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CHICAGO—The Chicago Teachers Union
won an important legal victory Oct. 4 when a U.S. District judge ruled
that the Board of Education’s firing of 1300 teachers last summer was
illegal and ordered the district to recall all fired teachers. The
Board, under the direction of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Ron
Huberman, had ordered the firings—claiming they were necessary to fill
a $370 billion deficit in the district’s budget.
The firings were ordered without
regard to teachers’ seniority or tenure, in violation of the union
contract. Instead, the firings were made at the discretion of
principals, who in many cases fired teachers with exemplary ratings and
the prestigious national board certification. Teachers have charged
that principals, told by Hubermen to ignore seniority tenure,
selectively fired teachers deemed trouble makers, avoided firing
favored teachers, and targeted higher paid teachers to improve their
schools financial books.
In one case, documented in an
investigative report by the Chicago Reader, a tenured, high
seniority teacher with national board certification was told that the
reason for her firing was the elimination of her art teaching position,
only to find out weeks later that her former school was listing her old
position. Other highly rated teachers reported they were unable to find
positions in CPS, despite their experience and high marks in their
teaching evaluations, fueling speculation that the district has
compiled a Do Not Hire register in order to blacklist certain teachers
from employment in CPS.
This attack on Chicago teachers is
part of a larger offensive against the union from Huberman, Mayor
Daley, and the political ruling class of Chicago to bust the Chicago
Teachers Union and clear the path for the privatization of public
education in the third largest school district in the country.
Huberman and his predecessor, current U.S. Secretary of Education Arne
Duncan, have pushed through a vast expansion of non-union charter
schools and closed down hundreds of traditional neighborhood schools,
both aimed at undermining the strength of the Teachers Union.
Obama and Duncan have pushed this
anti-union model on a national level, offering school districts that
adopt these anti-union policies federal grants.
Huberman announced the firings
earlier this year, using the economic crisis as an excuse, and also
demanded the union agree to mid-contract concessions, including giving
up their annual 4% salary increase. The Teachers Union, under the leadership
of a recently elected reform leadership, refused.
The union noted that Huberman and
his bureaucratic cronies in the district’s headquarters had taken
significant raises themselves. The union also pointed out that at least
$250 million annually in property taxes is diverted into TIF funds
controlled by the mayor and could be transferred back to the schools to
plug most of the deficit. Huberman later backed off the salary freeze,
but the board let stand most of the firings.
The firings are not about CPS
saving money; instead they are an attack on teachers’ right to due
process, an attack that goes to the very heart of what it means to be a
union member.
So-called education reformers have
raised the volume on their efforts to eliminate teachers’ tenure and
due process. Backed by billionaires like Bill Gates and emboldened by
the White House’s embracing of their agenda, education “reformers” have
pushed the lie that the problem with public education is bad teachers
and the union protections that supposedly tie the hands of principals
and administrators. If only principals could fire their bad teachers,
they say, the public schools could be reformed.
The truth is that teachers deserve
and need union protection just like any workers. The idea that principals
and administrators, if given free rein to fire their teachers at will,
would make their decisions based only performance without consideration
to personal and political relationships and salaries is laughable in a
city infamous for patronage, graft, and corruption.
With last summer’s
firings, parents, students, and teachers got a taste of what life would
be like for teachers in CPS if seniority and tenure rights were
eliminated. CTU President Karen Lewis issued the following statement
after the court’s ruling, “Teachers unions were formed in the first
place to protect mainly female teachers from retaliatory actions,
political firings, and crony hirings. Nothing’s changed.
“The need for strong
unions to protect teachers, students and academic freedom, especially
in Chicago, is upheld today. Through these illegal firings, the Chicago
Board of Education tried to silence our tenured teachers who are the
strongest advocates for students’ educational rights and the real
fighters for better learning environments.
“Chicago Public Schools should
stop slurring our teachers, suggesting that those fired somehow were
less than exemplary teachers. The court appears to agree—tenure is
necessary to academic freedom.”
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