“I am disappointed by the decision of the Chicago Teachers Union to turn its back on not only a city negotiating in good faith but also the hundreds of thousands of children relying on the city’s public schools to provide them a safe place to receive a strong education. Teachers unions have too often made plain that their interests conflict with those of our children, and today we are seeing one of the clearest examples yet. President Obama has chosen his side in this fight, sending his Vice President last year to assure the nation’s largest teachers union that ‘you should have no doubt about my affection for you and the President’s commitment to you.’ I choose to side with the parents and students depending on public schools to give them the skills to succeed, and my plan for education reform will do exactly that.” – Mitt Romney
“Democratic Party, where are you?”
ATTEMPTING TO glue the Chicago teachers strike to President Obama is at least a decent gambit by Team Romney. The Obama campaign through Obama campaign spokesperson Ben Labolt, as well as in the gaggle with Jay Carney, is not touching it. However, a video has surfaced to help Mitt Romney out.
What’s not widely known is that a major Hollywood film taking on the teachers unions, “Won’t Back Down,” which opens September 28, was screened at the Democratic National Convention last week (see video above). In case you didn’t already guess, the teachers union is the villain, which is driven home by Maggie Gyllenhaal’s single mother fighting for her kid.
Conventional wisdom comes from Chris Cilizza, who writes the Chicago union fight playing out could negatively effect Pres. Obama. Cilizza’s analysis revolves around the small degrees of separation between Rahm and Barack.
Staying out of state union battles is something Obama has proved he can do without consequence, including when his own team is in the middle of it. Progressives long ago decided to give Pres. Obama a pass on issues that were once dear to the Democratic Party. But could this turn into a Sister Souljah moment on unions for charter school Democrats, of which President Obama is king? Now that would be something to see and not that outlandish to posit considering his education secretary is Arne Duncan.
A scathing analysis of Duncan‘s policies in the New York Review of Books, written by Diane Ravitch in the spring of 2012.
Have Duncan’s policies strengthened public education?
No. Duncan has required states to create more privately-managed charter schools to be eligible for Race to the Top funding, putting pressure on state governments to privatize public education. In response, state legislatures are authorizing many more such schools, whose budgets are drawn from the funds of local public schools. A small proportion of these new charter schools will get high scores, and some will get those scores by skimming the top students in poor communities and by excluding children with disabilities and children who are English language learners. Such practices are harmful to public schools, which will continue to educate the overwhelming majority of students—with fewer resources than before. In some states, such as Michigan and Ohio, large numbers of charters are run for profit, which creates additional incentives for them to avoid low-performing and thus expensive to educate students. Although charters vary widely in quality, they do not produce better results on average than regular public schools. Conservative governors such as Mitch Daniels in Indiana and Bobby Jindal in Louisiana have taken Duncan’s advocacy of choice to the next level and endorsed vouchers, which further undermine public education. Despite these well-documented issues, Duncan continues to urge the expansion of the charter sector and has ignored the depredations of the for-profit charter sector. Grade: F.
How do the teachers unions and Democrats stop charter schools? I just don’t know how anyone can stop them from continuing to grow in importance. Somewhere a tipping point was reached and massive failure shown widely is the only thing that can stop them, unless a Democrat comes along who is willing to fight against charter schools and has an alternative to offer to replace them.
Emanuel’s aggressive posture in pushing for a longer school day and year, while also cutting the pay raise teachers were supposed to get last year, galvanized the union. With negotiations being watched carefully on a national basis, the soured relationship may have led union leadership to strike as a way to take a stand against Emanuel’s tactics. – Mayor: ‘This is avoidable because this is a strike of choice’
Rahm Emanuel has also stated that the strike isn’t about money. The first raise of 4% was rescinded due to an alleged budget shortfall, but was actually diverted to the police, according to reports. Health care benefits is also very much at issue, so I don’t see how Mayor Emanuel can say it’s not about money with a straight face.
Also at issue is the debate on the importance of arts and music in the curriculum. Another is 90 of schools not having playgrounds, while 160 don’t have public libraries. Then there is Mayor Emanuel aggressively supporting charter schools.
Larger class sizes, extended hours, with Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis just saying enough, with reports stating that fighting the Democratic mayor has now led to “bad blood.”
Overhauling Chicago’s public education system is Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s top priority. Will it come at the President’s expense? I just don’t see it.
President Obama has called charter schools “incubators of innovation”, which first came in his Presidential Proclamation — National Charter Schools Week, 2012.
However, for Romney to capitalize on the teachers strike in Chicago, the Democratic base would have to rear its head over Obama’s education reform ideas. Progressives haven’t balked at the grand bargain in any measurable way that threatens Obama, nor did they do much after Obama ignored the Wisconsin battle. There’s nothing to prove that anything Obama could do would move his base to help Mitt Romney get elected.
What’s in it for them if they do?
CTU strike photo via Twitter/yfrog
I guess that making $71,000/year for only 9 months of work isn’t enough for these clowns. Cry me a river.
What an uninformed comment, A teacher only gets into that salary range after years of work and lots of education. I have not seen Chicago’s salary schedule but it took me 30 years and a masters plus thirty hours to get to that point. Teachers spend years low on the salary scale and most fill in with summer jobs and many use that time to further their education.
As I understand it the Chicago teachers are stricking because of working conditions: over sized classrooms, no resourses, an extended day with no text books( did you get that NO TEXTBOOKS), no libraries, no sports, no art or music.
Joe you are buying into the propaganda that wants to make us all servants.
Since when did teachers, mail men, firemen, police and government workers become “takers” instead of vital parts of our communities? Don’t through your lot in with the so called “producers” they are ruining our country…and no I don’t mean small business owners.
Well its obvious that you don’t have a clue what they are striking for. It has nothing to do with wages, it has to do with students, class room size, social workers for students, text books in classrooms, air conditioning for older schools. One should know the facts before one shoots his mouth off.
The dismantling of public education in favor of charters not only takes us further down the road of becoming a banana republic it will serve to further dismantle our Democracy.
There are good charters and I understand the frustration of parents in failing schools but this opens the door for what conservatives have wanted all along public funding for religious schools. For profit schools are scamming people of all ages right now, one of the most agregious is owned by none other that the Washington Post ( according to my reading the money is keeping the Post alive) Fat chance we will see any decent coverage of the scandal.
What public schools in depressed inner cities need is the expansive wrap around services lavished on the the hedge fund supported ” experiments”. Any group that puts that liar ( on the level of Paul Ryan) Michelle Rhea out front is not to be trusted.
This is a bald attempt to make teachers servants with no rights.
If people are not interested in reading about education they might try reading ‘Twilight of the Elites’ by Chris Hayes. I am afraid that we have a current ruling class with zero empathy for the ordinary person and their struggles.
I agree, Lake Lady. To know that this new film was previewed at the Democratic Convention turns my stomach. What a piece of b.s. propaganda that does not reflect reality. Some of the Democrats, the “Democrats for Educational Reform” are turning their backs on the teachers and joining the bandwagon of blame. What really needs to be done to improve education for all children like modernized schools, resources and materials to learn, smaller class sizes, good learning conditions for students, good working conditions for their teachers (such as more rather than less planning time to collaborate with colleagues), etc. is completely ignored with these so called “reformers”.
Starting pay for teachers in my town, with a masters, is $29,000. Top salary after 30+ years is $59,000. When our society goes after the teachers it proves to me that we are truly on the road “to dumbing down America.” I can’t imagine what the future holds for this country if we can’t educate our young. The problem has always been that our society does not look at teachers as professionals. My daughter, a teacher in another state, has bachelor and master degrees. What does that make her? She is compelled to take continuing education courses at her own expense, buys her own supplies for her classes, and get this, purchased $600 worth of books this year because her school couldn’t fund the book requirements.
As an afterthought – our Sanitation and other municipal workers start at higher pay than our teachers. Most of these jobs require only a high school diploma. Go figure. I have nothing against sanitation workers but there’s something wrong when you don’t want to pay teachers as professionals, and you pay high school graduates more money than a teacher with 2 degrees. BTW – we have 7 teachers in our system with Ph.ds.
I hear you, Jane Austen. Over the course of my 30 year teaching career I bet I spent at least $15,000 (probably $20,000) doing the same as your daughter, and I did it happily so my students could have materials to use.
This is a perfect opportunity for Mr. Obama. He has Rahmbo to use as his foil. Mr. Emanuel, for fiscal reasons, has to and will break the Union. Mr Obama, can support the Union, verbally at least – no need to put on his ‘comfy shoes’, and shore up his base knowing that it is out of his control.
Obama is not an innocent bystander in all of this, either. He’s right in there with the corporate Democrats like Rahm. This is the one area I think he has made a very big mistake in his policy. But he doesn’t want you to know it in an election year. If you thought No Child Left Behind was bad, Race to the Top emphasizes and requires more testing than ever before. Teachers’ jobs will depend on it – in my former district, 40% of teachers’ evaluations will be determined by these tests. It’s so unfair and the methodology varies widely, as Diane Ravitch has pointed out many times.
One area?
Sorry, but Pres. Obama’s rightward economic shift has set this up perfectly for the charter school advocates and others wanting to bust the teachers unions.
Progressives enabled this all along for never holding the President accountable.
I know everyone jumped on JoeCHI for making that comment, but you better embrace that it’s going to take a formidable front line to break that talking point down. Watch what the media does around it.
The stage has been set for this since Wisconsin when it was made clear that the Democratic Party would walk away from unions with their choice of Barrett, which allowed Obama easily to do the same.
It’s a fact, the average salary for Chicago teachers is $71,000.
And whats your problem with teachers making a decent wage for the work they do? In this day and age $71,000 doesn’t go very far if you are trying to raise a family. Teachers have a very important job in this country trying to teach are children to have a decent education and be good citizens.
Why would anyone want to short change are educators, when our kids will have to compete in a global economy? I find people with your mindset very short sighted, and would trash our already troubled education system just to make some political point. Sad.
JoeCHI,
That’s after 25 years of teaching, at least in my area. I made $80,000 after 30 years (that’s with advanced degrees) – started out at $10,000 when my friends in computers and engineering started out at 16 – 20,000 in the late ’70′s. Nobody complained about teacher salaries back then. Actually, when the economy is good people don’t really complain about it – only when things get bad and then private is pitted against public employees. Teachers are taxpayers, too …. as well as parents. Most of them I know are working the hardest they ever have, are under a tremendous amount of pressure, and actually do a good job in challenging times with challenging situations.
I know, Taylor.
Diane Ravitch asks some relevant questions on her blog: http://dianeravitch.net/2012/09/10/an-open-letter-to-the-white-house/
“Does President Obama truly want to stop the odious practice of teaching to the test? Will he explain how teachers can avoid teaching to the test if their pay and their job depends on student test scores?” Diane Ravitch
Don’t we teach our children how to think? Is that why they have to be taught to the test? What happened to the idea of critical thinking? I’m convinced that all we’re doing with our kids is teaching them how to be robots. What happens to a nation when its people have lost the ability to think critically? This is scarey to me.