A lot of cash will be spent in Chicago to beat the teachers down for authorizing a strike. Expect a barrage of ads aimed at demeaning the teachers and distorting their grievances. The big equity investors and corporations like to complain about the power of the unions, but the unions don’t look very powerful these days. The CTU looks like downtrodden and much-abused teachers. Democratic mayors like Rahm Emanel have shown that they don’t care about CTU, and don’t need them. They talk “respect” out of one side of their mouth, but they are ready to throw the teachers under the bus.
Emanuel’s Wall Sreet friends will make sure the public hears his side of the story on radio and television.
Time to hear the other side.
A preschool teacher in the Chicago public schools explained recently why she voted to authorize a strike. Understand that teachers are disposed to follow rules, because they teach children to follow them. They are inclined to respect authority because they expect to be respected for their authority. But in Chicago, after years of being abused by the city’s leadership, they decided they had had enough.
This teacher gave her reasons.
One, every year her job is in jeopardy because of budget cuts. Every year she gets her resume ready and every year she lives in constant insecurity, not knowing if she will be around next year. At the same time, she must maintain the level of enthusiasm necessary to be a “super-teacher” both to keep her job and to hired if she needs another job. It’s hard to maintain maximum “effectiveness” under such demoralizing conditions.
Two, she is disgusted that the time she used to spend on field trips and other activities that little children love has now been turned into time to administer standardized tests to them to determine “kindergarten readiness.” It used to be that every child of the right age was ready to go to kindergarten, but “those days are over.” Accountability, she writes, always seems to be for “those with the least say-so.”
Reason 3: She was infuriated with Superintendent Brizard sent a letter to parents informing them that the strike was wrong. The letter was translated into “Spanish, Mandarin, Polish and Arabic.” The teacher was dumbfounded because she had never been able to get the resources to translate materials or information to the parents without doing it herself. So the system does have those resources, but only to attack the teachers and their union.
Reason 4: The city council just voted $5.2 million to the Hyatt chain to build a new hotel (CPS board member Penny Pritzker is an heiress of the Hyatt chain).
And finally, “I voted ‘yes’ because I have self-respect, and I was always taught (and teach) that when you stand up for yourself against bullies and liars, other will stand up with you. Well, the teachers are standing up. Will you join us?”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Blessings to the Chicago teachers. I hope they prevail, their opponents are formidable but their cause is just. I hope that more people wake up to the class war that is being waged on all fronts. Education is one of the more important of those fronts.
“She was infuriated with Superintendent Brizard sent a letter to parents informing them that the strike was wrong. The letter was translated into “Spanish, Mandarin, Polish and Arabic.” The teacher was dumbfounded because she had never been able to get the resources to translate materials or information to the parents without doing it herself.”
As I responded at Alternet: Personally I would have made sure that the English speaking parents got a copy of the Chinese one while the Chinese would have gotten the Spanish one, while the Hispanic parents got the Polish one etc. . . . By the time they found out the “mistake” the vote would have been taken. But then again I’m a certified Mr. Teachbad “difficult” teacher.
Good enough reasons for me.
I love it when teachers say they don’t want to strike because then people will demonize them.