IEA’s Prez finds common ground with Senator Meeks. And finds areas of disagreement.
IEA Prez Ken Swanson
Reverend Senator James Meeks.
Sunday’s anti-union blast from the Chicago Tribune suddenly found a way to praise Senator Meeks when just a year ago it was damning him. IEA Prez Ken Swanson responds:
We cannot support Sen. Meeks’ proposal for school vouchers; taking resources away from public schools will only hurt the students in the system. But we understand the frustration that has caused him to seek alternative solutions to the Illinois school funding crisis.
As a union, we stand with Sen. Meeks and with every other Illinois policymaker who supports the basic right for every student, no matter where that student lives, to attend a great public school.
We stand with Sen. Meeks against those politicians who prize power above principle, whose energies are devoted to the next election while ignoring the funding crisis that has damaged generations of children.
We agree with Sen. Meeks that the time has come for the government of our state to take care of the students and give them the opportunity to succeed.
The weather was mild when we left Chicago. It is cloudy, windy and chilly in New York. It feels like November.
I visited the NY public high school where one of my daughters teach. It is an old, but bright and busy (even though I arrived after classes were done) neighborhood school. The neighborhood’s kids aren’t rich. Its hallways are filled with photographs of smiling teachers and students. A committed principal, many enthusiastic teachers with a range of experience and a range of years of teaching have made it a good place for kids. It’s not perfect and there’s no wall that keeps the struggles of the outside world from creeping inside its doors. But its not a charter school or privately managed. No billion dollar benefactor decides its curriculum. Its teachers are members of a union and work with a contract that is collectively bargained. Even that isn’t perfect, but it beats the hell out of the alternative. Its students are not selectively admitted or forced to enter a lottery to be let in the door. It is a school I would be pleased to send my own kids to. And isn’t that the ultimate test?
Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE):
The Tribune’s Sunday editorial featured a scorching attack on the National Education Association based on a You Tube video in which a retiring NEA lawyer states that the union’s top priority is protecting its members.
Yes, that is what unions do, much to the dissatisfaction of the Tribune, whose editors went on to gleefully conclude that educating children is not the NEA’s top priority, though the lawyer also says that “closing achievement gaps, reducing dropout rates, improving teacher quality and the like…are the goals that guide the work we do.”
The Trib was clued into this “gotcha” video by the Rev. Sen. James Meeks, who recently stated at Operation PUSH that the Chicago Teachers Union is the worst gang in Chicago. So, following the old adage that the enemy of your enemy is your friend, the Trib now totally loves Meeks.
And their love is made even more perfect by the shared desire of the Trib editors and Meeks to punish and weaken teachers’ unions by promoting unlimited charters and vouchers.
“It’s all for the children”
As a veteran local school council member, I have learned that when someone complains that “you never talk about children,” they’re usually trying to shut you up because you’re getting too close to the truth, and when someone asserts that they are only doing something “for the children,” there are usually other agendas at work.
Come on, folks — we ALL want what’s best for children. Get real. Now let’s peel back the rest of the onion.
In the case of the Tribune, their union-busting, privatization-hungry, corporate-model-worshipping preferences are well-known. Their defense of charters ignores the issue of academic progress (something that is truly good for children), and instead focuses on the marketplace value of charter “waiting lists.”
The situation with Senator Meeks is a little more complicated. He’s eccentric (some might say flaky). He has gone to the mat for school funding in a state where no one else has the guts to stand up to the powers that be. Taking a page from PURE’s 1990’s playbook, he bused CPS students to the suburbs to “register” them for school.
But is he “genuinely looking out for kids,” as the Tribune claims?
If he’s genuinely looking out for kids, how can he promote more charter schools? A 2009 Stanford report clearly shows that African-American students enrolled in charter schools in Illinois do significantly worse in reading compared to their counterparts in traditional schools, and gain no benefit in math.
If he’s genuinely looking out for kids, how can he promote vouchers when the research on that strategy is equally grim? The longest-running voucher program, in Milwaukee, has shown no advantage for students in the voucher program over the traditional schools.
If he’s genuinely looking out for kids, how can he advocate what is essentially more Renaissance 2010, a failed program that has caused increased student drop-outs, push-outs, and violence without actually improving schools.
Could there be another agenda behind Rev. Meeks’ interest in vouchers? Of course. A voucher program in Illinois would directly benefit the private religious school run by Meeks’ church, the Salem Christian Academy (S. C. A.), which Rev. Meeks serves as Pastor/CEO.
A bad joke?
Well, maybe the Rev. Sen. can go on a national tour ala Duncan-Gingrich-Sharpton. Meeks can pair up with Rod Paige, George Bush’s Secretary of Education, who called the NEA a terrorist organization.
At least Paige tried to apologize for his comment, calling his statement a “bad joke.” Unfortunately, the joke will be on our children if we don’t get hold of Senator Meeks before he pushes his proposals through the legislature in January 2010.
My blogging comrade JD2718 published a list of his top ten referrrers of all time according to the tracking log on WordPress. I thought this was a good idea for Thanksgiving week. So here is mine:
NYCEducator is a current NY teacher and comments on all things school, union and politics related. He’s no fan of Randi Weingarten and is a fan of old time banjo and fiddle music.
EdWize is the blog of the New York teachers union.
Small Talk is an education blog run by somebody I know. Really well.
PREAonline. Nice to know my local union colleagues read my blog. I just finished ten years as local president. I now have lots more time on my hands.
EdNotesOnline. Feel free to check it out. I have not much to say about it.
Alexander Russo. Odd, because Russo goes out of his way not to mention me. He’ll even link to another blog that links their story to me rather than mention me. Probably because he knows I think he’s a dork. And a sexist.
Twitter is a recent development. I’m getting an increasing amount of hits from my Twitter site and other tweeters.
Eduwonk. Not so much recently. This is Andy Rotherham’s blog. We had a dust up a while ago. He’s become increasingly boring and irrelevant.
Schools Matter has multiple contributors. The are sharp critics of the current Duncan administration, of charters and privatization.
And the previously mentioned JD2718.
Thanks to a couple of days off in exchange for three nights of evening parent conferences last week, and a one day exchange for Veteran’s Day (we worked it), we’re off the whole week of Thanksgiving. Anne and I took advantage and hit the road, heading for Brooklyn to celebrate the iconic bird with family.
It takes about 16 leisurely hours to drive I-80 from Chicago to Brooklyn. We’re no longer willing to do it non-stop. With Anne and I taking turns behind the wheel every couple of hours and one over-night stop near Youngstown, Ohio, it becomes a nice road trip. We loaded up on Kashi crackers and cheese sticks, five year old compilation CDs (a great version of Tom Waits singing Jackson Browne’s “Ol 55.” I forgot I had that.) and we were off.
It’s all pretty flat until you cross the Pennsylvania line. Then the flat horizon starts to take shapes through the late autumn haze. Half a dozen restaurants attached to truck stops pass by, all named “RESTAURANT” in helvetica caps.
What is kind of sad (and I know this has been pointed out by others) is that local diners and pancake houses that once were at every other exit are pretty much gone along the interstate, replaced by fast food chain drive-throughs. Local and idiosyncratic has been substituted with no surprises and replication. Something about this makes me think of present-day school reform.
The hotel we bunked at outside of Youngstown was surrounded by a sea of Red Lobster, Outback Steak House and Applebees. We ended up eating dinner at a place called Springfield Grille which was indistinguishable in appearance from the chain restaurants that encircled it, but appeared to be locally owned. The male customers were the only things larger than the pieces of meat on the plate.
Blogging takes no Thanksgiving break.
Catalyst reports on the public reaction to CPS’ new magnet school plans.
CPS officials took their proposed magnet and selective school admissions policy on the road this week and encountered some suggestions, a host of questions and a fair amount of confusion and frustration.
Parents at public hearings held around the city said they are confused about the details of the policy but also angry in general about the limited number of seats available in good schools.
Kenneth Libby at Schools Matter gets a hat tip on this story of an Indiana charter school getting a casino gaming license.
Okay. I can’t resist. This is not the first charter that has gamed the system. It’s just the first one I’ve heard of that needed a license.
White’s School of the Arts Community Development Programs first applied for a casino license but was denied because educational organizations do not fit into categories qualified for charity gambling licenses, said Larry Delaney, the commission’s assistant director. But a separate organization, White’s School of the Arts, did qualify and was granted a license on Dec. 18.
Danny Schechter reports on Bill Moyers recalling LBJ’s Vietnam decision.
Trapped by his own limited logic, and cautiously pragmatic style. LBJ gave up his principles, compromised on his convictions, and his “Great Society” and Presidency became a disaster. He later quit politics, a broken man.
Will it happen again?
There was a memorial for Ted Sizer on Saturday. Ken Siefert, a resident of Andover and former superintendent of schools there wrote a Ted Sizer memory piece for the Andover Townsman last week.
To be candid, if one examines what it proposes, it makes most practices in today’s schools look like the 1920s. It emphasizes the power of individual teachers and schools as the hope of the future. It provides assessments that answer the basic question: what do you know and how can you show it? I wish I had taped his comments on MCAS and No Child Left Behind.
I asked him why he did not put emphasis on school systems as opposed to individual teachers and schools. He said it was a practical matter. The political and traditional barriers are much too time consuming and the payoff is minimal. It takes courage and the collective will of the community to move forward. I argued my disagreement with his premise. He told me, “Do what you think. I wish you the best of luck.” I must admit I am beginning to accept his point of view. I hope that someday school systems can be a source of significant change.
If you are on Twitter (and if not, why not?), I find this to be a good source.
University of California students hit with 32% tuition hike. Thousands will take to the streets today.
The University of California Regents voted to increase student tuition and fees by a third yesterday. Today, thousands will protest around the state.
Hit hard by more than $800 million in budget cuts from Sacramento, the University of California moved Wednesday to boost student fees by nearly a third over two years as students staged raucous demonstrations across the state.
Meeting at UCLA, the Board of Regents finance committee endorsed a $505 million plan to boost undergraduate fees in two stages by 2010. Undergraduate students would see a 32 percent overall hike, with the first half taking effect in January 2010 and the rest at the start of the next academic year.
The full board is expected to approve the fee increases today. The decision would push undergraduate fees above $10,000 per year for the first time.
“Our fees have risen 160 percent since 2001,” Victor Sanchez, a UC Santa Cruz student and president of the UC Students Association, told the Regents. “When will enough be enough?”
The Pritzker-owned Chicago-based Hyatt Hotels, which includes the Hyatt Rosemont where the IEA holds its annual state convention in the Spring, is one of the least safe places to work among the five major hotel chains.
WBEZ reports:
A peer-reviewed study of 50 hotels in the United States suggests that Hyatt housekeepers are almost twice as likely to suffer on-the-job injuries as their Hilton counterparts. Looking at all hotel jobs, Hyatt places fourth for safety among the top five hospitality chains.
The student-based anti-sweatshop movement won a major victory when Russell Athletic, to agree to rehire 1,200 workers in Honduras who lost their jobs when Russell closed their factory soon after the workers had unionized.
This was in no way an overnight victory — it came after 10 years of building a movement that persuaded scores of universities to adopt detailed codes of conduct for the factories used by licensees like Russell. In addition, the students, sometimes through lengthy sit-ins, pressured their officials to create and finance an independent monitoring group, the Worker Rights Consortium, that inspected factories to make sure they complied with the universities’ codes.
When the consortium issued a detailed report accusing Russell of violating workers’ rights, United Students Against Sweatshops began its nationwide campaign.
