end, the union pitted itself against Rahm<br />
Emanuel, Arne Duncan, Chicago's business and civic<br />
leadership, and the Race to the Top. It took on the<br />
most powerful forces in the city, and yes, even<br />
President Obama, who remained neutral.<br />
<br />
And by taking a stand, by uniting to resist the power<br />
elite, these teachers discovered they were strong. They<br />
had been downtrodden and disrespected, but no longer.<br />
They put on their red T-shirts and commanded the<br />
attention of the nation and the admiration of millions<br />
of teachers. Powerless no more, they showed that unity<br />
made them strong. 98% voted to authorize the strike,<br />
and 98% voted to end it.<br />
<br />
The union was fortunate in having Karen Lewis as its<br />
president. She was one of them. She had taught<br />
chemistry in the Chicago public schools for more than<br />
20 years. She is one of the few - perhaps the only -<br />
union leader in the nation who is Nationally Board<br />
Certified, a mark of her excellence as a teacher.<br />
<br />
Not only is she a teacher through and through, she is a<br />
graduate of Dartmouth. She is neither impressed nor<br />
intimidated by the elites who flaunt their Ivy League<br />
credentials. Hers are as good as theirs. Maybe better.<br />
She is a woman of valor.<br />
<br />
Karen Lewis gave courage to her members, and they gave<br />
courage to her.<br />
<br />
The strike is one of the few weapons available to the<br />
powerless. Without the union, the teachers would have<br />
been ignored, and the politicians would be free to keep<br />
on reforming them again and again and again.<br />
<br />
The strike transformed the teachers from powerless to<br />
powerful.<br />
<br />
The teachers said, "Enough is enough. With us, not to<br />
us."<br />
<br />
Regardless of the terms of the contract, the teachers<br />
won.<br />
<br />
Thank you, CTU.<br />
</p>
<p>===</p>
<p><strong><a name="Jackson">Important school issues are `off the table'</a></strong><br />
<br />
by Jesse Jackson<br />
<br />
Chicago Sun-Times September 17, 2012<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/jackson/15204506-452/impor tant-school-issues-are-off-the-table.html">http://www.suntimes.com/news/jackson/15204506-452/impor<br />
tant-school-issues-are-off-the-table.html</a><br />
<br />
The Chicago teachers strike has gotten national<br />
attention, much of it presuming that the biggest issues<br />
are pay and evaluation. But the Chicago Teachers Union<br />
has stated that the two sides have been very close on<br />
pay.<br />
<br />
And union members have no objection to evaluation; they<br />
just want a system not so skewed to standardized, high-<br />
stakes testing. These tests aren't particularly good<br />
ways to measure teacher performance and, even worse,<br />
have the perverse effect of forcing teachers to teach<br />
kids to take tests rather than to love learning.<br />
<br />
But the big issues for these schools and for the<br />
teachers aren't talked about because they are<br />
officially "off the table." CTU teachers are most<br />
concerned about class size, about adequate facilities,<br />
about wraparound services from social workers to<br />
nurses, about well-rounded curricula including art and<br />
music and languages, about early childhood education<br />
that helps children come to school ready to learn.<br />
<br />
This isn't fancy stuff. One concern is classrooms that<br />
reach temperatures of up to 98 degrees in summer; only<br />
29 percent of schools are air-conditioned. Another is<br />
about textbooks for the first day of school. Many of<br />
Chicago's elementary and middle schools have no safe<br />
place for recess, and few have age-appropriate<br />
playground equipment. There are 160 elementary schools<br />
without a library; 140 are in the poorer South Side of<br />
the city. Even though a staggering 80 percent of inner-<br />
city teen boys are exposed to violence, 675 schools<br />
share about 205 social workers. Schools often must<br />
choose between art and music, if they are lucky enough<br />
to have either.<br />
<br />
Too often, Chicago is not providing the basics in<br />
public education for its most needy children. The CTU<br />
published a report detailing these concerns. But under<br />
state law, they can't negotiate about them unless their<br />
employer agrees - and neither Mayor Rahm Emanuel nor<br />
school officials will consent to enter into<br />
negotiations about these crucial conditions.<br />
<br />
When the teachers strike ends and children return to<br />
class, teachers will get the blame for the performance<br />
of the students. But they can't negotiate about<br />
crushing poverty, broken families and hard streets that<br />
impact the hearts, souls and minds of the children they<br />
teach. And teachers can't even negotiate about the<br />
quality of the facilities and the educational<br />
opportunities provided by the schools where they teach.<br />
<br />
It's not surprising that teachers react when a<br />
contractually agreed 4 percent pay raise is revoked or<br />
the school day and school year are lengthened without<br />
negotiations. They are frustrated at the lack of<br />
respect paid to the needs of the children they teach.<br />
And they are bound to be frustrated at the lack of<br />
respect paid to their own contracts.<br />
<br />
No one likes teachers strikes. But teachers are on the<br />
front line. In a time of spreading poverty and rising<br />
hunger, with harsh exploitation of the poor by<br />
landlords and payday lenders, poor children too often<br />
come to impoverished schools.<br />
<br />
Teachers take the rap for poor student performance<br />
without having the power to change what gets in the way<br />
of learning. Grading teachers on the basis of a<br />
machine-graded test cannot substitute for schools with<br />
playgrounds and social workers, classes with manageable<br />
numbers, or roofs that don't leak.<br />
<br />
Poverty, inequality, violence, race and investment<br />
matter.<br />
<br />
They must be a part of any long-term solution.</p>
<p>===</p>
<p><strong><a name="Gonzalez">Chicago Teachers Union Leader Karen Lewis Pushed<br />
Back - and Won Feisty firebrand has emerged as new<br />
champion for millions of public school teachers</a></strong><br />
<br />
by Juan Gonzalez<br />
<br />
New York Daily News September 17, 2012<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/chicago-teachers- union-leader-karen-lewis-pushed-back-won- article-1.1161008">http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/chicago-teachers-<br />
union-leader-karen-lewis-pushed-back-won-<br />
article-1.1161008</a><br />
<br />
Karen Lewis, who last week led 29,000 Chicago teachers<br />
on a school strike heard across the nation, has<br />
suddenly emerged as the new champion for millions of<br />
frustrated public school teachers.<br />
<br />
Many of those teachers are sick and tired of being made<br />
into scapegoats by politicians and corporate honchos<br />
who never spent a single day in front of a classroom.<br />
<br />
They are fed up with overcrowded classrooms in rundown<br />
buildings, with bureaucrats who keep hiring high-paid<br />
consultants despite huge budget deficits, with new<br />
state laws that tie teacher evaluation to their<br />
students' test scores, with the constant closing of<br />
neighborhood schools and the stampede to charter<br />
schools.<br />
<br />
But most of all, they are furious at the lack of<br />
respect for them and their profession.<br />
<br />
Until this week, no one - not even American Federation<br />
of Teachers chief Randi Weingarten - had found a way to<br />
turn back the tide of teacher bashing.<br />
<br />
Then the feisty firebrand Lewis burst on the scene.<br />
<br />
For a week, she went toe-to-toe against Chicago Mayor<br />
Rahm Emanuel, the former Obama White House chief-of-<br />
staff known for his short fuse, foul mouth and take-no-<br />
prisoners style.<br />
<br />
And by any measure, Lewis came come out a winner.<br />
<br />
The preliminary deal that emerged over the weekend -<br />
once it's approved by the rank and file this week -<br />
will restore respect for teachers nationwide.<br />
<br />
Lewis came out of nowhere in 2010, after two decades as<br />
a top high school teacher, to lead an insurgent group<br />
that swept out the old Chicago Teachers Union leaders.<br />
<br />
That old leadership had meekly gone along for nearly a<br />
decade with the agenda of Chicago's former public<br />
schools chief, Arne Duncan.<br />
<br />
And once Duncan went to Washington as President Obama's<br />
Secretary of Education, his Chicago agenda became<br />
Obama's Race to the Top. Duncan used federal aid to<br />
states for more closures of low-performing schools,<br />
teacher layoffs, merit pay raises, charter schools, and<br />
more standardized tests.<br />
<br />
It's the same agenda our own Mayor Bloomberg, a handful<br />
of billionaire philanthropists and many Republican<br />
leaders across America have been pursuing.<br />
<br />
Lewis and her insurgent group vowed to challenge these<br />
so- called reforms head on. Once in command, she forged<br />
a close alliance with several Chicago parent groups<br />
whose members were equally furious at being excluded<br />
from educational decision- making.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, Mayor Emanuel showed Lewis' members complete<br />
disdain. He rescinded a 4% pay raise in the existing<br />
union contract. He sought to have 40% of teacher<br />
evaluations based on their students' test scores. And<br />
he vowed to close more schools without offering laid-<br />
off teachers a chance to be rehired.<br />
<br />
Little wonder that Lewis won a huge mandate from her<br />
members for their first strike in 25 years.<br />
<br />
Once the walkout began, Emanuel was forced to back down<br />
on some major items. He gave up his demand for merit<br />
pay. He agreed that least 50% of laid off teachers<br />
would be rehired when new positions became available,<br />
and to allow teachers to "follow their students" when<br />
schools closed.<br />
<br />
Pupil test scores will still count for 30% of a<br />
teacher's evaluations, but teachers will have the right<br />
to appeal those evaluations.<br />
<br />
Lewis even won new "anti-bullying" provisions against<br />
principals and supervisors, and new faculty diversity<br />
commitments to stem Chicago's disproportionate firings<br />
of black teachers in recent years.<br />
<br />
The contract, moreover, calls for the school district<br />
to immediately hire more than 500 art, music, foreign<br />
language and gym teachers - welcome news to parents.<br />
<br />
Which is why wherever public school teachers gathered<br />
last week, the strike in Chicago was the subject of<br />
conversation.<br />
<br />
Finally, a group of teachers had stood up back against<br />
all that bashing.<br />
<br />
</p>
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