Who knows what goes on behind closed doors?
Certainly not the rank-and-file teachers who will be most affected by what kind of so-called reforms get adopted. The General Assembly is notorious for last-minute deals that rarely work in our favor. So, why should it be different this time?
Going in to this lame duck session the teachers unions’ leadership had two goals.
Like with the runaway train in the movie Unstoppable, they hoped to be Denzel. Perhaps they could keep the train from becoming a catastrophe by slowing it down.
They also wanted the three main union players, the IEA, IFT and the CTU, to jointly agree upon an alternative proposal that a majority in the GA could agree to and was less draconian than the reformy proposals.
Part one was smart. With only several days left in the lame duck session, any delay would put off the fight until the new session and would allow us to mobilize our forces. After all, the last two weeks were winter break and most teachers in the state were not really reachable and could not be mobilized to contact their reps and their colleagues.
Part two is problematic. The Big Three unions seem to draw a line on the right to strike. But almost everything else has been placed in the negotiable column: Tenure, seniority and pay for performance.
Given just about two weeks to draft an alternative proposal, lawyers for the Chicago Teachers Union, the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Education Association worked through the holidays and came up with a plan they call “Accountability for All.”
Although they differ in the details, the proposals have similar elements. Both would link a teacher’s classroom performance to the granting of tenure, recertification and decisions on dismissal for incompetence, filling job vacancies or reductions in force.
Performance would be measured in part by student achievement. Both proposals would streamline dismissal, but the union version would require better support for teachers in such areas as professional development and remediation.
The IEA leadership has a history of calling defeats victories and calling set backs advances. This was their practice when they surrendered local collective bargaining rights to a failed attempt to win Race to the Top grant money a year ago.
Even if the GA adopts their alternative proposal, it will be hard to convince the membership that this is a victory. No doubt, Swanson and IEA Executive Director Audrey Soglin will give it a shot.
But that is if their proposal is adopted, which is questionable. I have been told that they are barely a part of the negotiations.
While the members have been bombarded with requests to call our reps to support the union alternative proposal, I can’t bring myself to support the further erosion of our union rights, even if it is not as bad as the reformy one. It is not as bad by very little.
And for those of you who love bad news, it seems that the legislature is this evening on the verge of passing the Madigan-sponsored so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), which would limit the legislatures ability to raise taxes and would require a supermajority to increase state pension payments, including those of teachers.
Fred Klonsky 