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