Chicago Teachers Describe Mayoral Takeover As Reprehensible

Chicago experience shows that students and communities will suffer.

On Sunday December 6^th a group of nine teacher activists gave a presentation in Milwaukee on the ongoing fight for public education in Chicago, Illinois. They are part of a group called Caucus Of Rank and File Educators (CORE).

They are part of a movement that is bringing together parents, students, teachers and community to fight against the Chicago plan called Renaissance 2010 initiated by Mayor Daley in 2004. Its goal was to close 100 Chicago Public schools by 2010.

In 1995 the Illinois State Legislature enacted the Amendatory Act. This act gave Mayor Daley complete control of Chicago Public Schools. The mayor appoints the board and the superintendent.

Under Renaissance 2010 many schools have been closed and reopened as either charter, contract or performance schools. Plus the latest category for school closing is labeling a program a “turnaround” school. If a school is classified “turnaround” by the CEO of the district all employees are fired and a new staff is hired for the school. Every staff person in the building is replaced including cooks, engineers, secretaries, assistants, administration and teachers. Students are said to remain in the school.

But “turnaround “ schools remove the worst behaving students, dispersing them throughout the system. The district theory is that they will change their behavior in unfamiliar communities and situation. A recent study has shown that displaced students in Chicago perform the same or worse than at the school they left.

One of the speakers from Chicago is working with parents from the Fenger High School community where Derrion Albert’s murder was recorded in September and seen on national television. Fenger is a “turnaround’ school. Students were brought from other neighborhoods, displaced from their schools. The murder of Albert happened on the third day of violence and near riot conditions between students from different neighborhoods attending Fenger.

The teacher working with the Fenger community parents said that just last week a riot occurred in the cafeteria and students were severely attacked. The demand of the parents is to return Fenger to being a community school.

Chicago Public Schools has a budget of $5.3 billion dollars with over 400,000 students, 44,000 staff, and 675 schools. Business interests have swarmed over the district attempting to privatize and market everything imaginable.

Core members describe Renaissance 2010 as a privatization and gentrification plan. A Chicago study shows a correlation between new upscale condo and townhouse housing construction for Chicago’s middle class and school closings.

This corresponds with the advice given by Kenneth Wong, the Brown professor and author of The Education Mayor. He states, “High-performing schools are necessary to attract and keep those (middle class) residents in the city. A strong middle-class presence enables the city to build a broader political coalition for inter-governmental lobbying. The middle class also forms a strong ‘voice’ to air concerns on education quality. In addressing the challenges of the lowest-performing schools, cities must also recognize that their mission may be made quite difficult by the levels of poverty and special education needs of students in those schools. In this view, the most efficient use of resources may be to make simultaneous investments in both high-performing and low-performing schools, understanding that the overall 75/25 ratio may expand as a consequence.” (Page 111) (Note: What the authors mean by the “75/25 ratio” is that three times as much money will have to be spent on high-performing schools in order to keep the middle class in the city.)

The Chicago educators and CORE members said that another goal of Renaissance 2010 is also to destroy the teachers union and other school related unions. Since its conception in 2004 the Chicago Teacher’ Union has lost 6000 members.

When a teacher is fired from a “turnaround” school they can enter a reassignment teacher pool. If another school does not hire them within two years they are fired with loss of all seniority and benefits.

Teachers in schools that are reconstituted as charters, contract, performance or turnaround schools cannot organize a union that is affiliated with the Chicago Teacher’s Union (CTU). The 71 charter schools in Chicago Public Schools can organize a union only with permission from the principal.

The CORE educators said they are part of a growing movement of energized parents, students, teachers and communities that are fighting fear with hope and resistance for Chicago’s students. They invited the Milwaukee community to attend an education summit:

Where: Malcolm X College (1900 W. Van Buren)
When: Saturday, January 9th (10 AM to 1 PM)