CTU strike

Today, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) voted to end its strike. After seven long days of boisterous rallies and protests, the CTU agreed to the offer made by the city of Chicago through the leadership of Chicago Public Schools (CPS).

NaysayersAi??condemned the strike from the onset as harmful for the district and harmful for kids, but a look at what teachers won shows that it actually did a lot for the schools. Here’s a list of just some of the highlights, drawn from a CTU draft of what its members agreed to:

A REASONABLE SCHOOL LENGTH: Chicago originally proposed a 7 hour, 40 minute school day that threatened to overwork students and teachers (especially without proper compensation). CTU won a 7 hour day for elementary school and 7 hour, 15 minute day for high school
FUNDING FOR A COMPREHENSIVE EDUCATION IN ARTS AND MUSIC: CPS originally had proposed no funding for additional staff. CTU won funding for over 600 new positions, mostly for arts, music, and physical education — important outlets for a comprehensive education.
MAYORAL ACCOUNTABILITY: The original contract called for a length of five years, meaning that Mayor Rahm Emanuel would not be responsible for negotiating another one within his term. The new contract lasts for 3 years, meaning the next negotiation would be during the mayoral race and allow teachers and parents to hold the mayor accountable.
KEEPING HEALTH CARE COSTS DOWN: The original contract would’ve had a nearly 40 percent increase on families and couples. Now, there will be a freeze on health care premiums and co-pays for all CTU members.
FAIR EVALUATIONS: 70 percent of a teacher’s quality rating will be based on their practice rather than student test scores.
A MORE FAIR PAY RAISE: Originally, CPS …

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) strike is entering its seventh day, and many observers expect Ai??the labor action to end this week and result in a victory for students and teachers.

But the forces of school privatization aren’t sitting out the fight. A group calling itself Education Reform Advocacy Now is airing a 30-second commercial in Chicago attacking the strike. Watch it:

To start with, the commercial itself is simply misleading. It implies that the CTU opposes a longer school day, whereas the union itself actually agreed to a longer school day as long as teachers are fairly compensated for it.

It’s also important to note who it is who is running the ad. Education Reform Now Advocacy is the 501(c)4 tax status organization run by the same folks who run Democrats For Education Reform (DFER), a group that has openly advocated for charter schools to use funds that are supposed to be used to educate students to instead lobby the government.

Democrats for Education Reform’s board consists almost entirely of individuals from the finance industry (mostly hedge funds). Education Reform Now Advocacy is based not in Chicago — like the teachers it is bashing — but in New York City.

Education Reform Now’s last disclosure filing with the state of New York was in December 2010. Interestingly, the disclosure shows a quarter million dollar loan from Charles Ledley, a hedge fund kingpin who made millions by betting against the subprime mortgage market.

While most of the money from DFER and associated groups comes from Big Finance based outside of Chicago, one group it certainly does not represent is teachers and parents, like those who are fighting for a fair deal from the city today.

We’re not …

A Chicago Teachers Union action. (Photo credit: Flickr user JeanPaulHolmes)

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) strike enters its sixth day today. Negotiators are reportedly nearing a resolution, but the CTU wants to give its members ample time to weigh in on any proposed agreement.

Late yesterday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel moved to request a temporary restraining order that would force teachers to go back to work. Emanuel’s argument is that state law does not allow teachers to strike over non-compensation issues (click here to find out some of the reasons the strike is happening).

A few minutes ago,Ai??Cook County Circuit Court Peter Flynn denied this request. He said through a spokesman that he may consider instead holding the hearing on Wednesday, when many observers believe the strike may actually end.

“CPS’ spur-of-the-moment decision to seek injunctive relief some six days later appears to be a vindictive act instigated by the mayor,” said the CTU in a statement. “This attempt to thwart our democratic process is consistent with Mayor (Rahm) Emanuelai??i??s bullying behavior toward public school educators.”

One of the criticisms levied against the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) strike is that it’s bad for the community because it is keeping kids out of school and burdens parents.

But a new independent poll finds that those parents are actually quite supportive of the strike. A poll for Capital Fax conducted by We Ask America finds that 66 percent of Chicago’s parents who have kids in Chicago Public Schools support the strike.

Asked who was most to blame for the strike, “just over 34 percent pointed their finger at Mayor Rahm Emanuel, while 29 percent blamed the Chicago Teachers Union and 19 percent blamed the school board,” meaning that most respondents to the poll blame management.

(Photo credit: Flickr user Bonnie Brown)

The nation’s eyes are focused on Chicago as 29,000 teachers and support staff remain on strike in a protest against substandard schools and reneged pay raises.

As the Chicago Teachers Union soldiers on, it’s important to remember the plight of teachers nationwide. The New York Time’s Catherine Rampell has put together a few charts showing that American teachers work longer for less pay than teachers in most other developed countries.

Rampell notes that the “average primary-school teacher in the United States earns about 67 percent of the salary of a average college-educated worker in the United States. The comparable figure is 82 percent across the overall O.E.C.D. [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development].”

Here’s a chart showing the ratio of salary between middle school teachers compared to full-time, full-year college-educated workers. American teachers fair better than those in Estonia, but are worse off than the average of rich countries in the OECD:

Next, let’s take a look at teaching hours. As you can see, Chile and Argentina are the only countries where teachers work longer hours:

If Chicago’s teachers succeed, they may inspire other educators to follow suit. By the looks of these numbers, they certainly have something to protest over.

Photo credit: Flickr user Global Mitch

There’s one news outlet that has been very unsympathetic to the striking teachers and staff in Chicago, to say the least. Fox News has been blasting the Chicago Teachers Union since the strike began; host Greta Van Sustern proudly proclaimed that “CHILDREN LOSE!” on her blog as teachers began their actions.

But in its spree of teacher-bashing, there’s one very serious conflict of interest that Fox News has failed to disclose.

Let’s start in 2010. That’s when Fox News’s parent company, News Corporation, acquired the education technology company known called Wireless Generation by purchasing a 90 percent stake in the company. Soon afterwards, former New York City schools chief Joel Klein — who had a history of warring with unions — became head of the education division at News Corp.

News Corporation’s involvement in a hacking scandal eventually lost Wireless Generation its planned contract with the state of New York.

But in May of 2012, the education technology company found another willing buyer — the city of Chicago. The Board of Education of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) — the district Ai?? that CTU is striking against — approved the purchase of education technology services from Wireless Generation. Here’s a snapshot from the Board’s agenda meeting:

If you click on the two agreements listed, you’ll see that they’re for $1,700,000 each.

We contacted Wireless Generation to see if they have any other contracts with CPS, but we have yet to get a response.

Americans want to trust the media and hope that it can provide thoughtful and accurate information that is uncorrupted by secret conflicts of interest. Fox News is betraying that …

Photo credit: Flickr user juggernautco

Rahm Emanuel is having a bad week. His anti-worker antics — like forcing the cancellation of a promised 4 percent pay raise — have brought about a massive teacher strike, and tens of thousands of people are marching against his policies.

But there is one group of people that have fallen in love with Rahm’s policies: Republicans and the far-right. Here’s a short and far from comprehensive list of some of the praise he’s gotten:

The Washington Examiner:Ai??The teachers union is waging a “small war againstAi??Mayor and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.” [9/10]
Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan: “I’veAi??known Rahm Emanuel for years. Heai??i??s a former colleague of mine. RahmAi??and I have not agreed on every issue or on a lot of issues, but MayorAi??Emanuel is right today in saying that this teacherai??i??s union strike isAi??unnecessary and wrong.” [9/10]
News Corporation Owner And Fox News Kingpin Rupert Murdoch: “Three cheers for Rahm Emanuel standing up in Chicago.” [9/11]
Former Republican Presidential Contender Mayor Rudy Giuliani:Ai??”I hope he wins.” [9/11]

It’s clear whose side Rahm is taking — Rupert Murdoch and Paul Ryan’s.

Rhee’s organization has been intent on fighting teachers unions, even by parroting false figures. (Photo credit: Flickr user angela n.)

Anti-labor education activist Michelle Rhee likes to say that she isn’t partisan — even though she has worked with Republican governors to crush unions.

Today, the New York chapter of her advocacy organization — Students First — parroted talking points from the Heartland Institute, a global warming denying corporate front group.

In response to concerns from Chicago parents and teachers that students are being packed into over-sized classrooms, the StudentsFirstNY Twitter account retweeted a Heartland Institute advocate claiming that the average class size in Chicago is 16 students:

This statistic is wildly lower than any credible estimate of class sizes in Chicago. So we decided to look into it.

If you go to the page from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) dealing with Chicago, you’ll find that it actually doesn’t list class sizes. Rather, it has a teacher-to-student ratio. That ratio is 16.44 — this is presumably where the Heartland Institute staffer got the number from.

The problem is, a teacher-to-student ratio is not the same thing as class size. The districts and states that report data to the NCES label a variety of support staff and tertiary individuals as teachers, including a lot of people who do not have sole responsibility for a classroom. The NCES itself admits that this ratio is not the same as class size. Check out this page of “Fast Facts” — you’ll see that NCES numbers show a teacher-pupil ratio of 15.4 in 2009 but class sizes between 20-23 over roughly the same time period. Simply put, the Heartland Institute …

A new poll just released finds that the 29,000 teachers and support staff of the Chicago Teachers Union that just went on strike have a lot of support from the city of Chicago:

In the live survey done by McKeon & Associates, a Joliet-based opinion polling company, 47 percent [of registered voters] support the strike, 39 percent oppose it and 14 percent didnai??i??t know. The poll has a margin of error of 3.8 percent.

These poll numbers should serve as a warning to Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other city officials who so far have not been willing to offer a fair deal to Chicago’s teachers and the students and schools they are fighting for.

Yesterday, we reported that in addition to overfilled classrooms and leaky roofs, one of the issues that brought Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) to the point of striking is the widespread lack of air conditioning in schools. During a heat wave this summer, 21 summer schools without air conditioning actually cancelled classes out of concern for their studentsai??i?? health.

On Twitter, the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system responded to our reporting on the air conditioning situation:

In a follow-up tweet, CPS insisted that “in extreme heat we make sure multiple fans are on, cold water’s available & move students to cooler areas.”

First of all, it’s important to note that no one is calling for the air conditioning problems to be solvedAi??tomorrow. The teachers of the CTU understand that these things take time and money.

The problem is that the Chicago Public Schools have been avoiding the issue by sidestepping it in negotiations and making no substantiveAi??commitments. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel even callously dismissed teacher, student, and parent concerns about lack of air conditioning.Ai??ai???Itai??i??sAi??71 degreesAi??outside,ai???Ai??he said, either forgetting that summer will come around again or intentionally mimicking the non-credible arguments used by climate-change deniers during the winter.

While CPS is complaining about money concerns, it is also laying the groundwork to shift as much as $70 million away from the public system and to charter schools (which just happen to be mostly non-unionized). It also is planning to significantly lengthen the school day (without properly compensating teachers for the extended day). The city has used Tax Increment Financing to take money out of property tax funds and use them to funnel millions of dollars to wealthy property developers in a scheme the Chicago Reader has …

A Chicago Teachers Union action. (Photo credit: Flickr user JeanPaulHolmes)

Chicago’s 29,000 public school teachers and support staff aren’t just on strike to defend their own wages and benefits. They’re also fighting for better schools for the communities they live in. Click here to learn about why Chicago’s teachers are on strike.

Here’s five facts — from a well-researched early 2012 CTU report — that you need to know about the abominable state of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system — facts that Mayor Rahm Emanuel would rather you didn’t know:

Class Sizes Are Among The Largest In The State: Chicago’s kindergarten class sizes in particular are larger than 95 percent of classes across the state. Sometimes kids are sitting in classrooms with 40 students for months as the city drags its feet on lowering class sizes. Right outside of Chicago, in the Matteson School District, the average class size is between 16 and 23 for most of a child’s education.
Students Lack Access To Arts And Music Education: Instruction in the arts and music is essential to educating gifted and responsible children. But only 25 percent of Chicago public elementary schools have both art and music instructors.
There Is A Severe Lack Of Social Workers And Counselors:Ai??Over 15,000 homeless children attend Chicago public schools. Yet there are only 370 social workers for the entire district. You do the math. Each social worker, if dedicated totally to homeless children, would have a caseload of 42 kids. Meanwhile, each school has only one counselor, meaning that schools with up to 1,200 kids have only one adult offering intensive counseling services.
160 Schools Don’t Even Have Libraries:Ai??Libraries give kids, especially impoverished kids, access to information that they’d never otherwise be able to attain. …

(Photo credit: Flickr user MSVG)

Chicago’s teachers aren’t fighting just for their own wages and benefits. They’re on strike for better schools for students, too. One of the Chicago Teachers Union’s (CTU) demands is to install air conditioning in schools, particularly poorer ones that may lack these amenities.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel (whose net worth is estimated at $14 million) downplayed these teacher concerns on behalf of poor children.Ai??”It’sAi??71 degreesAi??outside,” he said. “You don’tAi??go onAi??strikeAi??for air conditioning.”

But lest the mayor forget, seasons change. Earlier, in July, there was a heat wave so severe that school officials decided to cancel classes at 21 schools one Friday that were serving summer school students. The reason why? They lacked air conditioning. The heat wave this summer was so intense that there were actually a number of deaths attributed to it in the city.

CTU is fighting for everyone in the city — teachers, students, parents. Mayor Emanuel may feel comfortable with the fact that some of his city’s schools without air conditioning can get so hot that officials canceled school to protect the health of their students, but the CTU isn’t.

If the strike ends up getting air conditioning installed in these boiling schools, the kids will be the first ones to benefit as a result.

Far-right activists as well as even a few mainstream journalists have made wild claims about how much Chicago’s teachers earn. Nightline’s Terry Moran even claimed that the Chicago Teachers Union is doing “much damage” to the profession by striking, and then went on to say that teachers in the city earn an average of $74,000.

That just isn’t true. To fact check this claim, I went to the best source available to the public: the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS has data from May 2011 for the Chicago metropolitan area that breaks down the average salary for teachers. Across the profession, teachers in the area were earning an average salary of $56,720. Keep in mind that a median salary would probably be a more accurate picture of what teachers actually earn (veteran teacher salaries will be dragging the number upwards) but that this number is not available. The number is also dragged upward because a number of university staff are included in this calculation (they earn more than public school teachers). We spoke with a BLS official earlier today to confirm the veracity of these numbers.

If you look at the different subsets of teachers, some earn as little an average salary as $44,480 (foreign language teachers). Ai??Also keep in mind that the cost of food and living is well above the U.S. average in Chicago.

The only way Chicago’s teachers and students will win this struggle is by not letting misinformation turn the tide of public opinion.Ai??Use the Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit buttons on this page to spread the word. (Thanks to labor journalist Doug Henwood for pointing us in the right direction to look for these figures.)