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