Chicago Teachers Union

I happened to take a look at the Chicago Teachers Union's website tonight and found this new reason why I fear for the future of this City.  Time and again, the only thing I see coming out of the CTU is a complete set of misplaced priorities.  Instead of discussing how they intend to improve their product (namely teaching), the CTU repeatedly whines and complains about how oppressed they have been by the City school board.  The following, from their President, is just another example of the fact that the CTU is a failed organization.

CTU must unite for fight with CPS against its program of union-busting No one likes a fight, but sometimes you just have to take off the gloves and get down to bare-knuckle fisticuffs to get your point across. That’s where I am with the Board of Education these days. Renaissance 2010, a new staff discipline code, new enforcement procedures for residency, it’s all adding up to more than this Union can take. If it’s a fight the board and administration are looking for, then we’re ready to give it to them. The board has been like a hungry shark smelling blood in the water ever since the first disastrous contract of 2003 was put before our members and rejected. CEO Arne Duncan and his cohorts recognized that the Union’s former leadership didn’t have the support of a majority of the members, so they went to work to take advantage of the situation. First they forced a horrible health care package down our throats, and then they began their implementation plans for Renaissance 2010 — a comprehensive program for the dismantling of public education as we have known it in Chicago for more than a hundred years. Oh so you want to maintain a system that has completely failed its children and parents by creating a permanent underclass in Chicago? That's nice... Though there is indication that some of the former Union officers may have known it was coming, Renaissance 2010 caught the rest of us by complete surprise. We had been led to believe that the Union and the board were working together on a number of fronts, including a new early retirement incentive; no warning ever was given, at House of Delegates meetings or elsewhere, that the potential closing of 100 public schools in Chicago was on the horizon. An early retirement incentive?  You have gotta be kidding me.  Members of the CTU retire early every single day of the school year.  They only are in school until 2:30 in the afternoon!  Further, what does an early retirement incentive have to do with teaching children or improving education?  Nothing. As you are well aware, the discontent with the previous Union officers led to four slates of candidates seeking election last Spring. It was another clear message to the board that the leadership had lost control. And again the board took advantage of the situation. This time they began their tightening of staff discipline procedures, making the daily work lives of our teachers increasingly more difficult. Meanwhile, the Renaissance 2010 plans continued to progress and anti-Union bureaucrats found new ways to create not only more charter schools but also the highly suspect “contract schools.” anti-Union bureaucrats?  Isn't that an oxymoron?  I especially like the line about the "highly suspect 'contract schools.'"  The CTU probably finds these 'contract schools' highly suspect because the teachers at these schools actually care about educating. The final element of encouragement for the board to take on the Union came after last June’s run-off election, when the former officers refused to listen to the voice of the members and give up their posts. Instead, they attempted to tarnish the reputation of our organization by false and misleading accusations of voter fraud. All they succeeded in doing, of course, was costing the Union money and its reputation. Mr. Duncan and his crowd really saw their opportunity then. They pulled out all the stops in a last ditch effort to undermine the effectiveness of the Chicago Teachers Union and to subject our members to conditions that are totally unacceptable. Well, it’s time they wake up to the fact that this Union has been a symbol of workers’ strength in this city for nearly 70 years — that’s a lot longer than any mayor has been in office, any school board member has been in office, or any CEO of the Chicago Public Schools has been in office. This is not an organization that rolls over and takes it. We know how to fight and when to fight and we have the fortitude and strength to go the whole route. This administration of the Chicago Teachers Union is committed to leading our members from a position of strength, not from one of empty rhetoric. Mr. Duncan needs to recognize that here at the CTU, “there’s a new sheriff in town!” Ms. Stewart claims the CTU teachers are the new sheriff in town...I'd be real scared until I realized that the new sheriff in town only works six hours a day with two planning periods and recess.  Rather than claiming to be a symbol of workers' strength in Chicago for over seventy years, it would be nice if the CTU was actually a symbol of successful educational opportunities for Chicago's children.  That, of course, would be way too much to ask. Of course, the other officers and I would prefer to work out our differences with the board and its administrators without a big public display of disharmony. We think there are avenues for finding solutions to the problems the CPS faces without engaging in teacher layoffs, union busting, or privatization. We think we can help Mr. Duncan and his staff, if he is willing to open the door to true collaboration. The ball is in his court. He knows our telephone number. Despite threatening Mr. Duncan with "bare-knuckle fisticuffs" and comparing the school board to a consciousless predator who "smells blood in the water" on a public website, Ms. Stewart now claims that she wants to work out their problems without a public display of disharmony.  That is pretty brazen.  Then, ironically, she says, "the ball is in [Mr. Duncan's] court."  In fact, this is not the case.  The ball is in the CTU's court.  Rather than presenting a viable counterproposal to Mr. Duncan's Rennaissance 2010 initiative for improving educational opportunities and results for students, the CTU is content to stand on the sidelines and complain that they are not getting early retirement.  What a crock. Meanwhile, the CTU will be locking arms with ever increasing numbers of other organizations in fighting Renaissance 2010 at every turn. We will give our members the facts and tools they need to pop the public relations bubble that the CPS and Mayor Richard M. Daley have created in calling this program a “reform” of public education. And we will continue our efforts to restore unity to our Union, to create a greater spirit of solidarity than we have seen decades, and to guarantee that no more of the hard-earned rights of our members are eroded. Are you listening, Mr. Duncan? And after all that, not a single mention of improving education or making sure that Chicago's schoolchildren can finally read at grade level.  The CTU is so hypocritical in demanding accountability from Arne Duncan and the board for their early retirement packages while, at the same time, resisting all calls for increased accountability from Chicago's teachers for the educational advancement of Chicago's children.  Are you listening Ms. Stewart?

Marilyn Stewart President, Chicago Teachers Union   see President's Message at the CTU website. Tre

Comments

[BRI]

Tre, based on you attack on the Chicago Teacher's Unions, either it is a slow news day or you have been listening to too much Charlie Sykes. I do not want to be put in the role of defending the CTU because I do not know enough about the situation. If you feel like bashing Wisconsin teachers, however, you will really get my ire up.

In the end, attacking teachers, especially those in an urban environment is the easy way out. The true parties that need to be held accountable are the parents of the failing children. Also, to claim that the CTU is a system that has created "a permanent underclass" is laughable. Were the Chicago schools failing in 40s and 50s, prior to the decay of the city? Also, I am sure that discrimination prior to the 70s, loss of economic opportunities, creation of a welfare state, rise in one-parent households (especially if the parent is a child herself, and the advent of crack gangs are not only more likely reasons for the permanent underclass and probably the reason the Chicago School is having many of its problems.

Also, perhaps, in the spirit of full disclosure you should reveal your connection with the "contract schools" and their teachers that "actually care about educating."

[RAM]

BRI,

While I have no intention of debating the source of the problems with America's urban public schools with you & Tre, I have to agree with Tre's primary criticism of Ms. Stewart -- i.e., that she is more concerned with maintaining the status quo FOR ITS OWN SAKE than actually doing something to improve the quality of public education in Chicago. One needs to look no farther than her "President's Message" -- a screed that lambasts the City, the School Board, and every non-CTU educator in the City for the new reform proposals, but offers NO SIGNIFICANT COUNTERPROPOSAL. Essentially, as best as I can tell, her argument boils down to: "Renaissance 2010 -- and any other "reforms" -- are bad for Chicago schools because they are bad for the Union." NO MENTION OF THE EFFECTS SUCH REFORMS MAY HAVE ON EDUCATION, CHILDREN, NEIGHBORHOODS, etc. When a union -- any union -- sees its #1 mission to be its own self-preservation at the expense of the people it serves and the people its members serve, I believe that union has overstayed its usefulness. If you ask me, my money's with the people who are actually trying to DO something, rather than with the people who just b*tch and moan about change.

That's my two cents, anyway...

P.S. Take a stroll through the CTU's website. Try to find where the actual education of Chicago's children is discussed. You're not gonna see a whole lot of ink (pixels?) wasted on THAT subject. But, thankfully, the poor, down-trodden CTU members can enjoy discounted White Sox tickets & free passes to the IMAX at Navy Pier...Phew...for a minute there, I thought the schools were sweatshops...

[RAM]

P.P.S. "In the interest of full disclosure," I edited the above post at approximately 11:15 a.m. CST today to correct some formatting errors inherent in the HTML. I did not change any of Tre's content, however.

[Matthew]

Thank you RAM for fixing the formatting. I had that all messed up.

My main point is not necessarily to criticize teachers in general (although I admittedly did try to get away with a little hyperbole). I think that most teachers teach because they truly want to make a difference in children's lives. To this observer, the main problem arises when the teachers union gets involved. With the CTU in particular, it is no longer about educating or improving the product. Instead, the focus becomes, what can the teachers get. That is not the correct focus in any school district, particularly one that has underperformed for so long.

With respect to your criticism about blaming teachers for the ills of urban public education, I agree that parents, legislators and administrators certainly share part of blame. However, this post was written in response to the CTU President's open letter to the membership which virtually declared war on Arne Duncan for proposing to do some things different and better.

P.S. It was a pretty slow news day...

tre