While some gains have been made, equity agenda in Springfield requires real leadership from Lightfoot
The CTU is calling on Chicago’s new mayor to ‘Keep the Promise’ for education equity by supporting the restoration of our bargaining rights—and an elected, representative school board.
CHICAGO—The Chicago Teachers Union made some powerful gains in this spring’s Springfield legislative session. The union won passage of legislation to reign in and reform the charter industry—including the right of individual school districts to control charter expansion in their districts. Until both houses passed the legislation, the Illinois State Charter School Commission had unilateral power to ignore school districts’ attempts to close down bad operators in their regions. Now, that power is ended.
Legislators also increased the number of days that retired teachers and support staff can serve as substitute teachers by 20 percent without sacrificing their pension benefits. The bill is designed to help alleviate an acute shortage of substitute teachers, and put retired veteran educators back in the classroom. Before the legislation was passed, retirees could be forced to forfeit their entire pension if they substituted for more than 100 days per year, roughly twenty weeks out of a full school year.
And the legislature has sent a bill to the governor’s office that would suspend a teacher test that was widely decried as of dubious value—and a dangerous driver of the state’s acute teacher shortage.
Two other CTU initiatives—a bill to restore the CTU’s right to bargain over critical issues like class size and staff shortages, and a bill to create an elected, representative school board—both stalled in the senate, where Senate President John Cullerton sandbagged that legislation at the request of Chicago’s new mayor, Lori Lightfoot. The earliest the effort could be taken up again by the state legislature is this October.
“The mayor ran on her support of an elected representative school board and on an agenda of real equity for neighborhood public schools,” said CTU President Jesse Sharkey. “Cullerton has, unfortunately, a long track record of carrying the water for the previous mayor on some terrible legislative initiatives. The new mayor should reverse that practice, respect the platform on which voters elected her, and move to get both of these initiatives passed.”
Chicagoans are the only residents in the state denied the right to elect their school board. The bill would have created distinct, walkable districts that ensure that every neighborhood in the city is represented on the school board. The 21-member board is about 40% the size of the City Council, and on par with the number of state representatives who are elected by Chicagoans to serve in Springfield.
For more than a quarter of a century, Chicago’s public school educators have also been denied the right—unlike educators across the state—to bargain over so-called ‘non-economic’ issues like class size and outsourcing. Those restrictions have allowed Chicago’s mayor to push massive privatization of school services—from health services for special needs students to janitorial services. That privatiziation agenda has driven deep deficiencies in health services for special education services and chronic cleanliness and maintenance issues in the public schools, at the same time that class sizes have exploded and the district confronts sweeping shortages of critical frontline staff like school nurses and social workers.
“We’ll continue to work to introduce and fight for passage of this legislation until we get it done,” said Sharkey. “Mayoral control of the board of education has been a dismal failure. It’s time for the mayor to fulfill her promises to Chicagoans, get behind these initiatives and start the hard work of building a school district built on real equity for our students. We elect our mayor, our aldermen, our state legislators—and Chicagoans should have the same right when it comes to our public schools that every other part of the state has the right to exercise.” |
I don’t think Mayor Lightfoot is reneging on any school board promises, & I wish the CTU would stop sniping at her & give her a chance. The elected school board bill, as written, would call for having this election in FOUR years. That would be an awful{lly} looong time to keep the Emanuel appointed school board, so what should Mayor Lightfoot have done about that, Jesse? Had it been you or I, wouldn’t we have done what she did & appointed much.much, 100% better people?!
Also, no, a 21-person school board sounds crazy. Consider the Chicago weather–would anything be accomplished if people were unable to show up, thus, possibly, foregoing a quorum to take any needed action? & I can’t imagine how much time would be available for Public Comment, given business items being discussed amongst so many–too many–people. Having been at many school board meetings (as well as other public boards), time allotted to public comment is shortened when there are so many business items on the agendas, as there is a huge chunk of time given those, board questioning & discussion. (I have been to school board meetings–& I’m talking about a 16-school school district!! — that lasted until 2 AM!!! And that was with only 7 or 9 board members.
I thought we had a wonderful choice in the final mayoral election–for once, people did NOT have to vote for “the lesser of two evils” nor, IMO, have to “hold their noses” & vote.
I like Toni Preckwinkle as well (in fact, know her on a personal level), but I think it’s great that she’s President of the Cook County Board (where she can continue to do a job that she’s doing great), that Lightfoot is Mayor & that we have two strong women of color running the ship. A big win-win first for Chicago!
&, honestly, I think your contract negotiations will be fair & fine.
Mayor Lightfoot is the farthest person imaginable from our previous, deal-making, school-closing mayors (Mayor Washington excluded, of course).
I must say, honestly, I love CORE & the CTU, but I don’t think Karen Lewis would have taken this road.
The Chicago teachers strike really helped pave the way for the Los Angeles and Oakland strikes. I hope Chicago’s win for school districts being able to regulate charter growth helps pave the way for California’s two bills making their way through the Legislature. Go Chicago! Nice not to have Rahm anymore, huh! I know the feeling. Nice not to have Villaraigosa anymore!
Yes, Chicago teachers rightly led the way, & the sea of red challenged “business-as-usual”–& won!–fomenting speaking out & strikes throughout the nation.
&, yes, the big piece of the pie is to “not have Rahm anymore.”
And now we don’t have his deaf-to-parents-&-educators, hand-picked, toady school board anymore.
That’s my point.
I agree.
may the message that SCHOOL BOARD ELECTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS REALLY REALLY MATTER start to be a notable message across the nation: so few people are aware of the school board takeover agenda and participation in school board elections is generally dangerously anemic
Oh, & I meant to say that the elected school board bill must be amended to:
1. Take effect much sooner than 4 years (try 2020) &
2. Take out the ridiculous # of 21 & replace with the number Chicago has now (or look at
the average # of other elected school boards in IL).
& should be reintroduced as such and passed in the Fall General Assembly.
Mayor Lightfoot had nothing to do with the ridiculousness written into this bill (&, methinks, it was purposely written this way so that it would fail); it was introduced by an ILL-Annoy state legislator, Robert Martwick (w/whom she’d had a widely broadcast “debate” {ahem!} that was notable for her feistiness w/him, all the while he towered over her {she’s short & he’s somewhat tall}). She was amazing in the same vein as AOC & Elizabeth “nevertheless, she persisted” Warren.