“Rahm and I have not agreed on every issue or on a lot of issues, but Mayor Emanuel is right today in saying that this teacher’s union strike is unnecessary and wrong.” – Paul Ryan
IT’S THE POLITICAL play of the union story so far and the one Mitt Romney should have made, but couldn’t figure out. It catapults Paul Ryan yet again as being the smart man on the ticket.
Meanwhile, progressive historian Rick Perlstein offers the Democratic cry: “Stand Against Rahm!”
Ryan’s quote comes from the pool report:
If you turned on the TV this morning or sometime today, you probably saw something about the Chicago teacher’s union strike. I’d like to make a couple of comments about that because it does matter. I’ve known Rahm Emanuel for years. He’s a former colleague of mine. Rahm and I have not agreed on every issue or on a lot of issues, but Mayor Emanuel is right today in saying that this teacher’s union strike is unnecessary and wrong. We know that Rahm is not going to support our campaign, but on this issue and this day we stand with Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
We stand with the children and we stand with the families and the parents of Chicago because education reform, that’s a bipartisan issue. This does not have to divide the two parties. And so, we were going to ask, where does President Obama stand? Does he stand with his former Chief of Staff Mayor Rahm Emanuel, with the children and the parents, or does he stand with the union? On issues like this, we need to speak out and be really clear. In a Romney-Ryan administration we will not be ambiguous, we will stand with education reform, we will champion bipartisan education reforms. This is a critical linchpin to the future of our country, to our economy, to make sure that our children go to the best possible school, and that education reforms revolve around the parents and the child, not the special interest group. This is something that’s critical for all of us.
It also illustrates the importance of Ryan maintaining his independence while he benefits from being chosen as Romney’s vice presidential nominee, guarding against going down in flames with him whenever the boss screws up, which is more often than he can afford against a candidate like Barack Obama.
Lots of Chicago Democrats agree with Rahm and Ryan, here.
You know what I think? I think that assertion has more to do with your own beliefs than any actual evidence.
And you know that how? Got a link for that assumption or are you just making it up? It goes without saying that people are not happy about a teachers strike, but that doesn’t tell us that they agree with Rham and Ryan.
Well given the dispute:
•The city first offered an 8 percent raise over the next 4 years and it was rejected. Their current offer is a 16 percent pay raise. The union wants a 25-29 percent raise.
•The city wants school principals to have final say on the hiring and firing of teachers. The union insists it should have final say. The union argues the city will simply hire non-union teachers in public schools and eliminate the union via attrition.
•The city wants a new teacher evaluation tool. Current testing passes virtually all teachers, good and bad. The union doesn’t want anything related to ‘pay for performance’ or ‘teacher testing’
It’s hard to see how anyone would support the demands of the Union.
The half of my family living in Chicago (who have children in Chi-Town Public Schools) say the issue they see is very large class sizes. At the elementary school my younger sister has two children in, the class has 34 students in it. And that’s across the school. There have been many school shutdowns in Chi-Town which has compounded the issue. There have been times that scheduling a parent/teacher conference has been impossible due to the large sizes and number of parents wanting them. My sister bought $150 worth of school supplies for her son’s 4th grade class since they are running out of everything. Teachers are like, “I have to teach in conditions like this then maybe I need more pay since I have to buy my own supplies too”.
That’s on the ground. I wish these issues weren’t so political so we can TRULY evaluate what the problem is and get to an equitable solution.
1.” •The city first offered an 8 percent raise over the next 4 years and it was rejected. Their current offer is a 16 percent pay raise. The union wants a 25-29 percent raise.”
WOW! 4 whole cents per dollar a year…how lavish, how generous…NOT!
2.”•The city wants school principals to have final say on the hiring and firing of teachers. The union insists it should have final say. The union argues the city will simply hire non-union teachers in public schools and eliminate the union via attrition.”
Well for one thing Principals, so long as they have legitimate reasons HAVE final say over hiring and firing. The Union can fight it but so long as the Principal hasn’t followed THE CONTRACT.
3.”•The city wants a new teacher evaluation tool. Current testing passes virtually all teachers, good and bad.
“Current testing passes virtually all teachers, good and bad.” bullshit. How about a source for that bilge. I won’t hold my breath.
4.” The union doesn’t want anything related to ‘pay for performance’ or ‘teacher testing’”
When teachers are given students who come from well fed, well cared for and parent supportive households I might go for this…but as it stands now this is utter bullshit. Teachers have to be social workers as well as disciplinarians before they even START to teach. Teachers spend literally THOUSANDS of dollars of their own money…you know, that pay YOU want them. to get 4 whole cents on the dollar raise
5.”It’s hard to see how anyone would support the demands of the Union.”
When the reality of how hard Teachers work and the stress they put up with is compared to the MODEST demands they are making it is hard to see how anyone but an out of touch with reality repugnantklaner/teabagg9ing/UBERChristian know nothing moron would be against it….wait a second…oh yeah, that’s why you are against it. But what about Rahm?
Rahm is a corporatist Democrat who said in so many words exactly where he wants Progressives to go when he was Chief of Staff. He is a perfect representation of the Modern Democratic Party- for Unions on election day and no other time. This should surprise nobody.
The Party of FDR and Truman is long, long gone. This ash heap is what’s left. “Forward?” No thanks- I can see the destination, and I don’t want to go there.
Everything that I posted, since you asked for a source, came from Ezra Klein’s Wonkblog over at the Washington Post site. The title of the post is, “Everything that you need to know about the Chicago Teachers’ strik in one blog post”. Unlike yourself, I actually try to read a little about an issue before I post, so why don’t you go over to the Washington Post and argue the points with Dylan Matthews.
Moron? Always with the name calling. You must have some compromising pictures of Ms. Marshall because your online etiquette is quite offensive and generally adds little to the debate.
Nice of you to own the title. Now who is Ms. Marshall? As for my on line etiquette….awwwwww, did da mean ol man talk mean an stuff to ya? Bite me.
Michelle Marshall is the writer of this blog.
As for the notion that your ‘man talk’ is personally
Personally offensive, are you going to call me a ‘homo’ next. Most have learned how pitiful ad hominem insults appear on an annonous web blog, but you still persist.
You’re projecting again dear.
A conservative client of mind (and growing friend) was full of joy this morning. He happily said “The Chicago Teacher’s Strike is going to hand Romney the election!” When I asked how he simply said:
Obama is Chicago. Chicago is Obama. When it goes bad for him there, his entire campaign goes bad.
HMMM… I didn’t know that the goings-on in a incumbent’s home city and campaign HQ decides is national election chances. Oh I see what Paul Ryan is doing here. The ol’ “see we have prominent Democrats that agree with us and we can work together to fix it” play. Try to force the hand of President Obama to come out and say he’s either for or against unions/for or against Rahm. I don’t see this as a game-changer for Team Romney. Probably has Obama uncomfortable but his watery union kinda support hasn’t killed him yet.
I agree with you Taylor. I see this as a Ryan moment. Showing that he quick on the uptake and connected in to hit with some zingers. And shows Romney as being, shall we say, ponderous? McCain may have been older but he wouldn’t have missed a moment like this if it dropped on his plate. Ol’ Romney is a weird dude at times. Maybe he just saving up for the debates… I guess.
Rahm is Walker. Rahm is Christie.
Stand & Fight. On this I’m with the teachers.
Solidarity forever!!
Damn right. This is Union-busting, pure and simple.
And we are getting the usual “greedy Unions!” crap from the Republicans- and now the Democrats, too.
Just another piece of evidence to add to the pile- the parties do not stand with organized labor. Organized labor should wake up and stop standing with the parties.
There is a much deeper issue that no one is really paying attention to and that is the steady privatization of the Public Schools. I’m going to leave it alone for now because I really think that Joyce can get granular on the subject and do a better job of it. I will note that there is no separation between BHO and Rahmbo on the subject of Charter Schools and the undermining of the Public School system. Both are BHO and his former Chief Of Staff are equally evil on the subject.
http://www.alternet.org/education/why-chicago-teachers-strike-really-about-better-schools
just in case anyone wanted a more accurate picture of what’s going on.
1.”•The city first offered an 8 percent raise over the next 4 years and it was rejected. Their current offer is a 16 percent pay raise. The union wants a 25-29 percent raise.”
The Blog post says NOTHING about the Union wanting a 25 to 29% pay raise. It DOES mention that the school board BROKE the existing contract by NOT paying an already agreed to and ratified raise though.
2.”•The city wants school principals to have final say on the hiring and firing of teachers. The union insists it should have final say. The union argues the city will simply hire non-union teachers in public schools and eliminate the union via attrition.”
TOTAL misrepresents what is said in the blog regarding hiring of laid off teachers.
3″•The city wants a new teacher evaluation tool. Current testing passes virtually all teachers, good and bad. The union doesn’t want anything related to ‘pay for performance’ or ‘teacher testing’”
Again total bullshit….do you write for Lyin Ryan or what?
It’s hard to see how anyone would support the demands of the Union.
“It’s hard to see how anyone would support the demands of the Union.”
If people who are actually involved in and affected by this strike support the Union, and a thread up page points that fact out….I guess the real question is how hard it is for trolls to pump dishonest bilge and expect sane folks to swallow it.