My friend Mike, a CPS high school special ed teacher, sent out a letter that summed up the current CPS/CTU mess most compellingly. In fact I couldn't get it out of my head all afternoon. Here it is.
Hello all,
I really hope that you have heard by now that the Chicago Teacher's Union, the CTU, is striking. This is the third largest school district in the country. Thirty-thousand teachers, aides, and clerks have walked off their jobs teaching 400,000 children. I am not a union rep, nor have I been enthusiastic about the CTU in my nine years with Chicago Public Schools. I have been participating in the strike, though, going to every picket and rally called, and I feel I should give my take on what is going on.
First off, this thing is not about the money. Most teachers are pretty smart people and know when the government is cash strapped. There are serious questions about how CPS runs its books, but I don't think the average striking teacher was thinking we would get a substantial pay raise this contract. I think most have been pleasantly surprised (and deeply suspicious) about the size of the pay increase that has leaked out of negotiations.
What this thing is about is anger and frustration. I can say that a good summarization of the attitude at the rallies is "I've been working for CPS in schools where the plaster is crumbling off the walls, 107 teachers share one photocopier, where a whiteboard is considered cutting edge technology, with a class size of up to 40 students that walk into school after dealing with poverty, homelessness, violence, and gangs. Fine. We'll do what we can despite CPS's criminal stinginess when it comes to providing special education services and hiring counselors, aides, social workers, even school nurses. What we are sick of is constantly being threatened that, if we don't fix these kid's academic problems and get them up to a national norm, CPS will fire the entire school to either "turn it around," or hand it over to a Charter operation."
That is technically a "job security" issue, but it feels more like we are being scapegoated for much bigger social failings than we have control over. That is why we are angry. That is why teachers are hitting the streets. Ironically, that issue in only indirectly being discussed in the negotiations.
The links below are to relatively brief summaries of the strike and the contentious issues from unbiased (or pro-union if you are anti-union) viewpoints.
I am asking you to support our strike. The "liberal" media has been downright lying about the strike--the issues, the motivations, even the size of the rallies downtown--and, except for at the rallies and picket lines, we are feeling pretty lonely in this thing. If you live in Chicago, call your alderman, email Rahm, come to one of the rallies. There will be one, somewhere, probably in Union Park at Lake and Ashland, Saturday at noon. If you live in Illinois, email or call Governor Quinn. If you don't live in Illinois, call anybody, call Obama's White House, tell him to rein in his former chief of staff.
For the record, the rallies are kind of fun, in an inconvenient sort of way. Picketing, on the other hand, sucks. I'll send out pictures from the events when I sort out my relationship with technology.
Thanks,
Mike Marren
12 years Special Education teacher, 9 at Roosevelt High School on Chicago's NW side.
|
2 comments:
The teachers are angry because they want more money and are trying to bs everyone saying that they do not. It's ridiculous.
"Teachers" are putting the almighty dollar in front of children.
Sorry- but Chicago's children are failing because the teachers don't care. I have a niece crying because she loves school so much and wants to go back yet the money keeps her out.
Some education system we have in Chicago- it should all be dismantled and redone after you dissolve the teachers union.
If "teachers" wanted to get paid like doctors or lawyers then maybe they shouldn't have gone into teaching a.k.a. milking the system in Chicago- they should have gone to school to become the doctor or lawyer. I think 76,000 a year for teachers is amazing considering you are failing our kids.
Sorry you guys will lose this in the court of public opinion. Thankfully I live in the suburbs..if I lived in the city my kids would be in a private school.
Thank you for sharing your comment. I was in the same place you are until just a few days ago. The media like to dumb things down and report them in the most galvanizing, unbalanced way possible. But for most CPS teachers, it isn't all about the money. It's about the basics that allow them to do their jobs properly, like enough textbooks on the first day of class, reasonable class sizes (eg less than 40 kids in a classroom), or being careful about how to judge student performance so that a teacher's rating isn't hijacked by a student's home/environment factors completely out of their control. I agree that it's a mess, and a shame for the kids, but it's definitely far more complex than it's been made out to be.
Post a Comment