Chicago Mayoral Election Shows Democrats Preferred Over Republican Posers

If anyone asks my political affiliation, I always say that I am not a Democrat, even though I have never voted for a Republican--except for the two times I voted for Bill Clinton.

If the the election of real democrat, Brandon Clarke, yesterday in Chicago showed us anything, Republican Lite candidates like Clinton or Paul Vallas (who trained Arnie Duncan, by the way) are not preferred when given the choice of a progressive Democrat.  

On a day like today, I like to remember my friend, George Schmidt, whose decades of work in Chicago against the corporate takeover of public education, is now being rewarded. 

Chicago Teachers Strike!

In support of all the teachers, parents, and kids in Chicago who are marching, striking, and honking their horns for public schools.  And in special memory of George Schmidt, who gave me this shirt when I was in Chicago in 2013 promoting my first book.

Carry on!

CTU/AFT's Pathetic Rationale for Caving to the Charter Industry

AFT apologist, Michael Fiorillo, continues his defense of the indefensible move in Chicago that effectively normalizes the corrupt and dehumanizing charter schools.  

My comments are interspersed:

Your reasoning is faulty, as is your understanding of politics.

Which is more likely, that "The People" will suddenly realize what charter schools truly are, rise up and eliminate them (which is my preferred outcome), or that, faced with a rising number of union contracts, a fickle Overclass looks elsewhere to loot, or tries a different vehicle for its looting?

The “Overclass” has no incentive to “look elsewhere to loot” as long as AFT has provided its seal of approval to the status quo.  Why would the charter industry fear the union, especially when the deal in Chicago provides no unified bargaining for those charter employees now rolled into the CTU?  The charter overseers can continue their exploitative, miseducative, non-professional, and abusive practices just as before, except for now they have union sponsorship. 

If the “Overclass” were at all concerned about the AFT “threat,” they would not have just announced the corporate charter takeoverof Puerto Rico’s public schools, where there are 32,000 AFT members among the island’s 45,000 teachers.  Do you think they give a dam how many AFT members there are in Puerto Rico, especially when Weingarten offers up such tepid remarks in response the the takeover?  Doubtless, she has already cut a deal to make sure the newly-exploited teachers on the island can retain the union membership.

As to the possibility of people realizing what “charter schools really are,” the AFT has to own the fact that it has done nothing to help educate the public.  In fact, AFT’s complicity with the charter industry extends to the actual creation of AFT’s own charter schools.  

Why would underprivileged parents think that charters are a bad idea, when AFT and NPE, forever spouting about social justice, support the continuation of thousands of these hell schools, with no end in sight.

Indeed, both AFT and NPE heartily endorsed the latest ESEA version known as ESSA, which offers expanded incentives for the accelerated opening of thousands of new “no excuses” charter schools.

Dr. Fiorillo continues:

I have my problems with what the CTU is doing, but things are so desperate that I don't see an alternative to bringing these teachers into the union, and using that as the potential - emphasis on "potential" - vehicle for culling charter schools, and integrating the worthy ones into the public system as legitimate schools.

What precisely is your plan to minimize the number and effects of charter schools, and who do you propose to implement it, if charter teacher remain unorganized? Short of an answer to that, it's all just posing.

This fanciful notion of leveraging charter teacher union membership as a way to alter the paternalistic organization of the “Broken Windows” No Excuses model of charter reform schools would be laughable if it did not have such tragic implications for both the teachers and children, who suffer daily in these dehumanizing sweat shop schools.  

With CTU/AFT’s recognition of the charter industry’s unprofessional corrections officers posing as teachers, the unionists have normalized the cultural sterilization practices of charter schools, while at the same time spewing meaningless rhetoric about social justice commitments.

I must say the ridiculousness of AFT’s argument does not surprise me, for, after all, there is no sensible rationale for what AFT is doing that does not admit to the fact that the unions are in bed with the Wall Street Dems of charter industry.  And that they will never admit.  

Meanwhile, they are stuck exactly where AFT/NEA/NPE support for the Clintons took them.  The Clintons, by the way, have never felt the need for silly cover stories to disguise their long-established endorsement of charter schools.  Under Bill Clinton, you may remember, the number of charter schools went from zero to 2,000.

As for AFT’s misleadership, Randi Weingarten remains, Trump-like, stuck in her own Twitter-verse, where she endlessly provides commentary on every subject other than AFT’s enabling of the charter industry.  Her lame remarks about the wholesale privatization of schools in Puerto Rico are emblematic of her do-nothing approach when faced with the all-out war on public schools everywhere.

As for what I would do, Dr. Fiorillo, other than taking the union route of capitulating to the charter industry, here’s a few things for the unimaginative “unionists” to consider, none of which are presently being practiced by teachers' unions that are sitting atop billions of unused dollars:

1. Organize every local union chapter in the nation to resist charter schools.  Make it a part of every every negotiations session a demand that no public money be spent for any school, either brick-and-mortar or online, that is privately managed, by either a non-profit or for-profit enterprise that is not subject to same oversight and regulations as the public schools.
2. Hold ongoing parent information sessions within the communities to educate parents on the dangers of charter schools to their children.
3. Provide ongoing public service announcements to appeal to charter school employees to gain professional credentials that would enable them to work in public schools.
4. Let charter school employees understand the benefits of union membership, and make it clear that those benefits are not available to charter school employees who are constrained by the abusive practices of charter sweat shop management.
5. Create a national movement calling for an immediate moratorium on the creation of new charter schools.
6. Engage with the media to create venues for debating the charter school question and to share information regarding the public school advantage.
7. Help to recruit and support political candidates, from local to national, who understand the anti-democratic threat that the charter school industry embodies. 
8. Provide funding for ongoing research into the economic and social effects of charter schools on employees, students, parents, and public education systems.
9. Make it clear that charter schools, which are staffed predominantly by women who are mismanaged by paternalistic and ignorant males posing as principals, represent an ongoing offense to women employees everywhere.
10. Inform teachers about the existential threat of charter schools to the profession of teaching and to the well-being of children and democratic communities.
11. Organize parents and teachers to show up at school board meetings at the state and local levels to make their demands known about ending the charter industry’s war on public schools.

AFT Apologists Defend the Indefensible

A couple of comments from readers about my take on CTU's betrayal of teachers are worth noting.  The first from edblisa:

Lois has a point. No, it's not ideal that the CTU is offering worker protection to unqualified teachers, but these are young people that were told a lie to get them to join into the TFA scheme. These are people who needed a job so that they could support themselves and family. They are people who have tried to do right by children even if they didn't go about it the right way. They still need some protection from abuse. There has got to be some kind of compromise to help these people.

The young privileged millennial resume builders who enlist in TFA for their two years of service to the corporate elimination of the teaching profession and bolster the staff of dehumanizing charter schools could have been, yes, duped when they signed up. However, if one joins the Nazi Party thinking it is an innocent patriotic enterprise, one does not continue as a Nazi when when one finds out what one has done out of naivete or stupidity.  Just following orders is not an excuse, just as needing a job to pay back school loans is not an excuse, just like resume building for law school is not an excuse.

There can be no protection for those engaged in morally reprehensible acts, which are socially unjust to the core, even if Weingarten would like to sign up charter "teachers" counteract the cratering of AFT membership that is resulting from real teachers who are appalled at AFT's self-serving compromises.

The other comment is from Michael Fiorillo:

I loathe charter schools and look forward to the day when the last one has a stake driven through its heart. However, workers deserve the right to unionize, period. And if enough charter schools unionize, they will then cease to be the teacher union-busting panacea the Overclass wishes them to be. At that point, should it arrive, there might be hope to integrate some of them into the public school system.

First, Michael assumes that workers, regardless of the the job, deserve to unionize.  And I suppose they do.  That fact, however, does not require AFT of NEA to offer affiliation to teachers working in sweat shop charters that are abusing children and exploiting female workers on a daily basis through draconian discipline systems and cultural sterilization practices and authoritarian management schemes. If charter workers were real teachers, rather than alt-cert know nothings, they could exercise the option to work in humane schools, either private or public.  Since they are not teachers, however, real schools don't want them.  Sorry about that.

Hoping to "integrate" some the charter reform schools into the public system will require the public systems to accept the unacceptable and to embrace the morally reprehensible.  School boards, I hope, will resist such an atrocity, even if AFT and NEA and NPE have no such reservations. 

Chicago Teachers' Union Normalizes Dehumanizing Charter Schools

". . .we recognize that many families have come to depend on charter schools and that many charter school teachers are dedicated professionals who serve their students well. . . .We do not, therefore, call for the immediate closure of all charter schools. . ." Diane Ravitch's NPE Position Statement on Charter Schools, 2017

In a deep bow to the corporate ed reformers who control the DNC's education agenda, as well as NEA and AFT,  Diane Ravitch's NPE last year set out a policy statement on charter schools that would leave in place thousands of charter schools for years to come. 

The NPE statement is clear with regards to the continued support for 7,000+ dehumanizing and unregulated charters, which are bleeding out state and local education budgets wherever they operate.  In an impressive show of non-leadership, the NPE statement refuses to demand or advocate a moratorium on new charters, preferring instead to suggest support for "legislation" that calls for a moratorium on new charters.

NPE's acquiescence to and support for the continuation of the charter industry's paternalistic Broken Windows model of schooling is now being played out in Chicago, where the Chicago Teachers' Union this week voted to merge with the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff. 

What will this mean for public education, teachers, and CTU?

Most importantly for AFT and CTU, it will mean more money in dues from charter industry "teachers," since the discounted dues that charter employees were paying to ChiACTS will be raised to what real teachers pay AFT/CTU in Chicago.  Never mind that charter industry "teachers" will continue to be exploited, overworked, underpaid, and without the benefit of the collective bargaining process that establishes pay, benefits, working conditions, and student advocacy initiatives for the rest of Chicago teachers.

The merger means, too, that CTU's omnipresent lip service to "social justice" is just more empty rhetoric.  CTU, in fact, will become accessory to the ongoing teacher and child dehumanization practices and cultural sterilization programs that are central to "no excuses" ed reform charter school paternalism.

By normalizing the operations of Chicago's charter industry patriarchy-on-steroids, CTU and AFT become entirely complicit in demeaning practices against a female dominated workforce that, historically, have been anathema to union values.  CTU's and AFT's kowtowing to the charter industry's billionaire patrons represents a truly sad outcome for teachers and children that will have ongoing implications for other union affiliates stupid and greedy enough to follow this very bad precedent.

It is hard to imagine a more destructive action to unionism than to the one taken in Chicago.  By normalizing these deprofessionalized hell schools run by ignorant young non-educators, CTU and AFT have ceded the last remaining moral high ground.  We may regard any further pronouncements by CTU/AFT about saving public education as the purest of bullshit.

Chicago Teachers Union Versus Astroturf Billionaires

Billionaires like the Koch Brothers, Betsy DeVos, and Bill Gates fund astroturf tools like Jonah Edelman, Rebecca Nieves Huffman, and Kyle Olson. Working with anti-working class politicians like Rahm Emanuel, these groups and individuals strive to privatize public education, union bust, and profit off the sufferings of the poor. Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is on the front lines of the battle to save public education, but they are fighting right-wing forces with limitless resources. Their bold actions in the face of overwhelming odds may well be the turning point in the battle to prevent the neoliberal project from eliminating public education nationwide. They need our support, please contribute to the CTU Solidarity Fund.

Here's CTU's introduction to the film:

The Chicago Teachers Union is currently on the front lines of a fight to defend public education. On one side the 30,000 members of the CTU have called for a contract that includes fair compensation, meaningful job security for qualified teachers, smaller class sizes and a better school day with Art, Music, World Language and appropriate staffing levels to help our neediest students.

On the other side, the Chicago Board of Education—which is managed by out of town reformers and Broad Foundation hires with little or no Chicago public school experience—has pushed to add two weeks to the school year and 85 minutes to the school day, eliminate pay increases for seniority, evaluate teachers based on student test scores, and slash many other rights.

Teachers, parents and community supporters in Chicago have fought valiantly—marching, filling auditoriums at hearings and parent meetings, even occupying a school and taking over a school board meeting. Most recently, 98 percent of our members voted to authorize a strike. But now we find ourselves facing new opponents—national education privatizers, backed by some of the nation's wealthiest people. They are running radio ads, increasing press attacks, and mounting a PR campaign to discredit the CTU and the benefits of public education.

Chicago Teachers Vote to Stand Up for Children, Parents, and Themselves

EDUCATORS VOTE YES Chicago Teachers Vote Overwhelming for Strike Authorization as Contract Negotiations Continue; Union to use leverage to fight for smaller class sizes CHICAGO – Today, the Chicago Teachers Union revealed nearly 90 percent of its eligible members voted to give their labor organization the authority to call a strike should contract negotiations reach an impasse. The Union has been in negotiations with the Chicago Public School system since November 2011. A new state law requires a 75 percent of all eligible CTU voters to vote in the affirmative in order to provide strike authorization. Although both CTU and CPS are in the fact-finding stage of negotiations, the Union pointed out that the independent review will only provide recommendations on a small number of contract concerns. Public school educators say they are fighting for smaller class sizes, art, music, world language and physical education classes for students, and fair compensation for being asked to work under more difficult guidelines as determined by CPS. Armed with strike authorization, teachers, paraprofessionals and clinicians say they believe this will give them more leverage at the bargaining table going forward. Should a strike become necessary, the Union’s 800-member House of Delegates will set the date for a work stoppage. The three-day vote tally showed: Category Number ÷ Membership = % Total Membership 26,502 ÷ 26,502 = 100.00% Members Voting “YES” 23,780 ÷ 26,502 = 89.73% Members Voting “NO” 482 ÷ 26,502 = 1.82% Members Casting Votes 24,262 ÷ 26,502 = 91.55% Members Not Voting (includes 494 spoiled ballots) 2,240 ÷ 26,502 = 8.45% Day Daily Votes* Number ÷ Vote Count = % 1 Total Votes 19,614 ÷ 19,614 = 100.00% “YES” Votes 19,235 ÷ 19,614 = 98.01% “NO” Votes 379 ÷ 19,614 = 1.93% 2 Total Votes   2,108  ÷ 2,108 = 100.00% “YES” Votes  2,060  ÷ 2,108 = 97.72% “NO” Votes     48  ÷ 2,108 = 2.28% 3 Total Votes    392 ÷    392 = 100.00% “YES” Votes    370 ÷    392 = 94.39% “NO” Votes     22 ÷    392 = 5.61% S Total Votes  2,148 ÷  2,148 = 100.00% “YES” Votes  2,115 ÷  2,148 = 98.46% “NO” Votes     33 ÷  2,148 = 1.54% Total Votes 24,262 ÷ 24,262 = 100.00% “YES” Votes 23,780 ÷ 24,262 = 98.01% “NO” Votes    482 ÷ 24,262 = 1.99% * Daily Votes were totaled each day for members on the roster for each school. "S" refers to Supplemental ballots, which are those cast by employees voting at a site where they do not appear on the roster (e.g. school social workers or nurses, who service multiple schools). These votes are tallied separately. CTU President Karen GJ Lewis, NBCT, said the following during a news conference today: “We have called you here today to announce the results of the strike authorization vote held last week. The results are not a win. They are an indictment on the state of the relationship between the ‘management’ of CPS and its largest labor force, members of the Chicago Teachers Union. It is also an indictment of the outside groups that seek to destroy the real work being done by Chicago’s teachers, paraprofessionals, and clinicians. “We do not understand why Democrats for Education Reform, Education Reform Now and other organizations continue to stand on the backs of our children and profess to care about them when they ignore the harsh realities of their lives. And while our members work in schools that are under-resourced, under-staffed and under-appreciated, they have toiled in silence long enough while the mayors of this city have exerted control, shut down schools, and handed over facilities to their well-connected friends. “The problems with our schools will not be answered by overpaid outside consultants or billionaire education dilettantes but rather by the people who actually work in our schools with our children in full partnership with the District. For some reason, this administration has behaved as if the Union was some out-of-touch bureaucracy only speaking for ourselves. But the dominant narrative among the so-called Ed Reformers in concert with city’s business fathers and mothers has been that the reason why CPS is in such bad shape is that its teachers are incompetent. “This new leadership of the CTU were all classroom teachers and paraprofessionals two years ago. We have the pulse of our members. We listened to what they had to say. And we made a plan using the tools and the resources we have. That’s what teachers do. We analyzed the data and adjusted our plans. But all along, we had the feedback of the members in our schools. While the chaos on Clark Street continues, our members—intent on being heard—were loud, clear, and serious. “We want a contract that gives Chicago’s students the schools they deserve. So we call on CPS to take the process seriously and negotiate with us in good faith and with an eye on the real prize: Our children.”