I Stand With Chicago Teachers

I want to be perfectly clear: I stand behind the Chicago Teachers Union strike one hundred percent. They are fighting not just for themselves, but for everyone who values public education. And that should be all of us.

A couple days ago I wrote a piece about the Chicago teachers strike, one that was based upon incomplete knowledge on my part. I've really had my head down these last few weeks, concentrating on getting my own school year up and running, so my awareness of things happening outside of my little Lake Union lifestyle has come mostly from skimming headlines. I stand by much of what I wrote in that piece, but it was irresponsible to have published it nevertheless, you know, because of the propaganda.

It was my understanding at the time that the major sticking point was pay, but I've now come to understand that I bought into the line that the mayor and his corporate education reform buddies are peddling, the one that is designed to demonize teachers as (say it with me) "greedy, lazy union thugs." As I've done more digging, and as people I've trusted have weighed in one the matter, I've come to understand that what the Chicago teachers are doing is nothing less than drawing a line in the sand for all of us who stand opposed to the corporate reform experiment of high-stakes standardized testing, the turning over of our public schools to corporations, longer class days, the de-professionalization of teaching, fierce competition between teachers and schools, and larger classes. Every single plank in the corporate reform agenda is, at best, unproven: none of it is supported by research. I'm going to repeat that: none of what the corporate education reformers are proposing can be supported by research. These so-called hard-headed businessmen are attempting a wholesale take-over of our public schools based on nothing more than theories, a few pie-charts, and their hatred for unions. And, in fact, many of the things they are proposing, like their testing regime, merit pay, charter schools, and larger classes, have been proven time and again to actually produce worse educational outcomes. 

Corporate education reform is damaging children and must be stopped.

In my last post I called for good faith negotiations on both sides. I now know that it is not both sides, but rather Rahm Emmanuel and his hand-selected school board that have refused to budge on most of the important issues behind this strike. Like I said in my last post, Emmanuel has a long history of creating toxicity wherever he goes, so this shouldn't surprise anyone.

But don't take my word for it. Two of the leading voices advocating for genuine, research-based, reality-tested education reform have written outstanding pieces detailing what is actually happening in Chicago, what is at stake, and why what Emmanuel and his cronies are doing is so dangerous. Please take a moment to read them:

Education historian Diane Ravitch, writing in the New York Times Review of Books, provides an excellent thumbnail history of Chicago schools, which have been subject to a tragically failed experiment in corporate education reform for the past 20 years, as well as a very clear look behind the propaganda at what is really in play, not just in Chicago, but for all of us who care about public education.

Columnist Valerie Strauss, in her always brilliant Answer Sheet column in the Washington Post, takes apart the corporate reform argument piece by piece, paying particular attention to test-based evaluations and merit pay, charter schools, and longer class days. For those of you wanting to dig deeper, she provides plenty of links to support her claims -- something the corporate reformers can never do.

Please take the time to look behind the propaganda. You too, will stand with the Chicago teachers because it is clear that they are the critical thinkers in this, while Emmanuel and his corporate allies are trying to sell themselves to you simply on the idea that they are heroic "tough guys" and nothing else. This is too important for headline skimming.

*****

Update: Something has gone wonky and I've not been able to post comments to my own blog for the past couple days, so I'm hoping it suffices to reply to comments here. In fact, when I look at the blog, the wrong comments are being attributed to the wrong posts and some posts are even missing. I don't believe it's anything I've done, but I'm hoping it's something that will "correct itself" (Blogger?) soon. In the meantime, rest assured I am seeing your comments. Thank you!

@Suschada (Mama Eve) . . . I have written about the propaganda film "Waiting for Superman," you'll find it here. There you'll find a link to Diane Ravitch's piece on it. If you want to read more of what I've had to say about corporate education reform and my view on the state of our public schools, you can click on the education reform label at the bottom of this post. I've written quite a bit!

@Julie Toole . . . I couldn't believe what I was reading when I learned that Chicago's school board is not elected, but rather appointed by the mayor. I don't know how parents stand for it. Thank you for fighting for us, Julie!

@melanie . . . I'm really sorry, but your comment got deleted in my process of attempting to "fix" my comment problem. You wrote to disagree with me, saying that you do not support a worker's right to strike. You feel that teachers who strike should be fired and replaced by one of the many out of work teachers. You said that you do not support corporate education reform, but feel that it can only be fought from within the system. I hope that fairly summarizes your points . . . Breaking unions is one of the primary objectives of the corporate education reform movement. If the unions are gone or weakened, the field will be free for them to implement their dangerous, unproven agenda. I simply don't understand how any American can be against unions, especially public employee unions. This is how we bring democracy into the workplace. I don't understand why corporations are free to form whatever strategic alliances they want in the name of profit, while workers, people with skills and talents to sell, can't form alliances with one another in the name of better pay, benefits and working conditions. And this isn't even a corporation we're talking about: these are our public schools. If democracy belongs anywhere, it's here. Beyond that, you seem to be under the misapprehension, like I was, that CTU was primarily striking over pay. This isn't true. If you click on the links I provided in the post, you'll learn that there is much more at stake, not just for teachers, but for children and their parents.

Finally, the reports are that CTU and the mayor's office are very close to a contract deal. It probably helped that despite the propaganda efforts by Emmanuel and his corporate allies, polls are showing that majorities of parents and citizens in Chicago support the teachers. In other words, most people have been able to see through the smokescreen and genuinely want what's best for our children. Strikes, while sometimes necessary, are hard for everyone. I hope we get an official announcement soon!

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