One Year Ago: CTU Strike September 2012

One year ago today the Chicago Teachers Union went on strike. 

We had set a strike date for September 10. The night before the strike we were at CTU headquarters meeting with the board for negotiations. I remember they came to us at almost 10 p.m. and asked us to postpone any action, return to work the next day and continue negotiating. I remember being extremely mad at that point.

We had been in negotiations for a whole year already. The board never took us seriously, in my opinion, until we took our strike authorization vote and over 90% of members said yes. The tone of negotiations changed after that. It was too late, however, to ask us to back down at 10 o'clock the night before we said we would strike.

All of us in the room were on our phones activating our phone trees and putting into action something we had organized for months. We would be on the picket lines early the next morning. Mayor Emanuel went on the news and said that we were conducting a "strike of choice." Most strikes are by choice Mr. Mayor.

We did make some choices. We chose not to be bullied anymore. We chose to stand up for public education in Chicago. We chose to fight for the idea that all of our schools deserve good conditions so that our students can succeed. Our choices protect and defend. We did choose to go on strike. It was the right choice.

The mayor and the board have made choices too. They chose to close 54 schools. They chose to open more charters and increase funding to current ones. They chose to contract with TFA to bring in more wanna be teachers to add a bullet point to their resumes. They chose to slash budgets and cut teaching positions. They're choices harm and destroy.

We're still here, though. We still choose to fight.

Trumbull School Officially Closing

On Tuesday, a federal judge denied an injunction to halt the closing of Trumbull Elementary School in Andersonville. Trumbull is now officially closing. On Wednesday, CPS had the moving vans outside Trumbull. I'm sure this was probably just a continuation of inventory already being moved out.

As part of the CPS destruction of public schools Trumbull was declared underutilized. A lawsuit was filed on behalf of two students with disabilities. The suit claimed CPS incorrectly used the utilization formula at Trumbull because it did not take into account the high special education population at the school. The building was found to be underutilized by CPS. According to the Trumbull Local School Council, however, when state and federal mandated guidelines for special education are used Trumbull is at 88% utilization. See there report here.

The closing of Trumbull will affect three other area schools; Chappell, McPherson and McCutcheon. Those are the schools Trumbull's students will be officially moved to. It would seem that Pierce and the Stockton/Courtenay merger, which are two other area schools, could possibly be affected also. There are also concerns about "safe passage" to the receiving schools. The crossing of busy streets, continued construction on Lawrence Avenue between Ashland and Western, renovation to the Metra line along Ravenswood and gang activity east of Clark Street have all been mentioned as issues.

As a resident of the Andersonville/Ravenswood/Uptown area I have heard much discussion of what will happen to the building located on the northwest corner of Ashland and Foster. There are concerns that it will be converted to a charter school. Others worry that it will be converted into loft apartments or worse just sit there vacant for years. According to CPS Chief Administrative Officer Tim Cawley CPS has failed to sell off the buildings from last years closings. The neighborhood fears another huge vacant and abandoned building like Edgewater Hospital which closed in December of 2001 and still sits there.

I share two more pictures from Trumbull with you. First, the traditional elementary school name attached to the traditional wrought iron fence of CPS schools. The second picture is a banner hung up recently. Watching the fight of Trumbull parents and students for their school I feel they really do believe "Once a Charger, Always a Charger." 

Fun Stuff This Week.

I have been out of town for a week and so I haven't posted anything for a while. Had an enjoyable vacation with my daughter as we celebrated her birthday.

This week there is some fun stuff happening. Tonight there is a free screening and panel of the film "United States of ALEC." ALEC stands for the American Legislative Exchange Council. It is a group that helps to lobby the interests of corporations and other right wing groups. ALEC helped get the Stand Your Ground law passed in Florida. If your interested here is a link you can use to register. Sorry for the short notice.

Tomorrow there will be a protest against ALEC outside of the Palmer House. ALEC is having its 40th anniversary conference in downtown Chicago. Let's get down there and wish them a happy birthday, Chicago style. I will be there right after my CTU Special Education Committee meeting. The special education committee is really dedicated as we planned to meet before the school year even starts. I love those guys. Here is a link with info about the protest.

On Friday, I will have the pleasure of meeting social justice teacher union activists from around the country. Delegations from around the country will come to Chicago to discuss social justice teacher unionism and try to set a national agenda for activism. Groups from NYC, Los Angeles, Detroit, Milwaukee and Kansas City just to name a few will be here. It should be awesome. You can read a letter here from Julie Cavanagh who ran for UFT President this past school year and will be in attendance. CORE will be hosting some social functions for those who are interested. More info on that under upcoming events on the CORE website.

Finally, Saturday is the 84th annual Bud Billiken Back to School Parade. CTU will be marching as usual. After the parade meet CTU behind Dyett High School near the parking lot for a picnic. Dyett H.S. is located at 555 E. 51st Street. Here is a link for the parade.

Hope to see people out at these events.

I Now Have a Teenager. Pray for Me.

Today is my daughter's birthday. She is now 13. Officially a teenager. Although she has been of teenage mind for a while now. It's interesting to me to see my daughter as a teen. As someone who has taught teens for many years I have seen what the next few years may hold. Lots of issues for teenage girls, nowadays. There's always boys too.

I'm not to worried. She is a strong young woman. She has made it through a lot of trials and tribulations. She is compassionate and caring. She roots for the underdog. She is not shy and she has an infectious laugh. Through all of her showings of maturity though, I find those moments when she seems like a little kid again the best. Seeing her watch old episodes of Arthur for instance. Always one of our favorites.

I remember when she was little and she did something that frustrated me or made me mad. I would say to myself, "I can't wait for you to get older." Those days are now upon me. It's funny because now sometimes I catch myself saying, "I wish you were younger again." There's no going back now though. We have entered a next stage in life for my daughter and for me.

I look forward to it. High school is right around the corner and lots of other cool stuff that will one day be memories to look back at and laugh or cry about. So do pray for me. For Us. I don't think it would hurt. Anyway, Happy Birthday Mari. I love you.

Rob the Neighborhoods to Pay the Charters

A recent poll conducted by Hart Research Associates found that out of 1,000 parents surveyed, 61% are opposed to the closing of low-performing schools. The poll also found that over 3/4 of the respondents are against cutting resources for the classroom while increasing spending on charter schools. Further reading about the poll can be found here. 

All parents want quality schools in their neighborhoods. Their children should be able to walk to a quality school. They should be able to walk in and attend not have to test to get in. They should be able to attend the school and get a broad and rich curriculum without fear of being "counseled" out for lack of academic success.

This poll regarding money and charters comes on the heels of CPS closing over fifty neighborhood schools and slashing neighborhood school budgets by at least $68 million. The Sun-Times released this graphic the other day that compares charter school budget gains and neighborhood school budget losses. This is pretty clear.

Two new UNO charters get $4.9 and $4.5 million right off the bat. While long established neighborhood high schools Kelly and Curie lose $4 million each in the upcoming school year. CICS and Noble Street will each get an increase of over $3 million while Fenger, Phillips and Kelvyn Park, which have been continually starved over the years, all lose over $3 million.

In all, charters/contract schools received an increase of close to $78 million dollars according to Raise Your Hand Illinois. It seems CPS has pulled the old "rob Peter to pay Paul." This time however, they have robbed the neighborhoods to pay the charters.

Pensions and Denial

Today's Tribune has a story that has Mayor Emanuel blaming the CPS closings and the city's reduced bond rating once again on pensions. He says:

If anyone doubted the severity of the pension problems, the mayor said Sunday, last week's events should serve as something of a "wake-up call." 

"Denial," he said, "is not a long-term strategy."

Denial. An interesting word choice. Especially as he relates it to a long-term strategy. CPS denied payment to the pension fund for a long term. Between 1995 and 2005 CPS collected more than $2 billion in pension tax revenue but contributed nothing to the pension fund. Meanwhile, the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund (CTPF) members contributed 9% from every paycheck every two weeks. The problem does not rest with member's contributions or pensioner benefits.

The average CTPF retiree gets a pension of $42,000 per year. They are not eligible for social security. Pensions are a contract and a promise made to teachers. For most it will be their only means of living after they retire. To pull that from people that have dedicated their lives to teaching this city's children and to blame it on those same people is inhuman. 

The mayor and CPS have been given several suggestions about how to increase revenue. Changing TIF funding, closing corporate tax loopholes, ending toxic bank swaps, introducing a financial transaction tax and a progressive income tax system have been ignored by the mayor, CPS and the state. Even the Tribune and Sun-Times say they should at least be looked at.

Mayor Emanuel should consider these strategies and should be pushing for every source of revenue he can get for our schools and city. After all, "Denial is not a long-term strategy."

CPS Attacks Continue

Today, CPS is expected to layoff over 2,000 school based employees. According to CTU, 1,074 teachers, 451 paraprofessionals and 550 other employees will receive pink slips from CPS. This in spite of all the rhetoric from CPS and Mayor Rahm Emanuel that budget cuts will be as far away from the classroom as possible. Since most of them have never been in a classroom since they were themselves students, perhaps they forgot that teachers and paraprofessional are in the classroom. They also seem to forget that they just instituted a longer school year and now can't fund it or staff it.

These cuts, along with close to 850 positions lost to the school closings/consolidations/turnarounds, will adversely affect our students in Chicago. A loss of teachers will definitely lead to higher class sizes. I predict, at the high school level, that principals will be asking teachers if they will teach a sixth class to help keep class size down. Guilt will be used as a tactic to get teachers to do this. Teachers would of course get paid for the sixth class because it is after all cheaper to pay for an extra class than an extra teacher. Teaching six classes is tough, though. Many teachers can do it but at some point it does wear on the teacher. Is that good for students? Planning time is also affected which is also a negative for students.

A couple of things really bother me about these budget cuts and school based personnel layoffs. With all of these teacher layoffs coming, CPS at last months board meeting gave Teach for America (TFA) an increase in the amount spent on hiring TFA teachers. This amount increased from $600,000 in 2012-13 to $1,587,500 for 2013-14. You can read about that here. 

If CPS knew the layoffs were coming, and they've known for awhile that they were, why would they increase the amount of money for hiring TFA? Because CPS and the mayor want a cheaper disposable workforce for the future. They want TFA personnel who will stay for two years and then move on and then CPS will hire more 2 year wonders and so on and so on. I don't know what is more insulting. That CPS and the mayor think the students of Chicago deserve a "peace corps" style teaching force or that CPS sees teachers in Chicago as a "peace corps" of sorts.

I also think it is shameful that CPS continues to blame their budget deficit, not that I believe they really have one, on teacher pensions. If CPS has anything wrong it's that they have a revenue problem. TIFs, toxic swaps with banks and corporate tax loopholes deprive our students and schools of billions of dollars every year. I and every teacher I know has never missed a pension payment. It comes straight out of our paychecks. CPS chose to take several pension holidays and now it has caught up with them. Don't cut resources, close schools, layoff staff and try to destroy our pensions for your mistakes. It's typical CPS though. They make a huge mess and then it's those of us in the schools that get stuck cleaning it up.