Republican Teachers: Tell legislators to support public education

Indiana's Republican State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jennifer McCormick, was careful to speak in non-partisan terms when she visited Fort Wayne last week. She didn't call out one specific party for its anti-public education legislation, even though everyone in Indiana knows that the Republicans are doing their best to privatize and skimp on funding for public education.

McCormick is a Republican.

McCormick's predecessor, Glenda Ritz, was also a Republican before she ran for the Superintendent's position in 2012. She took office, however, as a Democrat...and ran into the wall of the Republican Supermajority for everything she wanted to do for public schools in Indiana.

In the 2016 election, Ritz and McCormick had similar platforms. McCormick, however, said that she could get things done because she was a Republican. She could talk to the members of her own party and get them to understand what public schools and public school teachers needed. She tried, but she was also stopped by the Republican legislators.

It doesn't take the logic of Spock to deduce that the Republicans in the Indiana legislature are against public education. For the last dozen years the Republicans in the Indiana House and Senate have introduced and passed legislation aimed at funding vouchers and charters, deprofessionalizing the teaching profession, and starving public education.

But Glenda Ritz was a Republican before she was a Democrat, and she supported public education...and Jennifer McCormick is a Republican and she supports public education. Obviously not all Republicans, then, want to privatize the public schools.

REPUBLICAN TEACHERS

As a retired teacher in northeast Indiana, it's been clear to me that many, if not most, of my former colleagues, have been Republicans. As public school educators, I assume that the vast majority of those same colleagues have been supporters of public education. For them to be otherwise would indicate a serious case of cognitive dissonance.

Are Republican public school teachers the only party members who support public education? Again, I'm doubtful of that. Many of my students' parents were also Republicans and they were, on the whole, very supportive of their children's schools.

Perhaps it's only those Republicans who have no connection to public schools who support the legislators who are so intent on funding vouchers and charters at the expense of the constitutionally mandated public schools.

Or maybe it's something else...maybe it's money.

FULL DISCLOSURE

I'm not a Republican. Nor am I a Democrat. I'm an ardent and enthusiastic Independent Education Voter. I understand that Democrats can be just as dangerous to public education as can Republicans.

Rahm Emanual in Chicago has worked hard during his tenure to privatize public education.

President Obama and his Education Secretary Arne Duncan continued the punishment of public education started by Bush II and No Child Left Behind. In some ways, Duncan was worse than current Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

There is little doubt that campaign donations from pro-privatization organizations would transform at least some currently pro-public education Democrats into pro-privatization Democrats.

Because there's a lot of evidence that it's the money.

FOLLOW THE MONEY

Hoosiers for Quality Education (H4QE), formerly Hoosiers for Economic Growth, is a pro-privatization group in Indiana. H4QE is funded by the DeVos family (American Federation for Children), Alice Walton (of the Walmart billions), and the Freedom Partners (The Koch Brothers). They support School Choice Indiana (aka The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, now known as EdChoice) (For more information on this convoluted set of relationships see Hoosier School Heist by Doug Martin). Suffice it to say -- H4QE supports school privatization.

And they donate freely to Republicans during statewide elections.

H4QE donated $88,750 to Republicans on the House Education Committee

The Republican members of the House Education Committee received approximately $88,750 in 2018 campaign contributions from H4QE. Committee chair Bob Behning received $3000 and Chuck Goodrich got the largest donation, $36,000.

H4QE donated $99,500 to Republicans on the Senate Education and Career Development Committee

The members of the Senate Education and Career Development Committee received approximately $99,500 in 2016/2018 campaign contributions from H4QE. Committee chair Jeff Raatz pocketed a $9,000 donation. Member Linda Rogers accepted a whopping $50,000.

(On the other side, Democratic members of the House and Senate committees also received approximately $10,600 and $17,300 respectively from Indiana teachers' unions, ISTA and IFT, a small amount compared to the privatizers.)

Republican members of those committees also received contributions from other groups such as Stand for Children, funded by the pro-privatization Walton Family and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations.

Privatizers donated $170,000 to Governor Eric Holcomb

Eric Holcomb, Governor of Indiana, also received 2016 contributions from privatizers...most notably the DeVos family. Holcomb received $15,000 from each of the following for a total of $90,000: American Federation for Children, Richard DeVos, Richard DeVos Jr (Betsy), Doug DeVos, Daniel DeVos, and Cheri DeVos-Vanderweide. Holcomb also received $50,000 from charter school operator Christel Dehaan, $100,000 from Jim Walton (of the Walton Family), and $20,000 from Walmart.

Is it possible that Republican politicians feel obligated to support privatization -- vouchers and charters -- because of the amount of money donated to their campaign coffers by pro-privatization groups and individuals?

One only has to look at the nomination and confirmation of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to see how a billionaire donor can have an impact on the way politicians vote on issues.

WHICH CAME FIRST, DONATIONS OR IDEOLOGY?

When our local representative, Dave Heine, ran for the first time, he came to talk to our public education advocacy group, Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education. He was a Republican, but seemed very receptive to listening to us and agreed with us on many aspects of supporting public schools. In 2018, however, he joined ALEC, and received a $1000 campaign donation from H4QE. He votes in line with the Republican supermajority on public education legislation.

Would Rep. Heine have voted with the pro-privatization forces in the legislature if he had not gotten any campaign donations from privatizers? Which came first, the donation which has obligated him to support the positions of H4QE, or his willingness to defund public schools and deprofessionalize public school teachers?

In my corner of the state, the nine Republican House members and the five Republican Senators received 2016/2018 campaign contributions of $48,100 from H4QE.

HOW CAN WE FIGHT THE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS GOING TO PRIVATIZATION?

Millions statewide, that is...billions nationwide.

Public schools don't have the resources to donate thousands of campaign dollars to compete with billionaire-funded organizations like H4QE, the Walton Family Foundation, the Gates Family Foundation, and the DeVos family. Neither do teachers' unions. Neither do public school parents.

So what can Republican teachers, who still want to support the Republican party and vote for Republican candidates do? What should you do if you don't want to vote for the Democratic candidate -- assuming there even is one?

Become an Education voter. Learn the education positions of your candidates. If they support private school vouchers and charters, tell them your position...and tell them you expect them to support public schools if they're elected.

Just because you vote for someone doesn't mean that you have to accept everything they do.

Get to know your local legislators. Invite them into your classroom and let them see how public education works. Some Republican legislators have never set foot in a public school...never attended public school...never sent their children to public school. Tell them the stories from your school. Tell them how much you donate to your own classroom each year to help your students learn. Be an advocate for your students, your classroom, and your school.

Follow bills in the legislature. Pay attention to how your local Representatives and Senators vote. Let them know if you disapprove. Thank them when they support public education.

Support for public education doesn't have to be partisan. Jennifer McCormick has proven that a Republican can support public schools. We need Republican citizens to support their public schools as well. We can change the balance if we work together.

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Hypocrisy in Action

FIGHTING OVER ALEC

Florida Republican Jeb Bush defended the Common Core standards to ALEC with the usual lies such as,

[The US] has become a global leader in education spending while also becoming a global lagger in math and science.

[See Fighting Myths with Facts]

Bush's ignorance about the field of education provides us a lesson in why he, and others like him, should not be allowed to participate in forming public education policy.

Bush called for state policies holding back third-graders who cannot read well and ending tenure systems that employ and pay teachers based on experience rather than student performance.

[See Articles Labeled: Retention --Nearly a hundred years of research has provided us with enough information so that we know retention-in-grade (aka flunking) is not an effective remediation technique. The research consistently shows that, with few exceptions, long-term success of students is not improved using grade retention.]

At the same time, protesters outside the Palmer House in Chicago where ALEC was holding its meeting, were demonstrating against the wholesale privatization of public education sponsored by ALEC and selected billionaires.

EMANUEL'S HYPOCRISY

The backdrop for this battle among Common Core advocates, privatizers and pro-public education forces is the city of Chicago where Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel has overseen the closing of dozens of public schools, resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs for public education employees, and the disruption of the education of thousands of Chicago school children, all in the name of saving money (while still finding enough taxpayer cash to pay for a new arena for a private university).

Now, quietly, and entirely without a trace of irony, Emanuel's (appointed) board of education puppets have decided to open new schools.

"Wait," you ask, "they just closed 50 schools and now they're going to open new ones?"

I understand your confusion, but I think I can explain it in a way that will make everything clear.

CPS has issued a "Request for Proposals for New Schools" -- new charter schools!

Yes. You read that right...after closing 50 public schools because of "underutilization" the mayor and his rich friends want to open charter schools to relieve -- you guessed it -- overcrowding.

Despite closings and budget cuts, CPS calls for new charter schools

As Chicago Public Schools officials finish shuttering a record number of schools and leave many neighborhood schools to open their doors in two weeks with diminished budgets, the district has quietly issued a call for new charter schools.

In a 52-page PDF posted without fanfare on the district’s website, CPS is asking for new charter operators and campuses for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years mainly — but not only — in 11 so-called “priority communities” on the Northwest and Southwest Sides where district-run schools have been complaining of overcrowding. [emphasis added]

Apparently, closing 50 schools, laying off thousands of education professionals and support personnel, and disrupting the education and lives of students (as well as placing them in danger as they walk to school across gang boundaries) isn't enough punishment for the mayor to heap upon the Chicago Teachers Union for having the audacity to strike last year. The Mayor needs to punish the CTU further by moving more and more children into privately run charter schools with apparent disregard for the safety and education of the children living in his city.

Make no mistake: this is a blatant move designed to further the privatization of public education in Chicago.

...and there's little doubt that he feels a zing of pleasure by turning the knife on the CTU.

Just months after closing 50 schools, Chicago issues RFP for more charter schools

The Chicago Teachers Union and others have argued for years that school closures are about making way for charters and weakening the union.

“We are not surprised at all by this,” said union president Karen Lewis . “We were called conspiracy theorists, and then here is the absolute proof of what the intentions are…. The district has clearly made a decision that they want to push privatization of our public schools.”

The district has been slowly shifting students to charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately run. Around 13 percent of district students—and more than 20 percent of the district’s high school students— are educated in charter schools. Teachers at charters cannot be represented by the Chicago Teachers Union.

Only half of the teachers in the charter schools need to be certified...and the charter teachers are not covered by the Collective Bargaining Agreement between CPS and CTU.

There's no longer any pretense of "improving public education" on the part of the privatizers. There's no difference between Republicans and Democrats. The goal is the destruction of America's public education system.

Fact: Charters are not better than public schools. Charters not outperforming nation’s traditional public schools, report says
Fact: Mass closings of schools causes damage to communities.

GOOD SCHOOLS FOR MY KIDS

So-called "reformers" like Bush and Emanuel know what good education is. They are the products of elite private schools and have purchased an elite private school education for their children.

• They know that small class size is important.
• They know that trained, certified and experienced educators are important.
• They don't send their children to schools filled with uncertified teachers with 5 weeks of "education training."
• They don't send their children to schools where test prep takes up the first 2 hours of the day and the content of "the test" is the only curriculum guide.

They know what good education is and they make sure they have it for themselves and their children...everyone else be damned.

While Bush tries to bring the tea-party back to the Common Core, Rahm Emanuel is quietly going about the business of killing public education in Chicago.

[UPDATE: from Mike Klonsky "For those of you who miss the distinction between handing closed schools over to charter operators and opening new charters around the corner --- so do I."]

[UPDATE: Judge denies class-action status in CPS school closings suit]

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Sign An Education Declaration to Rebuild America

All who envision a more just, progressive and fair society cannot ignore the battle for our nation’s educational future. Principals fighting for better schools, teachers fighting for better classrooms, students fighting for greater opportunities, parents fighting for a future worthy of their child’s promise: their fight is our fight. We must all join in.

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Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

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Rahm's Chicago

I went to Rogers School in Chicago from kindergarten through eighth grade -- a public school. In the fall of 1962 I started attending Sullivan High School in Chicago -- a public school. I graduated in June, 1966.

What's happening in my home town today saddens me. Neither of the schools I attended in the 50s and 60s is going to be closed, but the rest of the story throughout the city is not so positive. The Mayor and his wealthy friends seem set on doing away with the city's public school system.

Emanuel has orchestrated the closing of 50 schools and the removal of 3500 public school employees. I'd say that the closings and layoffs are part of a small person's retribution for embarrassing him with a strike late last year, but the sad truth is the closings and layoffs were probably planned a long time ago. The money saved by the cuts to staff and buildings is being redirected to privatizers. In addition, while the city's school system is being starved by the mayor, plans for a multi-million arena for DePaul University continue, paid for in part by the city.

Emanuel hasn’t talked openly about the plan, but an alderman on the city’s board told CBS that the plan, which includes hotels attached to the city’s convention center at McCormick Place, was about fostering economic growth. “Sometimes you have to make an investment in city resources to be able to generate tax dollars,” Ald. Pat Dowell said.

How about investing in the city's students and future citizens...instead of a college basketball team that wants to "recapture its glory days"? The basketball team is from a large private, Catholic, university. I wonder why "The Church" can't afford to support the basketball programs of its large universities. Could it be that the city's support of private and corporate charters is now spilling over to post-secondary education?

Here's a sampling of what's coming out of Chicago...

See the list of schools closing, a map showing where they are located, and information about the population of students at each school.

Take a look at the map...look at how many schools are being affected from the areas with "Below 10% of households living in poverty." You'll see that there are just 2, Chappell Elementary and McPherson Elementary. How are they being affected? They aren't closing...they are "receiving schools" which means that they are schools which will receive children being shuffled from closing schools.

The cutbacks are being foisted on the schools, neighborhoods and families most in need of stability.

CPS continues its attack on teachers, students and public schools by laying off 2,085 more educators

After you read this, go right to the next article below. Read about the opening of charter* schools to replace the closed public schools. Read about increasing Teach For Awhile America contractors to the tune of $1.5 million to replace experienced career educators.

The mayor is being dishonest. He should have just said,

1. "We want to close our current public schools, and then reopen them as charters. The education won't be any better, since charters and regular public schools are pretty much equal, but this way the money goes to our friends."
2. "We want to fire experienced teachers who get paid more so we can hire new, inexperienced, poorly trained teachers for a pittance."

His children, by the way, will still get to go to their school at the University of Chicago...small class sizes, the arts, physical education, science labs, libraries, highly qualified degreed teachers...

“As the CTU continues to lobby the Board of Education to restore these jobs, remarkably CPS refuses to agree to a hiring freeze. It makes no sense to hire new people as the district lays off veteran teachers, paraprofessionals and clinicians, many of whom have excellent and superior ratings.

Chicago School Closings And The Joyce Foundation: The Obama Connection

The President is backing his friend, Mayor Emanuel. The big money is here...

Most recently, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel oversaw the closing of 50 public schools, many of which will be replaced by charter schools. A bulk of the 550 laid-off teachers will be replaced by Teach for America contractors, many of whom teach in charter schools.

What You Need to Know About CPS Budget Cuts

CPS finished the most recent school year with a surplus of $344 million. And then closed 50 schools and laid off thousands of teachers because they couldn’t afford them.”

Rahm’s Plan: Another 2,000 Teacher Layoffs

“The Raise Your Hand Coalition (RYH) is disgusted to learn that Chicago Public schools has laid off another 2000 teachers and staff, bringing the total number of layoffs for the year to 3500. This news lies in stark contrast to the ongoing CPS rhetoric to minimize any impact of budget cuts on the classroom. Now CPS is claiming that there will be “winners and losers.” Even if a few schools have been spared from these widespread and severe cuts, we believe that there are only losers in this scenario.

Gang expert Hagedorn warns federal judge to stop Chicago school closings

Children will die because Rahm Emanuel doesn't know how to run a city or a school system.

John told Judge John Lee that it's not a question of whether there will be shooting in neighborhoods kids must walk through. He says shootings are happening now. He adds school closings already are prompting gang Facebook postings warning students to stay away.

CPS fired my friend Xian Barrett and 2112 others.

Here's just one example of how a school system fires 3500 teachers, bus drivers, paraprofessionals and other support staff.

Why the principal called his emergency contact instead of his primary number, he isn’t sure. But when Barrett returned the message his mother relayed from his principal, he was read the script thanking him for his service — but pink-slipping him.

“The fact that there’s a script and it has in it, ‘Thank you for the service to the kids’ but no details — the fact that it’s always done this impersonally. It’s not just about firing. It’s how CPS treats their students. They’re interchangeable, and the relationships in their lives are interchangeable,” Barrett, 35, told the Sun-Times Friday. It went better, though, than the first time the district laid him off in 2010, when the principal — who also called his mother — went right into the script.

“The principal laid off my mom,” said Barrett, recipient of a prestigious and national U.S. Department of Education Teaching Fellowship, and a tenured teacher of law and of Chicago history at Gage Park on the Southwest Side. His law class typically spent Monday mornings with a triage of cases kids brought to him that friends or relatives were involved in.

Why your tax money keeps going down the TIF portal hole

As you've probably heard me mention before, if it weren't for the TIF program, more than half that money would go to the public schools—which, the mayor claims, are so broke he had to close 50 of them a few weeks ago.

The mayor sent out a press release Friday morning congratulating himself for creating the portal and claiming it "will help the city focus programs on job creation and economic development."

Right on, Mr. Mayor—jobs are good!

Alas, within hours of the good news, word broke that the mayor was firing about 2,100 CPS employees—including more than 1,000 teachers—in the latest, largest round of budget cuts. That's on top of the 600 teachers he fired last month as part of the school closings.

So much for job creation. You know, Mr. Mayor, you make it hard for anyone to be a cheerleader.

In the meantime, the mayor's moving full steam ahead on his plans to spend $55 million in property tax funds for a basketball arena for DePaul and a new hotel.

Sweet Home Chicago? Not if you have children in the public schools.

IMAGES OF THE FIRST 20 SCHOOLS ON THE CLOSE LIST

*References to charters generally imply corporate, for-profit charter schools. Quotes from other writers reflect their opinions only. See It's Important to Look in a Mirror Now and Then.

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Sign An Education Declaration to Rebuild America

All who envision a more just, progressive and fair society cannot ignore the battle for our nation’s educational future. Principals fighting for better schools, teachers fighting for better classrooms, students fighting for greater opportunities, parents fighting for a future worthy of their child’s promise: their fight is our fight. We must all join in.

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Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

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Thoughts About the Chicago Teachers Strike - Part 7

The strike is suspended. A couple of comments...

Day 7 Strike suspended. Big victory for teachers

CTU's House of Delegates voted to "suspend" the strike and ask teachers to return to class tomorrow.

“Everybody is going back to school,” said Jay Rehak, a delegate from Whitney Young High School. Delegate Mike Bochner said “an overwhelming majority” of delegates voted to suspend the strike. “I’m really excited, I’m really relieved,” said Bochner, a teacher at Cesar Chavez elementary.

Thank You Chicago Teachers

A huge THANK YOU is due to the teachers of Chicago, who are going back to work tomorrow, after making the most important statement in defense of public education in this country in the last ten years...a cross section of progressives are willing to admit that Democratic Party education policies, as well as Republican ones, are disastrous, and that you cannot improve schools unless teachers are treated with respect and brought into the center of every discussion which shapes education policy.

(btw, the youtube link at the end of this article doesn't work)

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Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

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Thoughts About the Chicago Teachers Strike - Part 6

Chicago Teachers Strike Continues Into New Week As Union, City Fail To Strike Deal

The Chicago Teachers Union delegates decided Sunday night not to accept a deal for a new contract from Chicago Public Schools and made plans to resume negotiations Tuesday, effectively prolonging the weeklong teachers strike and ensuring that school would not be in session for the city's public school students for the next two days.

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Chicago teachers extend strike, mayor seeks court order

The confrontation between Chicago teachers and Mayor Rahm Emanuel escalated on Sunday when their union extended a strike and the mayor said he would go to court to block the walkout, risking more friction within President Barack Obama's political coalition as the November 6 election nears.

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Letter to the Editor from CTU President Karen Lewis

Mayor Emanuel says we will have to close and consolidate public schools to save money to pay for the new union contract. Does anyone in the public have any idea how much money it costs to open a brand new charter school* and pay for the first few years while the school gets up and running? Hundreds of millions of dollars! CPS has an entire department dedicated to soliciting charter proposals, reviewing them, and then supporting the charter during its “incubation period.” Also during this incubation period, the school is not held accountable for its test scores because CPS understands that of course the school will not do well initially.

This is what we want for our children? Parents don’t want their kindergartner, 5th grader or 9th grader acting as guinea pigs for a charter school that might eventually become a good school. There is not a single charter management network that can say that all of its campuses are doing well.

Mayor Emanuel and his charter school friends are complaining that the Chicago Teachers Union strike has kept students out of school for a few days. What about the years that students suffer in low-performing charter schools that are still trying to figure out how to manage themselves as an academic institution? Even the hedge fund billionaires that are behind this push admit that every charter school is not going to succeed–so why are we doing this? Why aren’t we simply looking at what already works, at the 30 percent of CPS’ neighborhood elementary schools that are scoring 85 percent and above–some at 100 percent– on state tests. Why aren’t we replicating that?

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Responding to NPR's What's At Stake for US Teachers

Not only is this going to be very costly, but there is evidence that it won’t increase school achievement. It will rob money from where we need it, money that could protect children from the effects of poverty by improving nutrition, health care, and access to books.

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Chicago Teachers and Support Staff: Lots of Thank Yous and a Couple of Warnings

• Thank you for the exercising the courage, care, and conviction that has been banished by the national union leadership of the NEA and AFT.
• Thank you for reminding us what leadership looks like.
• Thank you for re-focusing the teacher union movement on the social justice mission for children, which is our calling, our mission, and the fire we carry.
• Thank you for demanding respect, rather than cowering and cutting deals to assuage corporate hacks stuck in a Reagan time warp.
• Thank you for your energy, your pluck, your pride, your determination that makes us all proud again to claim the title of teacher.
• Thank you for explaining the effects on children of teacher evaluation based on test scores, class size extremes, environmental needs of children, resource shortages, personnel cuts, school closures, corporate charter schools.
• Thank you for doing what so many have feared to do and must be done.
• Thank you for your model of impassioned professionalism.
• Thank you for making us look up again, rather than down.

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UP With Chris Hayes

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Who Is Victimizing Chicago’s Kids?

The city’s current reform wave began in 2004 with Mayor Richard Daley’s Renaissance 2010—a massive program, funded in part by $90 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to transform the city’s schools by 2010. The strategy included firing and replacing entire staffs in low-income neighborhood schools, shutting down dozens of schools, and setting up charter schools. When reckoning day came, here is what the Chicago Tribune reported:

Six years after Mayor Richard Daley launched a bold initiative to close down and remake failing schools, Renaissance 2010 has done little to improve the educational performance of the city’s school system, according to a Tribune analysis of 2009 state test data. …The moribund test scores follow other less than enthusiastic findings about Renaissance 2010—that displaced students ended up mostly in other low performing schools and that mass closings led to youth violence as rival gang members ended up in the same classrooms. Together, they suggest the initiative hasn’t lived up to its promise by this, its target year.

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Karen Lewis Speak to Rally at Union Park (Saturday)

I am tired of billionaires telling us what we need to do for our children as if they love our children more than we do.

I want them to turn off the air conditioning in 125 South Clark and work like we work. I want them to turn off the air conditioning on the fifth floor of city hall and let them work like we work. I want them to turn off the air conditioning at the Gates Foundation and the Broad Foundation and the Walton Foundation so they can see what our children have to suffer under.

I want them to come sit in a classroom with peeling plaster and no books and I want them to be evaluated. I want to be evaluated. I want somebody to tell me how I can get better as a teacher. I want them to come in to my classroom and see what it is I do. But while these people have their air conditioners turned off I want these people not to be able to go to the dentist when they have a toothache. I want them to not be able to go to a physician when they are feeling ill. I want them to understand what it means to be hungry...what it means to be homeless...and what it means to be uncomfortable while you give me a test.

I want them to show us where are the billionaires marching? Why do they have so much influence because they can write a check. They only have one vote.

I want to know why, when we ask for textbooks and materials on the first day...on the first day when children walk into a building...that somehow we're being unreasonable. I want somebody to tell me why that is. I want somebody to tell me why asking for more than 325 social workers for a system of 400,000 children is unreasonable. I want you to tell me why you have to test my kindergartners 5 and 6 times a year when they haven't even learned how to play.

*References to charters generally imply corporate, for-profit charter schools. Quotes from other writers reflect their opinions only. See It's Important to Look in a Mirror Now and Then

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Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

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Thoughts About the Chicago Teachers Strike - Part 5

There's talk that the strike will end Friday...and hopefully the kids will be back in school on Monday. I don't know what the CTU had to give up...but...

I hope that they didn't give up fighting against using test scores to evaluate schools and teachers. We know that the tests are not valid for those purposes. The voices of the testing experts in Chicago, Georgia and all over the country have repeated over and over again that it's a misuse of the tests. My fear is that the facts won't matter and the privatizers are so eager to line their pockets with public money they don't care what they do. It doesn't matter who they hurt...children, teachers, principals...they just want the money.

I hope they didn't give up fighting for adequate educational services for their students. The 1% aren't satisfied with schools that have large class sizes, no libraries, lack of art, music and physical education. The rest of us shouldn't be satisfied with that either. All children, no matter what their parents' income, should be guaranteed a public school complete with the arts, books, and plenty of room to run and grow. Our nation's future adults deserve to have a chance...all of them.

I hope they didn't give up fighting for adequate social services for their students. How can we accept the levels of poverty in this country? What other nation would allow a fourth of all their children to live in poverty? We need to provide the services they need to survive.

I hope they didn't give up demanding reasonable class sizes. The average class size in private schools is 18...all children deserve that. We have become a nation of selfish misers, only thinking about our own...only thinking about today. Children, especially poor children and children who are not native English speakers, need more help...not less. I've taught classes of 37 and 38...there's no way to reach all the children. Someone is bound to get lost. The fewer students per class, especially in the younger grades, the better chance a child has.

I know they had to give up some things...I've been at the negotiations table...I know you have to give up some things you really don't want to give up...

The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve: Research-based Proposals To Strengthen Elementary And Secondary Education In The Chicago Public Schools

3. In CPS, 86% of students are eligible for free or reduced lunch. The relationship between poverty and academics is well documented, but CPS pays little attention to ameliorating poverty’s effects. Poverty is rising in the city, and the percentage of students who are lunch-eligible does not capture the fact that many who were poor before are now even poorer. While CPS has a well-developed program to identify schools to be put on probation, closed, consolidated or turned-around, it does not have an equally robust program for supporting schools in trouble...

...Family income and wealth play a major role in students’ educational development. CTU recognizes that CPS cannot tackle all the housing, health, transportation, and employment inequities that intersect school issues and shape student’s performance in schools. However, as CPS students are 86% low-income and 87% African American or Latino, CPS has a moral and ethical responsibility to put school-level policies in place to mitigate racial and economic inequities.

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CTU chief: Deal likely today but classes may not resume until Monday

Thank you Chicago teachers for telling the world what America's teachers already know -- that our children are being cheated by "reformers" who don't know anything about education. Thank you for standing up and making someone listen.

Fran Feeley, 44, a librarian at Inter-American Magnet School, said he had "mixed-feelings" about the news. While Feeley doesn't want the strike to carry on, he said certain issues need to be addressed.

"I don't accept the idea that charter schools and vouchers and testing kids eight weeks a year is going to solve the problems facing the public schools," he said...

Christopher Barker said he too is ready to be back in the classroom. “I feel like everything has slid a week back,” he said.

Barker, who teaches math and humanities at George Manierre Elementary School, said he needs to finish evaluating his new students, call parents and build his student library.

One of the first things on the agenda, however, will be talking to his students about what the strike meant. “Is there anywhere that you go in life when you do have to speak up for yourself when there’s a perceived injustice?”

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A Chicago Teacher Writes: The Joy of Finally Fighting Back
By Anthony Cody on September 13, 2012 11:06 AM

Guest post by Katie Osgood.

There is jubilation on the streets of Chicago.

When the teachers of Chicago rise up, they are not defending politics or ideology, they are speaking for actual human beings. They are crying out for the child who could not get appropriate special education services due to lack of staff. They are speaking for the many kids being punished, held back, treated like failures by the cruel standardized tests. They are saying "no" to the truly outrageous class sizes which prevent too many of their most fragile students from getting that individualized attention they deserve. They are begging the district to hire more of the support staff like social workers, nurses, and counselors their students desperately need. They are exposing a system that views students who struggle as liabilities and schools as places of cutthroat competition.

Chicago's teachers are saying "no more". I thank them, and the parents and students, for their sacrifice. The joy of people power is infectious. I hope it spreads.

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I Ruined Everything (& Why It Was More Work Than You Thought) @INTERNETTAXTROLLS

The media doesn't really tell the story...comments on blogs and news articles reflect the hate and anger that people direct towards teachers. It's born of a jealousy...perhaps because teachers love their work...perhaps because teachers have organizations to help them.

This is not a new article, but it's an answer to all those haters.

So do it. Reduce my pension. Make me poor, since I don't qualify for Social Security. Make my medicine unaffordable. Make my raise contingent upon proof that my art lessons somehow improved state math scores. Continue firing at my feet to see how long you can make me dance. It still won't change the fact that life did not work out as you planned and you're now a bitter little turd. AND I will STILL...love my job, because I am rocking this for all the right reasons. After you take every tool and incentive and support away from me, and millions like me, you won't suddenly have anything great that you don't already have. And then you will be terribly disappointed to find out that this isn't a scam after all. Whether decorated or destroyed, inside every school we run on something you can't legislate, isolate, measure or destroy. Much to your inarticulate all caps despair.

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Letter from CTU President Karen Lewis: ‘Students Suffer in Low-Performing Charter Schools’

The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is so cash-strapped that it plans to close and consolidate under-utilized schools, with rumors that it could be upwards of 120 schools this coming year. Many people would consider this to be fiscally prudent. Mayor Emanuel is of course going to blame the soon-to-be agreed upon new union contract.

What the public does not understand, however, even though both the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times have been writing about it for months, is that CPS is also simultaneously planning to open 60 new charter schools in the next few years. That decision was made last year under the “Gates Compact” in which CPS went into an agreement with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to increase charter schools in Chicago.

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Standardized test scores are worst way to evaluate teachers

The way that CPS plans to use test scores in teacher evaluation, referred to as value-added, is so incredibly flawed that almost no one with a knowledge base in this area thinks it’s a good idea.

The National Research Council wrote a letter to the Obama administration warning against including value-added in Race to the Top federal grant program because of a lack of research support. The Educational Testing Service, an organization that stands to benefit tremendously from any expansion of testing, issued a report concluding that value-added is improper test use.

These are the people who know the statistics, and none of them thinks the models work.

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Unions Are Necessary to Rebuilding Our Middle Class

Last year the middle class received the smallest share of the nation’s income since these data were first reported, according to U.S. Census Bureau numbers released today. The middle 60 percent of households received only 45.7 percent of the nation’s income in 2011, down from the historical peak of 53.2 percent in 1968.

The declining share of income received by the nation’s middle class has been driven by stagnant incomes for middle-class earners coupled with rapidly rising incomes for the highest earners...And then there is another often overlooked dynamic: the decline of labor unions.

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Melting the Rubber Stamp: Chicago’s Unelected Board of Education

The seven members of Chicago’s Board of Education, along with CEO Jean-Claude Brizard, are, in theory, responsible for the governance of the city’s schools. In reality, they are only accountable to the man that appointed them—Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

As anyone who has ever witnessed a board hearing knows, members like Hyatt heiress Penny Pritzker and former Northwestern President Henry Bienen, when they bother to show up at all, nod indifferently to public testimony, toy with their smart phones, and reliably vote in the interests of their boss. This past winter, after the board voted unanimously to close or turnaround 17 schools, frustrated parents burst into tears, and community members chanted “Rubber Stamp!” until CPS security escorted them out of the room.

Unwilling to accept such belligerent disregard for community input, education organizers and activists have launched a campaign for an elected, representative school board. Communities Organized for Democracy in Education (CODE), a coalition of education groups, circulated petitions this summer to put the question to Chicagoans in an advisory referendum: should the Board of Education be elected instead of appointed by the mayor?

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Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

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Thoughts About the Chicago Teachers Strike - Part 4

The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve: Research-based Proposals To Strengthen Elementary And Secondary Education In The Chicago Public Schools

This is what the Chicago Teachers are fighting for. It still takes my breath away to hear that there are more than 150 elementary schools in Chicago without a library. [I remember my elementary school when I was growing up in Chicago. Our principal, Benjamin Elkin, was a children's author. Do you think he would have allowed his school to be without a library?]

Read the CTU's whole booklet.

2. Educate The Whole Child. Invest to ensure that all schools have recess and physical education equipment, healthy food offerings, and classes in art, theater, dance, and music in every school. Offer world languages and a variety of subject choices. Provide every school with a library and assign the commensurate number of librarians to staff them.

At the private and selective-enrollment University of Chicago Laboratory School, elementary students have classes in art, music, physical education and world languages several times a week, as well as language arts, social studies, mathematics and science daily. At private and selective-enrollment Francis Parker School, students from 3rd to 12th grade participate in a program called “Morning Ex” (for “Exercise”) three times a week. This program provides students the opportunity to plan and carry out a variety of activities, including teach-ins, sharing of class projects, dramatic performances, outside speakers, and other enriching activities.

In CPS, on the other hand, many elementary students have limited access to physical education, arts education (music, drama, art, dance, choir, band, etc.), library/media instruction, science laboratories, or computer science. Few CPS schools provide world language classes and 160 CPS elementary schools do not even have libraries. Although access to libraries and books can mitigate the impact of poverty on achievement, CPS denies this vital resource to some of its students who need it most.

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Stand Against Rahm! The Chicago Teachers' Strike Is the Next Chapter in the Fight Against Plutocracy

Those of you who hate teachers and teachers unions: If your boss told you to add 2 more hours to your work day without an increase in pay would you just quietly accept it? What if you already volunteered extra hours every day, on weekends and during vacations?

Overwhelmingly, Chicago’s teachers support lengthening the day, which is the shortest of any major district in the country. Just not the way Rahm wanted to ram it down their throats: 20 percent more work; 2 percent more pay.

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Their Fight is Our Fight

At my school, I looked at the calendar for the year, and there are about 15 days where students are being tested on standardized tests. These tests are not designed to help the students. Many of these tests are designed because of No Child Left Behind to measure the school. And now, because of Race to the Top and these new reforms, now these tests are being used to measure teacher performance. So what does that mean? It means that rather than planning rich-inquiry, interesting lessons for our students, we have to focus on very specific tested standards in a very narrow way...

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Chicago Reminds Us Why we have Unions

Teachers in Chicago have done their homework. They did not just decide to strike this month. They have laid the groundwork, in a way that should be studied by others around the country. They have made it clear what they are fighting for, and done tremendous work with parents and in the community to build support. While the media has been critical of the union, public support remains strong, with 47% of voters in support, and only 39% in opposition.

This support was hard-won. Teachers in Chicago have been working for several years to build an understanding of what the schools there need. They have presented their OWN vision of reform. In February of this year, they released this report, The Schools Chicago's Students Deserve.

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Unions aren’t the enemy, and teachers shouldn’t back down, either

If organized labor is at the heart of the problem, though, why are outcomes in different areas of the country no different whether teachers are unionized or not?

...And let’s not forget why we have teachers unions in the first place: It’s because in the not-so-great old days, mostly female teachers had no recourse when they were fired for no good reason, or were otherwise treated unfairly.

...Teachers in Chicago have decided they won’t back down at an inconvenient time for the president, but that doesn’t mean they’re wrong. If we really wanted to improve schools, we’d do what education powerhouse Finland does — fund schools equally, value teachers more, and administer standardized testing almost never.

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The Worst Teacher in Chicago

It's the money.

A veteran teacher was "no good" when she was in the public schools at the top of the salary scale...she got fired (so much for the myth that you can't fire teachers). She was rehired at slightly more than half her salary by a local charter school...where she was hailed as "an innovative English teacher with advanced degrees and a national reputation in her field."

Is it improvement that "reformers" want? or is it union-busting and profits?

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Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

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Thoughts About the Chicago Teachers Strike - Part 3

The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve: Research-based Proposals To Strengthen Elementary And Secondary Education In The Chicago Public Schools

The first item in the Chicago Teachers Union report is about class size. Research has shown that class size is especially important in the early grades.

1. Recognize That Class Size Matters. Drastically reduce class size. We currently have one of the largest class sizes in the state. This greatly inhibits the ability of our students to learn and thrive.

Outside of Chicago and within private schools, class size is monitored and small classes are prioritized. For example, in the Matteson School District southwest of Chicago, the average class sizes per grade for elementary and high school are between 16 and 23, with most classes below 20. Compared to CPS, 15% more students meet or exceed Illinois standards in Matteson. At Chicago’s well-regarded Francis Parker School, class sizes reflect the national private school average of 18 students, but high school classes are often smaller. If smaller classes are good for private and suburban students, why are they not a priority for our children?

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Got a red shirt?
Brian Jones is one of the teachers prominent in The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman.

Does this mean we now have a national movement of teachers united in a collective struggle to defend and improve public education? Not quite. Where teachers already have large organizations — their unions — they rely on them to defend their interests. The problem is that those unions have, by and large, conceded much of the ideological terrain to the billionaire privatizers.

Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, says he wants a longer school day, for example. The CTU has responded, effectively: “No, we want a BETTER school day!” The CTU...demands that funding be restored to the arts, sciences, physical education, counseling, and smaller class sizes. Their research document, The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve is a must read.

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Messages of Solidarity: We Stand with the CTU

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Chicago’s school shadow

Evaluations tied to student test performance, class size, job security and more are at the heart of the Chicago dispute and at the center of a national education debate. Are teachers professionals who know the needs of their students and deserve the respect and compensation afforded to professionals? Or are they public workers who can be easily replaced?

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Randi Weingarten: Treat teachers as equal partners

The issues that teachers are fighting for go to the heart of improving Chicago's public schools. Chicago has had 15 years of mayoral control, and it hasn't helped improve our schools. Today, 42% of neighborhood elementary schools are not funded for a full-time art or music teacher; 160 Chicago elementary schools don't have libraries. Teachers report classes of more than 43 students and not even enough chairs for them all. And teachers often lack textbooks and other materials up to six weeks after the start of school.

Chicago teachers are calling for a better day, not just a longer day, by investing in art, music and libraries. They are calling for smaller class sizes, investments in neighborhood schools and health care, social workers, meal services and additional services for students.

They want to focus on teaching and learning, and have legitimately objected to the district's fixation on high-stakes testing that is narrowing the curriculum and being used to sanction teachers. And they are calling for a fair evaluation process and additional professional development to help all teachers improve.

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Chicago Teachers Push Back Against Neoliberal Education Reform

I can sense a pattern in these articles. They're all talking about what's really important...the education of the children. Here it is again...social services, libraries, a well rounded curriculum...

...educators are fired up to fight for wraparound services for students, with more school social workers, counselors and psychologists; a holistic educational environment where all students have access to school libraries, world languages, art, music, physical education; and the preservation of the tenure system—because good teachers are made through experience in the classroom.

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National Schools Debate Is on Display in Chicago

...and then we come to the New York Times. It's true that, as the Times says, the teacher evaluation system in Chicago is one of the focuses of the strike. There are questions which need to be answered. Do standardized tests reflect what the students have learned or do they reflect where the students live, the amount of income their parents bring home, the violence outside the students' windows at home, whether or not the students even have a home, or the lack of health care in the students' lives? Are those same standardized tests appropriate tools with which to measure a teacher's ability to teach?

The article frames this as a "traditional labor fight over pay, benefits and working conditions." That's correct to a point. Both sides have said that they are close on pay disputes. Benefits are still an issue. It's the demands about working conditions, however, which are not at all "traditional." The teachers are demanding books on the first day of class...manageable class sizes...a well rounded curriculum including the arts...libraries for every school (would Emanuel choose to send his children to a school without a library?) and social workers to help children deal with the violence and the poverty in their lives. The fight is as much about children's working conditions as it is about the teachers' working conditions.

What started here as a traditional labor fight over pay, benefits and working conditions has exploded into a dramatic illustration of the national debate over how public school districts should rate teachers.

At stake are profound policy questions about how teachers should be granted tenure, promoted or fired, as well as the place standardized tests will have in the lives of elementary and high school students.

One of the main sticking points in the negotiations here between the teachers union and Mayor Rahm Emanuel is a new teacher evaluation system that gives significant and increasing weight to student performance on standardized tests. Personnel decisions would be based on those evaluations.

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Report calls for more teacher training, limiting use of test scores

This article is not directly about the CTU strike, however it speaks to the issue of how much weight should be given to standardized tests This task force rejected using student test scores to evaluate teachers.

The state needs to focus on recruiting, educating and retaining teachers if it wants to improve student academic performance, a state task force has concluded. Recent budget cuts, however, have pushed the state in the opposite direction, according to the task force's report, which was released Monday.

The advisory task force, which was brought together by state Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing, also rejected making any link between students' standardized test scores and teachers' performance evaluations.

The report said,

...leading research organizations have counseled against the use of VAM for high-stakes decisions about teachers. The National Research Council’s Board on Testing and Assessment concluded that: “VAM estimates of teacher effectiveness ... should not be used to make operational decisions because such estimates are far too unstable to be considered fair or reliable.”

It didn't say use test scores for 30% of a teacher's evaluation...or 40%...or 50%. It said that tests should not be used for teacher evaluation. Period.

The entire report can be read HERE

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Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

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Thoughts About the Chicago Teachers Strike - Part 2

Director of Private School Where Rahm Sends His Kids Opposes Using Testing for Teacher Evaluations

Rahm Emanuel's children go to Arne Duncan's alma mater, the University of Chicago Lab School. They have full time arts teachers, well stocked libraries, well paid teachers who are NOT evaluated using the students' test scores. That, however, is not necessary for the children of the 99% who go to public schools.

...Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel does not send his kids to public schools. Instead, Emanuel's children attend...the University of Chicago Lab School, where the annual tuition is more than $20,000...

...The Lab School has seven full-time art teachers to serve a student population of 1,700. By contrast, only 25% of Chicago’s “neighborhood elementary schools” have both a full-time art and music instructor. The Lab School has three different libraries, while 160 Chicago public elementary schools do not have a library.

“Physical education, world languages, libraries and the arts are not frills. They are an essential piece of a well-rounded education,” wrote University of Chicago Lab School Director David Magill on the school's website in February 2009.

One of the key sticking points in union negotiations is that Emanuel wants to use standardized tests scores to count for 40 percent of the basis of teacher evaluations. Earlier this year, more than 80 researchers from 16 Chicago-area universities signed an open letter to Emanuel, criticizing the use of standardized test scores for this purpose. “The new evaluation system for teachers and principals centers on misconceptions about student growth, with potentially negative impact on the education of Chicago’s children,” they wrote.

CTU claims that nearly 30% of its members could be dismissed within one to two years if the proposed evaluation process is put into effect and has opposed using tests scores as the basis of evaluation. They're joined in their opposition to using testing in evaluations by Magill.

Writing on the University of Chicago’s Lab School website two years ago, Magill noted, “Measuring outcomes through standardized testing and referring to those results as the evidence of learning and the bottom line is, in my opinion, misguided and, unfortunately, continues to be advocated under a new name and supported by the current [Obama] administration.”

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Chicago Teachers Union Strike. Parents and Teachers Take It to the Streets

The Chicago Teachers Union, parents and the children who educators have chosen to serve, want Americans countrywide to know, there’s a great deal of work to do to create the schools our students deserve. That includes:

• REDUCE CLASS SIZE – The mayor has threatened to put as many as 55 children in one classroom!
• PROVIDE SOCIAL SERVICES CHILDREN NEED – The school board refuses to hire more social workers, nurses and other clinicians at a time when youth violence is skyrocketing.
• INVEST IN ALL SCHOOLS – The school board denies funds to schools in low-income neighborhoods. Our students need equal access to high-quality learning opportunities in every neighborhood school!
• SUPPORT TEACHERS AS PROFESSIONALS – The school board so far refuses to give your school’s teachers, paraprofessionals, and others a fair contract.
• STOP CHARTER EXPANSIONS, turn-arounds, and school closings.

For more good information about what the CTU is fighting for see Parents, Teachers Hold Forum to Outline What’s at Stake as CPS Strike Looms: ‘They Want to Create New Orleans in Chicago’

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Chicago Teachers Go on Strike

[Public schools] constitute 69 percent of all Chicago schools, but they have received less than 48 percent of...money for building maintenance, repair, and upgrading. In revealing contrast, nine selective-enrollment high schools (charter and magnet) that make up 1 percent of the total number of schools got 24 percent of the money spent on school construction projects...

A quarter of the [public elementary] schools have no libraries, 40 percent have neither either art nor music instruction, while many others must choose one or the other but can’t get both.

Mayor Emanuel sends his children to the private Chicago Lab School—where all of these “extras” are available.

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Chris Hedges: Dems Owe Chicago Public Teachers Support for "Most Important Labor Action in Decades"

...it really boils down to the fact that we spend $600-some billion a year, the federal government, on education, and the corporations want it. That’s what’s happening. And that comes through charter schools. It comes through standardized testing. And it comes through breaking teachers’ unions and essentially hiring temp workers, people who have very little skills. This is what Teach for America is about. They teach by rote, and they earn nothing. There’s no career. I mean, there’s quite a difference between teaching people what to think and teaching people how to think. And corporate forces want to teach people what to think. It’s a kind of classism. People get slotted. It’s vocational. And so, I see what’s happening in Chicago as, you know, one of the kind of seminal uprisings of our age. And if they don’t succeed, we’re all in deep trouble.

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Diane Ravitch talks about public education and the Chicago Teachers Strike.

For Tuesday, September 11, 2012 at 9:00 AM

Education historian, Diane Ravitch, joins Kathleen Dunn to discuss the teacher strike in Chicago.

Guest: Diane Ravitch, historian of education, educational policy analyst, research professor, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University. Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education.

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Issues in Chicago teachers strike mirror concerns of some NWI educators

Neither Indiana State Teachers Association President Nate Schnellenberger nor Indiana Federation of Teachers President Rick Muir have been closely following the Chicago negotiations, but both say there are similarities regarding concerns about teacher evaluations.

"I personally applaud them for standing up on these issues," Muir said.

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Strike Is the Best Lesson Chicago Teachers Union Could Have Planned

Unlike its portrayal as a selfish bully in the 1% Chicago Tribune, the CORE-led CTU has been a partner to community groups fighting for quality public education. Now, hostile contract negotiations have opened a window for the union to elevate the anti-privatization fight to a national level.

As former CPS CEO Arne Duncan continues to spread the hollow gospel of corporate reform as the nation's secretary of education, and as his predecessor Paul Vallas preaches the same throughout South America, it's about time that Chicago, the birthplace of this failed faith, denounces it publicly.

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Thousands Rally in Chicago Teachers’ Strike, Pushing Back Against Corporatized Education Reform

...a lot of the education policy in this country comes from the top, from people that have little or no experience in a classroom, little or no experience in the low-income communities that are disproportionately affected by these reforms. And it was moving to see Chicago united behind the teachers, that are, you know, not just fighting for themselves, but they’re fighting for their students. And that’s something that a lot of people in Chicago and around the country are—have been waiting for and are really prepared to get behind.

...They are fighting the most powerful forces in the country that have an agenda of privatization of school closings, of increasing testing. But [the Chicago Teachers Union] is something to be reckoned with.

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Poll: 47% of Chicago voters support striking teachers

Chicago teachers are taking on the education agenda of the one percent, and that means they're taking a beating in the media. But a new poll shows that it would be a mistake to take negative headlines and criticism from pundits and politicians as representative of what Chicago voters think. It turns out that 47 percent support the strike, with 39 percent opposed.

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Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

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