If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
As in many cases throughout our history, it is the educators and public school advocates standing on the picket lines who can rightly claim they stand for children (and everyone else!) -- not the officials who forced them into the streets, or those officials' allies.
Teachers in the third-largest school district in the nation went on strike Monday morning. It's been 25 years since Chicago teachers walked a picket line. Rahm Emanuel is doing the right thing. He's standing up to the Chicago Teachers Union.
When I asked Eric Simons why he took a one-way flight to Palo Alto instead of going to college, he said, "I wasn't mature enough to learn for the sake of learning." And I thought, who ever is?
As a former classroom teacher (and the soon to be mother-in-law of a dedicated CPS teacher), I'd like to add my two cents to the commentary on the now two-day-old Chicago Public School Teachers strike.
For the past two days, Chicago teachers have gone on strike for a variety of issues. Read about this issue in the news media with a careful eye: this is a strike about the future of public education in the United States.
The timing of the strike couldn't be worse for the Democrats, and therefore packs a potent punch nationally because it lays bare how toxic the relationship between teachers and Democratic Party leaders has become in recent years.
I'm grateful for the hard work of public school teachers, especially those who work with challenging populations and situations, such as in many Chicago schools. I'm praying this can be resolved fairly -- and soon.
As the Chicago Teachers Union begins their strike, I can empathize with some of their demands. However, I do not believe the solution is to abandon our responsbility to our children.
We have no idea how long the strike will last -- if 1987 is any indication, it could be weeks before the issue is resolved.
As an informed, active parent, I shouldn't have had to guess what the issues at the strike's core really were. I should have known.
If Chicagoans fail to recognize the deeper systemic issues underlying their failing schools, the teachers' strike may play right into the hands of Emanuel, who stands to profit politically, and the charter school corporations, which stand to profit financially.
Students may be excited they do not have to attend school due to the Chicago Teachers Union strike. What some students don't realize is that this could be a benefit to them, not just the teachers.
At a recent speech to the City Club of Chicago, Juan Rangel defended Chicago's billionaire elites. Why would he be kissing up to the wealthy that support the efforts to break the unions and privatize schools? His annual salary is around $266,000.
I'm not the only parent who believes that a fair share of the fault lies with the CTU for it's unyielding defense of a broken system
We need a priority check. Both mayors should understand, Chicago will never be world-class if the gangs keep shooting; Chicago priorities and values should be safety first, education second, parks third.
There's an obvious disconnect between teachers' perceptions of Jean-Claude Brizard and Brizard's claimed relationship with teachers. It's been a problem for some time, and it's just getting worse.
