No Voice. No Choice. Making a Difference.
You’d never figure out why we are on strike based upon the local media. Watch any show at during prime time and you get the message, albeit a distorted one. Rahm and the education billionaires are keeping up a drumbeat on the radio, TV and in the papers. The barrage has begun, funded by one of the mayor’s PACs, according to a friend who works at City Hall. It has all the punch lines that folks can easily parrot - This is a strike of choice. The teachers should think of the children. Teachers are jeopardizing the kid's education. Teachers should go back to work and continue negotiating. The mayor cares about kids.
Let’s get to the punch line here. Rahm cares about political ties, business opportunities and his own agenda, not kids. Rahm raises millions for political campaigns, currently working on Obama’s fundraising. He raises little or nothing for public schools, depending on its location. Rahm doesn't fund public schools; he sells them to corporations that feed at the public trough.
The federal government spends roughly $600 billion a year on education. The corporations want to get their filthy hands on that stash. It’s happening before our eyes. Note the expansion of charter schools, the increase in standardized testing. Before Hurricane Katrina, Edison Schools, a corporate charter school system did not go into New Orleans because Louisiana spent very little per child on education. Benno Schmidt, CEO Edison School stated, “You get what you pay for. Not what you test for.” We see how municipalities are breaking teachers' unions and hiring temp workers, people who lack skills to be effective educators. This is the idea behind Teach for America. They teach by rote. They earn nothing. There's no career path. You need to question whether or not they are teaching children what to think or teaching children how to think. Corporations prefer that teachers teach people what to think.
Penny Pritkzer, billionaire board member believes that kids needs math, reading and writing skills. I agree. For her, the goal of education is to make kids productive members of the workforce. I disagree. There is no mention that kids should be creative and critical thinkers who can appreciate learning. This kind of growth requires exposure to the Fine Arts, Physical Education, Languages and Computer Sciences. These are the first classes that get axed. Penny clearly stated that the Fine Arts opened her eyes giving her a new passion. Yet, she would deny our children that same passion. The board's first response as to why these are eliminated is always “funding”.
I always say there is enough money to pay for quality education for ALL students. The money is just in the pockets of the extremely rich, extremely small minority. The people who serve on the Chicago Board of Education come from this elite minority. Pritzker, heiress of the Hyatt Hotel chain, snagged $5.2M in TIF funds for a new hotel in downtown Chicago. Some of those funds are meant to be used to finance CPS schools, whose endearing slogan is "Children First". I guess Penny has a hard time understanding this.
Penny Pritzker sits on a treasure of money. She has provided funds to rebuild schools, like our local school Roosevelt. There is nothing altruistic about her wonderful giving. When schools get multi-million dollar capital improvements, they are soon turned over to corporations, such as Noble Street Charter or UNO Charter networks. Pritzker is the largest investor in Noble. Does no one see the conflict of interest here? The mayor thinks all this is just fine since he personally handpicks the board members, who are not accountable to the public, the city council, to teachers, parents or students. They are just accountable to the mayor, a close friend.
How does this unaccountable board deal with teachers? They hold us accountable for student growth based upon standardized testing. How can a teacher who sacrifices great career possibilities by teaching in the poor communities with limited resources compete with a teacher at a well-funded college prep school? Our atmosphere within our school is built upon collaborative efforts. This evaluation system pits me against my colleagues. If 50% of my evaluation is based upon test scores, then I would be finding ways to get the best students in class.
So, who gets left behind in all this? That would be the students with learning disabilities, students who don't excel academically and students with other issues, such as depression, suicidal tendencies, homelessness, hunger, or abuse. These are the same kids who the charter schools do not want. These are the same children who need critical support services, which the board continues to cut, while still demanding exemplary test scores. Schools need more counselors, social workers, and nurses to deal with this ever growing population of youth.
The charters bleed off our best students, bleed our funds and then dump these poor students on the public system, which are slowly drained of funds. CPS spent roughly $206M on 33 facilities it leases to charters for a $1. Between FY11 and FY12, expenditures rose 16%, while enrollment only 11%. Despite all this bad news, CPS has allocated $2M for new charter schools. According to the FY11 audit, a quarter of public schools have lower pupil expenditures than charters with no significant improvement by the charters. In fact, public schools do a better job at educating students than charters based on recent data.
All this high-stakes testing and mass school closures in neighborhoods already deprived of resources is not reform as Rahm likes to repeat over and over. The starvation of schools is intentional so that they would not meet scores. This makes them suitable for turn-around and conversion to charter schools. The Renaissance 2010 program, as it was called, closed schools in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, especially where there was nearby competition from charter schools. Renaissance 2010 is the Black Death of public education.
Dr. MCGill, director of University Chicago Lab School, where Rahm's kids go to school, noted that standardized testing is misguided and unfortunately continues to be advocated by Rahm. He also states that fine arts, physical education are not frills but part of a well-rounded education. These are the first courses to be cut because you cannot measure them on a flawed testing system. It's a vicious cycle that is spiraling out of control. The result is that we end with educational triage, where a few students selected by standardized tests or privileged birth are either given or granted permission to enroll into the better schools with the most resources.
Rahm likes to call this “a strike of choice”. This has been building since he came into office claiming to be a reformer, but actimg like an autocrat. He rescinded pay raises, increased the length of day without funding, promoted legislation in Springfield designed to curtail the power of the teachers’ union, imposed more testing, made teachers more accountable for test scores, and brought in a new chief, Jean Claude, to run schools. Brizard received a 95% no confidence vote from his former district. He was Rahm’s candidate because Brizard is prince of non-union charter schools. This was a strike of choice. Rahm chose to put teachers into a corner, expecting them to just shut up. He must have swallowed the blue pill thinking everything was just fine because he did it his way.
What we end up is having a war over the classroom dynamics, which simply put is just a class war. We are the last bastion, the line in the sand that is fighting for our children, for a quality education that hopefully leads to prospective promising careers, if this union is NOT demolished by the mayor and his minions, which has been their intent all along.
Again, Dr. McGill stated that he could not fathom who would teach in public schools without unions. This comes from the man who runs the same school where Rahm and Pritzker and other extremely rich folks send their kids. So, they want to have their cake and eat it too. What do our kids get? They get the crumbs.
At Wednesday’s rally, I saw many students there marching with teachers. Signs read – My Teacher Makes Me Smile Every Day. 36 on ACT Good, 36 in Class Bad. I Am in 4th Grade with 42 Other Students. Why? Why Does My Teacher Have to Buy Me Supplies?
We can figure out what these poor kids want and need, but these millionaire board members are clueless.
As I walked through a crowd of thousands, I heard a scream, “Mr. Hernandez. Mr. Hernandez”. I turned to see Dania, a student I had 8 years ago as a freshmen. She just finished up college and earned a degree and certificate in education. She is now working as an elementary teacher. I told her, “I bet you never expected this at your first week of a new career.” With her endearing smile, she said, “This is great. I love it. You always told us to stand for something. To fight for what is right. That’s why I’m here. Thank you for everything.” I just hugged her. As I looked over her shoulder I saw a sign, a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King, “Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.” I will always remember this moment, always. I didn't want to stop hugging her because I was on the verge of tears.
So, I am fighting for the future of our children, for the soul of education and for change that will transform the world. This fight is just not for my daughters. It is not just for my students. It is for all our children. We may be beaten in the end. We may lose everything, but I know this struggle is a right one, a just one.