Schools Closings Deja Vu

As another 50+ schools face the possibility of closure, the moment, for those of us who have faced the guillotine in past years, is eerily familiar. As a teacher at Englewood High i helped organize a series of protests to stop the closing of our school, a school with over 100 years of history that graduated legends such as Timuel Black, Gwendolyn Brookes and Lorraine Hansberry. How can the Board close a school with such deep roots in the community without any kind of due process? When Edison parents complained about the undemocratic relocation of their school at last Wednesday's Board meeting, Rufus responded that the public hearing would provide an opportunity for public input. Any one who has attended any of those public hearings knows it's a farce, there is a board appointed recorder -- so you get your comments archived -- but there is no opportunity for negotiation. Maybe some of these parents and students should invoke the 1963 boycott where more than 250,000 students stayed home from school until their grievances about overcrowding and jim crow facilities were addressed. How about a teach in at one of these hearings until those with real authority to make decisions show up to negotiate? In the next edition i'll share the union's response to the school closing announcements in 2005 and how that might inform us about what to expect this time around.

Chicago Teacher Union's Historic Flop

The CTU got its start near the turn of the century with Margaret Haley at the helm. As leader of the Chicago Federation of Teachers Haley fought merit pay as a system prone to corruption and favoritism and pushed for an independently elected school board. We now have a union leadership that invokes Haley as a historic figure but has gutted the fighting organization that she built. It's laughable that the very issues that made teachers in this city a force to be reckoned with are being dismantled with the CTU's official endorsement. More to come on union politics and Chicago school reform -- check in daily at the Substance blog.