You can get away with almost anything if you’re attacking teachers’ unions in the corporate media.
New York Times columnist Joe Nocera (9/11/12) explains that while the so-called “reform” movement hasn’t come up with the right answers on schools:
On the other hand, the status quo, which is what the Chicago teachers want, is clearly unacceptable. In Chicago, about 60 percent of public school students graduate from high school.
A Washington Post editorial (9/11/12):
The administration has championed reforms much like those the Chicago local is fighting. And with good reason: A scandalously low 56 percent of Chicago students graduate from high school. That is the status quo the union is fighting to preserve.
You got that right–teachers want nothing to change in their school system. Of course, anyone who so much as glanced at the Chicago Teachers Union website could see these teachers actually want quite a bit to change: smaller classes, more support staff, closing the funding gaps between schools. To suggest that what teachers want is to maintain low graduation rates is absurd and offensive.
But Post readers get a different take in today’s paper. The editorial page attacks the union, while the op-ed page…also attacks the union. Charles Lane’s column points out that teachers are making more than the families whose children they teach:
In Chicago, 85 percent of the roughly 400,000 public school students are either African American or Latino. A similar percentage receives free or reduced-price meals, which means these students live at or near the poverty line: $27,214 for a family of three, in a typical case.
The average public-school teacher in Chicago earned almost triple that amount–$76,000 per year, according to the school district. In contract negotiations this year, Chicago Public Schools offered an average total pay increase of 16 percent over four years.
Those averages are debatable, but that hardly matters, since Lane seems to be suggesting that teachers should be making a whole lot less. And, to be clear, he’s not even telling us how he really feels:
I cannot describe the moral repugnance of this strike by aggrieved middle-class “professionals” against the aspiring poor. Well, I could describe it, but only by plagiarizing Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s unprintable vocabulary.
Lane, for the record, was furious about the Wisconsin protests against Republican Gov. Scott Walker, and even wrote this (2/19/11):
If the brave Gabrielle Giffords could speak normally, what would she say about these events? I hope she would agree with me: This is a sad moment for liberalism, for the Democratic Party, and, really, for the whole country.
Five weeks after Giffords was nearly killed by a gunman, Lane used her to bash unions. And yet he gives lectures about morally repugnant behavior.
I would say lying is second nature to these schmenges
But that would imply it’s not their primary impulse.
Why does Lane put “professionals” in scare quotes? Is he suggesting that teachers aren’t actually members of a profession? Any old person can become a teacher, it’s just glorified baby-sitting? This is, of course, as opposed to “journalists” like Lane, who really can and do get their positions with no training whatsoever.
Charles Lane’s argument comparing the pay between college-degreed (and advanced degreed) teachers and that of the poor families of the students they try to educate is absurd. Taken to its logical conclusion, his pay is probably higher than many of the poor working stiffs that read his columns.
And his “moral repugnance” towards the teachers is laughable. His hero, Rahm Emanuel, hasn’t even bothered to be at the table for the negotiations, nor has he sent even one of his inner circle minions. And f***him, as Emanuel might say, when he puts the word professionals in quotes. What a jerk.
He is obviously just another paid Troll and Shill for the likes of the Cock Bros and other Vulture Capitalists who of course detest any instruction or schooling which doesn’t include teaching people ‘their place’ in society. That ‘Socialism’ that is. We are supposed to be teaching Fascism, The Corporation is God.
I like how he has the Chutzpah to use the ‘They make more than” in comparing the Teachers vs Students family; Odds are even on the Beat he feels it is perfectly Ok for CEO’s to make 200 times what their workers makes, while not paying for any benefits or perks to said workers, and receiving “Corporate Welfare” and importing, or producing shoddy products to boot.
I am surprised he didn’t follow it up with the old canard and red herring that ‘charter schools’ don’t have this problem.
With “liberals” like this concerned for people living under the poverty line who need conservatives or the Cock brothers?
I forgot about Joe Nocera’s article that denounced the Chicago teacher’s strike. That makes three articles and one editorial in the supposedly liberal Times that came out against the Chicago teachers and the strike. Meanwhile, commenters were overwhelmingly supportive of the teachers and the strike.
Some of Rahm Emanuel’s demands include video teaching run by for-profit corporations, which the NY Times had previously said had no educational value whatsoever.
Of course student and teacher evaluations based on teaching to the test, which also isn’t education, was part of Mayor Emanuel and President Obama’s education proposals.
Emanuel also wanted to take away gym, music, and arts classes to be replaced with more math and science. I’m all for math and science, if they are used properly to expand critical thinking skills, and not merely rote learning, but all too often when teachers aren’t given the freedom to use what they’ve learned about teaching, that isn’t the case.
Students need to have access to a wide range of classes and extracurricular activities. Taking music, arts and phy ed away from suburban schools would not fly.
Mr. Lane do not criticize me until you have spent a day in my shoes. I’ll bet you wouldn’t last four periods. I wonder how much money his average reader makes. Thus, shall I insinuate that he should be making the wages of WalMart greeter for his “profession”? My “profession” at least builds intelligence, intregity, honesty, and character in the youth. Mr. Lane, can you say the same?
Years ago my teachers union went out on strike. The other side had the media’s ear–but people wanted their kids in school. They phoned the superintendents office and said, “Settle this thing! I want my kids in school.” And, you know, they did settle. People forgot about the big, bad union. Life went on. Screw the media. They aren’t as powerful as we sometimes imagine.
I love how the middle class is now the bad guy – way to go politicians that the middle class puts into power! Now that the politicians are wearing the halos, the rest of us pathetic, powerless, over-paid (WHAT?!?!?! I CAN’T AFFORD TO HEAT MY HOUSE! BUT YOU HAVE HEALTHCARE FOR LIFE?!?!?) peons better scatter and take cover (whatev.). Perhaps the middle class best educate themselves when voting, hmmm?
According to Lane, no one should go teach inner city youths unless he or she is willing to be as impoverished as they are. And presumably no one should be willing to go the third world countries and help starving people unless he is willing to starve also. And no physician should treat the sick if he is healthier than they are. Only people who pander to the wealthy, according to Lane, have a right to demand a decent living. Curiously, Lane doesn’t mention the fact that these poor people support the teachers, not Emanuel. They know who’s on their side.
There is so much BS being thrown around chicago that its amazing they haven’t closed o’hare airport. Lets clear up what is really going on in the strike and why teachers are upset.
1. alderman just gave themselves a 6 % raise, then complained about giving a 4% raise to teachers.
2. the debate over testing is over. now the question is how to get students to achieve better scores and to graduate. Has Rahm ever suggested such facilities that would increase scores–libraries, air conditioning, smaller class sizes. If rahm and the right wingers are willing to say that these conditions have nothing to do with achieving better, then why hasn’t he suggested these brilliant pedagogical theories to suburban districts.
According to Rahm, in order to raise test scores it is best that students have no air conditioning and are in schools that have 35-40 kids in a class. According to right wing educational theory and Rahm Emanuel, it is impossible for a student to learn in a classroom with fewer than 25 students.
3. The real problem of class size is NOT the mere fact of having 35-40 high schoolers in an Advanced Placement class. The problem is having to grade all of their essays which according to the college board must be assigned several times a semester.
4. How about that comment by Romney and Ryan commending Emanuel’s stand on the union? Rahm actually gave a good response, saying that what is really needed is greater federal funding for our schools. The National Review writer Rob Long recently wrote in Time that Rahm and Romney were totally on the same side here. This clearly misrepresented Emanuel’s true response to try to show the same lack of unity that is currently evident in the Republican party.
5. The disturbing fact for the right wing anti-unionists is that the parents of chicago actually support the teachers. There has not been a single counter demonstration telling teachers to go back to work, while 10’s of 1000s of teachers have protested daily with support of the parents. Typical republican strategy–make up a statistic that supports their view and hope and expect that people will follow.
6. It is not about money. Teachers have accepted the raise. The real problem has to do with the conditions of classrooms and schools. Again the truth hurts and the right wingers would really want it to be about a simple fact of money but it has much more to do with economic disparity, a gap which must be closed in order to improve education.
7. Why not add funding to schools? I’ll tell you. The right wingers publicize the idea that we should not fund schools because the schools don’t perform well. The reason for that is because there is a limited amount of funding in the first place.
8. Finally, how is it that teachers have now been degraded to being non-professional, non-
educated individuals? The work of teachers cannot even come close to being compared to a working class factory worker.
I’m a big FAIR fan (I’m wearing out my “Don’t trust the corporate media…” shirt), but for the second time in my memory I’m standing opposed to you guys. It’s not the pay or the benefts or those things that really started the strike or kept it going; it’s all about the teacher evaluation system and, relatedly, principals having more power to hire and fire.
I’ve seen the Chicago schools firsthand. My kids are now in one of the city’s flagship schools, but we spent 2-3 years pulling our hair after moving into town a few years ago. Before their current school, half of my kids’ teachers did not impress me. They surely didn’t impress my wife, who is a teacher in a charter school in the city. (She’s also worked in a union-contracted school for eight years before that.)
In the part of town where my wife works, there were previously no attempts to innovate. The schools were run like sausage factories, so they shut down and charter schools were given a chance.. and they’ve pulled their weight. Does it suck that my wife doesn’t make the same amount of money or work the same hours as a regular CPS teacher? Of course, but the kids in her school have a real opportunity to be educated. By the end of the year, EVERY single kid reads one-half grade level above their grade.
Not supporting evaluations in ways consistent with those at charter schools is a red flag only for low-performing teachers. Give such teachers better training after a real assessment. Give them a chance to improve in problem areas that can be identified only with proper assessments.
Karen Lewis talks about teacher “respect” and “feeling bad” after teachers are blamed for students’ low performance. This isn’t about feelings… this is about the simple fact that there is a totally inadequate means of identifying and rectifying problems in the instruction our children receive.
These standards for the teachers seem very odd. Apparently, THEY are responsible for all children passing or failing. They’re responsible for some parts of course, but if parents don’t read to their kids, or family issues at home are making it hard for kids to learn, then how can all of this be blamed on the teachers?
In private business the roles for responsibility seem reversed. If a bank CEO makes big bucks, it’s insinuated that he made this success all by himself. However, if a bank CEO fails, he still gets the big bucks and is not responsible for any failure. : )
Private buisness seems to work in the opposite direction of logic and the logic applied to teachers, is not applied to private industry. Why is that?
These journalists should really stop blaming the teachers for everything, and $55,000 a year in not that much money anymore. Maybe, because so many teachers are women, it’s just another way of continuing the war on them.
You really should treat the teachers better Mr. Emmanuel. The ones coming out of college now have such big loan debt that they can’t afford to work for you. : )
Another big deal Rahm, CPS leadership and so-called educational reformers like Penny Pritzker have made is that principals need to be able to hire and fire in the name of accountability. Being at once a product of the CPS, the son and brother of CPS teachers, a volunteer in a CPS school, husband of a CPS staffer and parent of a former CPS student, I think I can say rather authoritatively that the principals as a corps have a far greater percentage of low- to non-performers in their ranks than do the teachers. Personally, I’d be for having faculty involvement in hiring decisions, perhaps by department heads in consultation with a principal. Perhaps even more important in terms of where criticism should be leveled, as a corps the top management of CPS has been and continues to be a bloated, highly bureaucratic, highly politicized, highly overpaid and highly over-pensioned bunch that has (as distinct from the teachers), largely, gotten where it is on the basis of politics, not qualifications. In iteration after iteration, top leadership has failed each promulgated version of “reform.” Now they are basically selling off the system to the charters in that name. Yet we hear not one word of criticism from the connected set directed towards their brothers- and sisters-in-arms (Rahm and the so-called “educational reform” movement).
I wonder if Matt has ready the latest, largest study comparing charter schools and public schools. It shows that not many charter schools (I’ve forgotten the number) ourperform public schools, 37% do about as well, and 17% of charters do worse. I wonder how his wife feels about being evaluated based on her students’ test scores, or about being fired or retained based purely on her principal’s whim. Of course she doesn’t mind the low pay. She has Matt’s income to relay on.
Of course it is idiocy to say teachers want bad results.The same idiocy that says corporate America wants it.Or that Republicans want to destroy the middle class.Everyone unless they are addled wants the best for people.It benefits one and all.Straw man arguments for weak minds.What matters here is simply what money is available,and if raises are deserved.Or if the current pay scale/benefits are deserved.
Gloriana
I must ask you if you believe teachers should be rated on job performance in any way shape or form?Certainly there must be some way.In the private sector I may pay my CEO a million for doing the job I expect:or fire him for bombing out.I don’t think that freedom is afforded schools.In my area there are 1,500 tenured teachers.Want to know how many got fired last year…….ONE!!!!Ever see a stat like that?Bet CEOs want a union too.One that guarantees high salaries, and precludes firing no matter the job done.Seriously I feel for teachers.The same teacher teaching the same things to an area of upwardly mobil youths do to their families wealth ,will have far different results then inner city children from poor families,where there is zero family support..So how…….how do you rate performance when the unions block any suggestion of it?
Oh michael e.:
How curiously you think. The high income level of a family does not necessairly stop it from having family isssues, or even a lack of interest in their children’s future. WHY would you assume, when I mentioned these factors,that it was all about POOR families? Those kind of problems can affect all kinds of families.
Too many people, I think , look at test results, such as a high SAT score and think that this means that a student is set for great success in life. Maybe yes, maybe no, but it definitely means that the student is a good test taker, although perhaps that won’t lead to a wonderful career. : )
You asked, did I want to know how many teachers were fired in your area…and you said, exactly one. Why is there so much emphasis on firing people? What kind of a measuring standard is that? A school in Calif. fired the entire staff because one teacher was a child abuser. What kind of logic is that? Condeming an entire group of teachers because of one person? This guilt by association does seem to be what is happening to teachers nationwide too. Privatizing education is the killing off of any kind of upward mobility in a society, and why is a college education for teachers rated as not worthy of a decent income?
Here’s the reigning thought: if you are a parent ( no matter what income level) read to your kids, talk to your kids, help your kids with homework, and if you don’t know how to do something, TELL your kids, that it’s hard , or you can’t remember, or that you had a hard time with this subject too! Being honest works wonders! ( I’m a tutor, so I see all kinds of students. : )
It must be awfully hard to be a parent, and just as hard to be a classroom teacher too, but rating teachers on the success of bubble tests is insane. If schools really want to see how they are doing, then maybe they should give oral tests and eassay tests, because that’s how you figure out what is actually in people’s heads. This testing takes longer, but who really thinks that education of any value comes from rote anything?
Ask the parents about performance and they will see it in things like excitement about a subject, or at back to school night, look at what the kids are doing wth art, or writing, or music. Education is not a one size fits all, and if the corporate people that want to run schools would actually think things through, the ultimate aim for school,( to me, )is to find that excitement and passion for a subject that could lead to a career, or a lifelong interest in something that will serve them the rest of their lives. Without QUESTIONING there are no inventions, no medicine, health, science, literature, democracy or anything that has helped human beings throughout history. Public schools with nationwide standards will actually help a nation to create a sense of unity better than American Idol can. : )
Besides, if people don’t learn about the world, and how to read and think about things when they are young, then I think we end up with a world like today, where we get wars with cultures that we know nothing about, and where people from different cultures and races are the enemy, and where sadly, real life has turned into a wall on facebook.
Kids spend more time in schools than they often do with their families, and teachers can have such a big influence, but it would seem that the way to build a better nation and world is to start with supporting the teachers. Like a small business ,I think that the feedback should come from the principals, the parents, and the older mentoring teachers helping the new ones. Teaching really is an art, and people don’t all learn the same way, and good teachers know this and find ways to work with everyone’s style.
To act as if teachers have no value or need to be monitored like animals in corporate agriculture is really the killing off of curiosity and imagination too. I had a lot of wonderful teachers who had the time interest, and skill to make learning a wonderful thing, and I wish this for everyone in Americas, and the world too. But…this takes time, and there is no formula for a quick turnaround for investors in this area. : )
And finally, michael e., learning about facts helps in building knowledge, but simply repeating them means NOTHING. After all, nowadays, even facts are being bundled, and cut into so many pieces that they no longer are useful for anything, except….maybe bubble tests. : )
Gloriana
Well first I would say stats would prove that one of the major problems in low income areas is family support , and involvement in their children’s education.And that is so important.As far as what you just wrote I agree with everything you said.
We have a problem in our education system going forward.Children are learning less…or less than what we need today.They are dropping out in huge numbers.The scores are simply sub standard in relation to the money invested.Im not sure if fully funding(or over funding) a centralized system under complete government control is what is best……or even what people want today.Should parents have a choice?I do know it is not strictly a money issue. And I do think the teachers union has acted in a way that benefits the people they represent, and their own coffers- but gets in the way of open debate on how to make things better.The government who never saw a tax they didn’t like simply fights against any loss of control.Key word there Gloriana.In healthcare we change everything for the small percentage of the lowest scale of people who are uncovered.Noble but…….In schools we pay everything down to pay for those in the lowest spectrum ,and the results are lets agree…mixed at best.I think Americans are right and left good people.Maybe too good.We try to accept mediocrity as the payment for everyone being brought into an even playing field.Problem is today the world does not have to buy the goods stamped mediocre.Teachers in my life were the best among us.The guiding spirits to all your dreams.I still see them that way.The union that represents them not so much.They simply fights to fill their own larders- through strong arm tactics that in this day in age ,in this economic climate, is not playing well.And I don’t think it is serving our children well.Bottom line is do teachers get paid enough or too much?To my mind no one gets paid enough.Everyone deserves a million bucks.Problem with this sector of jobs is there is not a truckload of money to play with.And remember it is OTHER folks money you are playing with.That is why you cant compare it to the private sector.
Hmmm michael e.”
“Other folks money.. : ) Wall St. is a private entity and it uses lots of other folks money.There’s money from teachers, as in retirement funds, and money from individuals too. I don’t really think you can say that because teachers are state workers that their money somehow is different from other workers money.
I really wish that people would realize that re: MONEY: yours, mine, ours, and theirs is really all the same money! : )
However, it is September 17th, and OWS is back to remind everyone about who is doing what to whom with all that money! : )
Wall street uses other peoples money all day long.Given to them freely, with the hope for a better exchange.Not a guarantee but a hope.No money is “given” to government for dispersal to the state workers.It is taken(taxes).As far as who owns the money…..you forgot the Chinese.With Obama borrowing as he is- they own a huge part as well.Money is a commodity owned by those who earn it.Since government earns nothing -to say that there is common ownership is incorrect.Unless you believe in trickle down economics.
Well, “Matt from Chicago,” you make a lot of dubious claims:
You’ve seen “a” Chicago school first-hand. Your wife teaches at a charter? Really? Why? She hated the public schoools so much, and their damn union and their better pay, that she decided to go with the charter? I’m sure the children there are light-years better, but, incredibly, you wrote this: “In the part of town where my wife works, there were previously no attempts to innovate. The schools were run like sausage factories, so they shut down and charter schools were given a chance.. and they’ve pulled their weight. Does it suck that my wife doesn’t make the same amount of money or work the same hours as a regular CPS teacher? Of course, but the kids in her school have a real opportunity to be educated. By the end of the year, EVERY single kid reads one-half grade level above their grade.”
Everything you write above is either conjecture, nonsense, or your limited opinion. I’m calling bullshit on you for the last line above (cite the school, and give us the info via a link or something). I’ve got some news for you, that, incredibly, you are unaware of, seeing that your wife works in a Chicago Charter. Our Republicon-in-disguise mayor doesn’t think charter schools should measure teachers with the same metric he demands for unionized CPS teachers. Go to this link: http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/09/14/grading-teachers-failing-kids/
The rest of your post is hard to discern, and frankly the second-to-last paragraph is gibberish: Do you not think teachers (the unionized variety) want to be evaluated? Or, more to the point, do you think teachers like my wife (23 years in, Masters degree, reading specialist, bi-lingual, very good at what she does, and supremely dedicated) want to keep bad teachers around? My God, you utterly mis-understand things here, and maybe it’s because you moved here only a few years ago. I’ll be nice: Follow the link above, and for the hell of it, check out the three or four other articles at Counterpunch about the strike that our charter-school-loving, lying mayor engineered. After reading your post, my first impression was that you are a troll (“I’m a big FAIR fan (I’m wearing out my “Don’t trust the corporate media…” shirt)” . . . Hmmm . . . ). The main reason for charters is to break the unions.
P.S.: Some great work here from Gloriana –you’re fighting a losing battle with m.e.: you know that right? He’s utterly clueless, though if he would have stopped with his first post, something approaching acceptance would have been offered by me. Of course he didn’t.
Also, lonl, mike, and Joel Roache–nice. I would urge everyone to follow the link above; there’s also a fine putdown of Nocera there in another piece (it seems Nocera has jumped on board the testing bandwagon lately. What a fraud he and that clown Lane are.)
Jesus Christ, I just re-read what that idiot Lane wrote about Giffords. That’s truly vile stuff; he’s one stupid, ignorant asshole.
Why is my use of italics suddenly giving the posts a haiku-like form? Of course, I just used italics again–here comes that cool effect . . . .
. . . it must be some sort of HTML melt-down. Anybody?
Hi TimN:
Thanks for that link. I also read something else interesting about “parent triggers,” which is what parents can do if they feel the schools are failing. However, perhaps this idea of throwing the baby out with the bathwater should be applied to Congress first. : )
Or…even tried first with mayors of say… cities like…Chicago! : ) The parent triggers seem very Draconian, but let’s try it with Chicago government first. If too much privatization is going on, then with enough complaints, citizens could just fire the mayor. No need to waste money on recalls. : )
If politicians make promises that result in no result, then “Off with their head,” figuratively of course. So…Mayor Rahm… maybe you should be careful about what you wish for. For what happens to the teachers could be your future too. Chicago has changed a lot since the romantic days of the past poets…
“Hog butcher for the world…city of big shoulders..;” when you take down the teachers, I think you’re turning that “toddling town” whatever that is, into another Detroit! : )
This is actually a simple problem.Are these teachers the highest, or lowest paid in the country?If they are near the highest Is there any measurable claim that the students are getting a return for the money spent,giving at least consideration to another raise?And lastly, and most importantly- is there any money to do such a thing.Problem with the teachers union is they don’t give a damn if those teachers make more than most.They don’t give a damn how you beg borrow or steal the money.And Tim if you can tell me what rating system they do agree with- i would be appreciative of that.Tim and Gloriana in my neck of the woods, we have 1500 tenured teachers.One was fired last year.Do you see a problem with that?
A return for the money spent? Really? So, children are like toasters, or widgets? There’s plenty of information about how teachers should be evaluated, about how they should be fairly evaluated. Go to the union’s website . . . .
But you’re not interested in any of that, anyway. You come around with your right-wing fantasies, and that’s that. And I’m calling you out as a liar (again) for that last sentence you wrote above. Do you really think teachers are a bunch of greedy, over-paid hacks? You haven’t the slightest idea of what’s going here, but as usual you pretend to.