http://withabrooklynaccent.blogspot.com/2012/09/press-statement-on-chicago-teachers.html
Press Statement on Chicago Teachers Strike
Dr Mark Naison, Fordham University
The Chicago Teachers strike is an incredibly important development because it is a the first time a union local has threatened to strike against education policies pushed by the Obama Administration through its Race to the Top initiative, policies, in my judgment, that have had incredibly destructive consequences for Urban school systems and distressed urban communities
The policies pushed by Rahm Emmanuel, which are being simultaneously implemented in New York and many other cities, involve evaluating teachers and schools on the basis of student test scores, closing schools whose test scores fail to meet a certain standard and firing half their staffs, replacing public schools with charter schools, some run as non profits and some run for profit, and trying to weaken teacher tenure and introduce merit pay
The first three components have been already introduced in Chicago and the mayor wants to intensify them and legnthen the school day. The union is saying enough is enough.
I support the union in taking this stand for the following reasos
1. Closing schools, many of which have been a bulwark of neighborhoods for generations, has been a complete disaster. It has destroyed one point of stability in the lives of young people who have precious little. It removes teachers who have been a part of students lives. It is not an accident that Chicago has seen a serious uptick of violence since Emmanuel became mayor. Young people in distressed neighborhoods need to see community institutions strengthened and teacher mentors protected. School closings and staff turnover take away needed anchors
2. Rating teachers and schools on the basis of student test scores, and threatening to close schools and fire teachers if the proper results aren’t achieved have not only ratcheted up stress levels in schools, they have led to the elimination of art music, sports, school trips and even recess for test prep. The result is that more and more teachers hate teaching and more and more young people hate school, increasing the drop out rate in neighborhoods which desperately need schools to become community centers where young people want to go. The union wants to make schools welcoming places where students want to come by reducing class size, and bringing back sports and the arts, and strengtheining struggling schools rather than closing them. That makes a lot of sense to me
3. Favoring charter schools over public schools has resulted in the systematic creaming off of high performing students by the charters and the warehousing of ELL and special needs students, along with students who have behavior issues, in the remaining public schools. The result is that overall academic performance in the district has not improved
4. Removing teacher tenure and job protections has resulted in the most talented teachers leaving the city system or trying to move from low performing schools to high performing ones where they are less likely to be fired. The result is an accentuation of racial and economic gaps in performance
Basically, what the union wants is to strengthen neighborhood schools an invest in making them places where students are nurtured and want to come, rather than stress filled test factories which the Emmanuel plan and Race to the Top guarantees
The union, in this instance is far better advocate for the children
of Chicago than the mayor
I am available for interviews on my cell all weekend (917) 836-3014
Mark D Naison
Professor of African American Studies and History
Fordham University
“If you Want to Save America’s Public Schools: Replace Secretary of Education Arne Duncan With a Lifetime Educator.” http://dumpduncan.org/
This call for supporting the union is very convincing, but it leaves me wondering – what can people do to support the union?
You can support the Chicago Teachers Union by:
Contributing to the solidarity fund: https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4013/c/468/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=7204
Circulate Mark’s fine piece on what ever social media you are involved in.
Wear red Monday if there is a strike.
Talk to your friends, neighbors and colleagues about the issues.
Talk to them again.
Join a group that is active in preserving democratic control of public schools, school funding and defense of the rights of unions to collective bargaining.
Thanks Fred.
Please join the campaign to wear red on Monday, Sept. 10, to show national and international support to the CTU. And let the CTU know you are doing so at https://www.facebook.com/events/376320889103615/?notif_t=plan_user_joined
One of the other comments gives a link to the union. Symbolically, wear red on Monday
You can also support the CTU by spreading the word via social media. So much of the mainstream media and the “common sense” you hear from folks doesn’t address the real issues. You can educate people.
Thanks Phillip. I am doing (and will continue to do) that – and I hope many others do too.
Amen! Post, re-post, e-mail, snail mail, shout from the rooftops! Share this message!
Basically, what the union wants is to strengthen neighborhood schools an invest in making them places where students are nurtured and want to come, rather than stress filled test factories which the Emmanuel plan and Race to the Top guarantees
VERY good argument. Sadly the union thugs have disenfranchised parents and so many others, that I’m afraid their voice will go unheard.
When they pick a political side of the fence, they alienate at least half of the people out there.
Now they only have half of the people that could POSSIBLY support them. The political “left”.
However it seems as if the ones on the left are the ones who are engaging them in this battle. WHy?? Because they have an agenda and the union poses a real threat to that agenda.
Good teachers will not stand for the kind of social engineering the progressives want in the classroom. I’m already hearing from good teachers who want no part of this agenda.
They have to be systematically removed. They are the resistance. The teachers who actually want to offer the kids a quality education.
They wont stand for the political correctness that comes with the new national curriculum that we will start to see. Tying their evaluation to the test has serious consequences when they begin testing kids on their values/attitudes and beliefs.
Good teachers don’t want any part of this.
SO…Obama, Rahm, Gates and Duncan must remove that hurdle.
Those on the right have already been alienated by the unions so they wont come to your rescue.
When you become a political pawn, what do you expect?
While I understand how you may feel about the mistakes that have been made by unions and policymakers alike, it is critical that we take the stand that benefits our children and strengthens neighborhoods and their public schools. No organization is perfect but it has become very clear to me that the “reformers” and their agenda have done, and will continue to do, greater damage to our students and their hope for a bright future.
@Momwithabrain: How dare you characterize the teachers of Chicago as union thugs. The teachers of Chicago overwhelmingly support their union. I’ve seen some of your other outrageous quotes. What weird alternate universe do you live in, why do you even come here to make comments? Are you trolling?
I’ve often wondered the same. Joe!
This is a good reminder that union and public school opponents have nothing but name calling and lies to support their position. They fear a confident, strong union fighting back, because the failure to do so is their greatest power. More proof that this is the right course of action and that it’s essential for us to support them.
I don’t believe you are from the Chicago area. But, I have two questions for you? Will you be wearing red Monday to show support for the CTU and the saving of Chicago public schools? If you were in in Chicago or the area, would you be out there with the teachers, parents and students on Monday if they strike? Or any other day they
will, no doubt. be on the picket line?
Mom, there you go again! I love you but you are so conservative and have just slurped up the GOP rhetoric. The unions are not “thugs”. Political thugs are conservatives who want to turn our schools into profit machines kick out every kid who cannot function in a classroom with 35 others and replace teachers with Teach for America. Those are the thugs. They are the beings who are ruining our country.
The unions exist to give teachers a safe, humane place to work with dignity and pride. They exist to protect teachers from abuse and from firings unrelated to job performance. As protectors of teachers, they become protectors of students, guardian angels over the schools if you will. Protected teachers are happy teachers. Happy teachers like to go to work and are fulfilled by their work. As a result of teachers being happy and protected, the students are also happy and protected and they begin to achieve. Therefore, the unions help students achieve. And it is real achievement, not test training that they forget a week after the test, but knowledge they can take with them to college, vocational school or work.
The unions are not the problem. Those who would destroy or subvert the unions are.
The Chicago Tribune (which is virulently anti-teacher, pro “reform”) had an article about what parents should do in the event CTU strikes and CPS schools are closed Monday. Of course, the article is all about the inconvenience the parents will face. I sent a letter to the editor to add a suggestion to their guide: parents should throw on a red shirt and go join the protest. And bring their kids, since their little butts are in this too. I also tried to explain what the stakes are (hint: it’s not about the money!), but I’m afraid I didn’t say it as eloquently as Diane would have. But I hope they publish it anyway, ideally on or before Monday.
And just FYI, there’s only one “m” in “Emanuel”.
Thank you so much for fighting this fight, Diane and all of you!
“Favoring charter schools over public schools has resulted in the systematic creaming off of high performing students by the charters and the warehousing of ELL and special needs students, along with students who have behavior issues, in the remaining public schools.”
What politician wants to be responsible for “warehousing” our neediest students?
Who would ever re-elect them?
Let’s all do our part to expose this unfortunate trend and the decision-makers who are responsible.
The school boards in Chicago are not elected. They are directly appointed by our city government. This makes it very hard for parents to voice their opinion on school issues. It seems ridiculous that the largest school district in the country is controlled by an appointed official but that is the care.
Sounds like the first thing that needs to change in Chicago is how they choose their school board. School boards need to be elected so they are responsible to the stake holders. They should also consist of 1/2 certified teachers from any state or county, active or retired and 1/2 parents, grandparents, siblings or guardians of students who attend the affected public schools.
We need the people of Chicago out of doors, into the streets, fill the streets around each school on strike with parents and kids, neighbors and citizens who support the brave teachers trying to save public education in their city.
Thank you, Dr. Naison, for your well-grounded words! I am a special ed teacher in CPS, and I formerly had my two children in a CPS school. As a parent and as a teacher I have witnessed how stress from emphasis on high-stakes testing negatively impacts schools. When my (then) second grade daughter came home saying she was afraid of the testing she would have to take in third grade, my husband and I knew it was time to look for alternatives. We kept my children in CPS one more year. The next fall, we were happy that my younger daughter had the same excellent teacher that my older child had had in third grade. Unfortunately, as the year progressed, we saw how the increasing stress levels had changed the teacher and were negatively impacting my generally everything’s-wonderful daughter. I explained to my husband that the same negative changes were occurring in the school where I taught. The next fall, we transferred our two children to a private school that only administered one school-wide test a year instead of the multiple school-wide tests given in CPS. People don’t realize that teachers must administer MULTIPLE tests MULTIPLE times throughout the year, reducing the time available for teaching and learning. And the new lingo CPS began introducing last spring is ominously telling: “value-added.” CPS wants to evaluate teachers based on “value-added” (i.e. increase in students’ test scores from fall to spring). This terminology makes our students sound like commodities instead of precious, young human beings.
Question from Seattle. We have our monthly SEA (Seattle Education Association) meeting on mon. 17 Sept AND 75% of our 4800 members did NOT vote in the March SEA officer elections. Those of us paying attention need some numbers to try to wake up those who are fed up – how’s that HOPE-Clinton-Rahm-Geithner thing doing for us?
In Chicago, how many students are in charters, how many teachers work for charters and how many charter schools are there VS. CPS count of students, teachers & schools?
Our state / big shot teacher union leaders are stunningly silent about Chicago – as are the the major Democratic I-wanna-be-an-Obama-toady running for major offices. You know the saying about the broken clock being right twice a day – Michelle Rhee nailed it when she pointed out that teachers and the Democratic Party have parted ways !!
rmm
Fred Klonsky and Glen Brown are well respected bloggers for the Chicago community. The archives of their blogs will probably be a big help with your questions.
I am president of our union in Knoxville TN .May I use your info. in a speech in support of Chicago teachers? Our Jobs for Justice is sponsoring a fundraiser for them.
Reblogged this on CENTURY21SCHOOLS and commented:
I live in a state that does not have unions, and it seems that the outcome of this is that educators who have made it their lives work to teach have had to bow to the legislation of a group of politicians who have NO knowledge of how students learn and the effects of more testing. This continued degradation of unions in education will result in more and more privatization. What is truly sad when the people who actually are in the schools are the ones with the least power to affect change.
Forwarded from Fred Klonsky’s In Box</a<
I found the Cesar Chavez quote especially poignant since I’ve been thinking more and more in terms of disease models for what is going on in our country today.
When a body falls under the control of agents that sustain themselves in the short run at the expense of the body’s long run sustainability, that is one form of illness that flesh is heir to.
Living organisms and living societies that live for very long at all will naturally develop systems of immunity for recognizing and counteracting many species of harmful agents. Our Founders conceived and delivered a body politic that maintains that kind of robust regulation. That is what our representative democracy, with all its checks and balances and separation of powers, does for us.
But immune systems can be fooled, and then the body turns against itself. That is what the U.S. body politic has been up against for the last 30 years or so — Democracy’s Auto-Immune Disease.
Edit Darnit —
Forwarded from Mike Klonsky’s In Box
Arrggghhhh …
My excuse is that I just woke up from a nap …
Forwarded from Fred Klonsky’s In Box
Recent events in Chicago have helped increase awareness of the Letter to Obama at http://dumpduncan.org. Mark Naison is co-author of the letter. Check it out.
Reblogged this on My Principal is a Douchebag and commented:
WAKE UP, AMERICA! NCLB and Race to the Top initiatives are just the latest jingoism masking ghettoization of the weakest and poorest among us.
I was just reading some of the comments on a CNN article about the impending strike. The extreme hostility expressed by most commenters towards teachers was as disturbing as their ignorance about how the enterprise of teaching works. I fear we are badly outgunned and outnumbered.
Very angry people post on those sites. Ignore them.
And remember that the hostility to unions and teachers has been stoked by Rupert Murdoch and a lot of other zillionaires who want to destroy unions and treat teachers as temps.
Don’t pay attention to comments on blogs.
Except on this one.
Unfortunately, we can’t afford to dismiss these comments as huge forces are aligned against the CTU, and all of us, including much of the media. We have to respond. I find that the CTU’s published research study, “The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve,” and the one-page summary of it, are excellent responses. Through them the CTU explains so well what it really is fighting for — which is the children and their schools. These are at http://www.ctunet.com/quest-center/research/the-schools-chicagos-students-deserve
I am convinced that part of the hostility is simple resentment on the part of people who lack things like pensions or due process. I am reminded of the joke about the 1%er, the teabagger and the union worker sitting at a table with a dozen cookies. The 1%er takes 11 cookies, turns to the teabagger and says “watch out! That union guy wants part of your cookie!”
Please, we need to support the union. I don’t live in Chicago, but I am cringing at the demonization of the teachers and unions. We do not want charters, privatization, or the elimination of tenure. IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE. In the urban district where I work, I have worked for a charter, and it was pleasant, but it was all smoke and mirrors with the students that were there and stayed. The other schools and students suffer under the dead weight of the boutique charters that try and make other schools seem like they are doing something wrong. The nice thing about the charter was that there was not so much bs paperwork involved that really drag a teacher down. Right now, my teaching job is contract, hourly, and without benefits. I sometimes don’t get a lunch, or equipment like the reg. teachers, and sometimes I am asked to do things that they could not ask a unionized teacher to do. This does not set-up the best situation for the students’ education, but the district saves money. The union offers protection from my situation-outsourced teachers. I can’t stand the way the media is covering this story.
Very interesting. So you’re blaming Obama’s educational policies? Whatever happened to blaming Bush?
Maybe voting for Romney won’t be such a bad idea after all. Romney’s educational plan is about bringing educational control to a more local level where the states and cities know better how to care for their teachers and students.
I can see the Chicago teachers’ point of view about not wanting to be evaluated by the quality of the students’ test results. And some teachers have been desperate enough to hold parties where they get to gether and fix their students’ standardized tests–cheating for the students (and for themselves, so they will get evaluated well).
It’s sad and a vicious cycle. It needs to stop.
On the other hand, from the point of view of the families of the nearly half a million students who didn’t have school for more than a week, it looks selfish and irresponsible of the teachers for going on strike. The nation looked at the teachers, who got a huge pay raise, but went on strike because they didn’t like the evaluations–it looked like spoinled brats. And the working parents who had to scramble to figure out how to take care of their children during the day got the nation’s sympathy.
To some onlookers, it appeared that the teachers’ union in Chicago really didn’t care about the education of children. That their priority is to make sure the teachers get everything they want, even though they have a better pension plan, medical beneifits, and a 16% pay raise. Most American workers don’t have those privileges.