Keeping retirement real. The teacher pay penalty and the issue of money versus benefits.

As school opens many teacher union locals will be selecting (or electing, as we did) their bargaining committees and preparing to sit down with their boards of education. And they are planning their collective bargaining strategies. In spite of Janus, unions in districts in the shrinking number of states that have collective bargaining rights, will […]

Did you get your letter from the IPI stink tank yet?

We landed at O’Hare in the middle of a massive summer thunder storm last night. It was a bumpy ride coming in. We survived and are back from the annual end of the summer gathering of the family tribe in an old house on a hill overlooking sea and pond on Block Island. Our mail […]

How many angry Kentucky teachers will follow the KEA back to into school?

Hundreds of angry teachers closed schools across Kentucky a week ago Friday. They called in sick to protest the pension theft bill that passed through the Kentucky legislature earlier that week. From the eastern half of the state bordering West Virginia to the northern region near Ohio, 29 school districts were unable to hold classes. Monday, the start of […]

Janus. It’s not some holiday dystopian movie. It’s teacher unions in 2018 Wisconsin and maybe 2019 for everyone else.

On this week’s Hitting Left with Kenzo Shibata from Democratic Socialists of America we talked about Janus. If, as expected, the Supreme Court rules against unions and takes away the right to fair share, you will be hard pressed to overestimate the damage it will do to unions. In Illinois there are about 600 teacher […]

Teacher union collective bargaining is about the money and so much more.

Aspira charter teachers recently settled a contract. When CTU President Karen Lewis and former CTU leader – now Chicago alderman – Sue Sadlowski Garza appeared on our radio show, Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers, the conversation inevitably turned to the current upsurge in charter union drives and collective bargaining. Noble, Aspira and UNO are the […]

Are SB7 Chicago strike limits part of the Grand Bargain?

I just finished reading Steven Ashby and Robert Bruno’s book on the Chicago Teachers Union and the 2012 strike, A Fight for the Soul of Public Education. It is a worthy read that also covers the past quarter century of Chicago school reform and the role of the CTU in rethinking the role of teacher […]

Now, the teachers get to say.

Teachers at International High School at Prospect Heights in Brooklyn congratulate Chicago teachers on their contract win today. “Your fight is our fight!” Some contract settlements make me scratch my head in negative amazement. Some put a smile on my face. But as a career union teacher who led a local and sat long hours […]

What an odd way to support unions.

When union teachers went on strike in Waukegan we supported them by being on their side. Where was Peter Cunningham? I was following a Twitter exchange between my brother and former DOE spokesman and current corporate education reformer, Peter Cunningham. It was mainly over Cunningham’s – and his former boss, Arne Duncan – corporate ed reform policies. […]

Third NOLA charter falls to unionization.

Following Hurricane Katrina’s destruction, New Orleans public schools were disbanded and all union teachers were fired. The city became the first all-charter school district in the country. Last week teachers at Lusher Charter School became the third school in the city to join the teachers union. The Lusher board voted 6-5 to refuse to recognize the union. […]

Pankaj Sharma goes to Washington.

Mr. Pankaj Sharma teaches History, Government and Politics, African and Latin American studies at Niles North High School in Skokie. He has a B.A in History and Education and a M.A in Teaching from Washington University in St. Louis. He is a former president of the Niles Township Federation of Teachers. On Monday at 9:30 AM Mr. […]