If you’d like a little light reading you might want to take a look at a free flight of fancy from Christian Schneider at City Journal:
The strike could also damage support for the teachers by drawing a clear contrast between heavily unionized public schools and union-free charter schools. Currently, Chicago has nearly 100 charter schools, and 52,000 of the students in those schools will be attending classes on schedule and outperforming public school students academically. A study by the Illinois Policy Institute examined the Chicago district’s open-enrollment, non-selective high schools and found that nine of the ten top performers were charters—all while the average Chicago-area charter-school teacher earns about $49,000 per year. Charter schools, of course, are also anathema to the CTU—but by walking out on the city’s schoolchildren, the unionized teachers are only reminding parents that another option exists, one that works better at lower cost.
It’s possible, of course, that the CTU could prevail in this dispute and win valuable concessions from Emanuel. But it’s also possible—if the mayor remains strong—that Chicago’s teachers have given Illinois the shove it needs to start moving toward the Wisconsin model.
For good or ill I see no signs whatever of that happening. The political dynamics in Illinois could hardly be more different from those of Wisconsin if they were in different countries. Wisconsin is a bit like Illinois without Chicago. The Illinois legislature and governor’s mansion are dominated by Chicagoans. Wisconsin has nothing comparable to the Chicago-downstate interplay that’s central to Illinois politics. The Chicago metropolitan area has nearly two-thirds of the state’s population and produces 70% of the income. There really is no comparison.
Currently, Chicago has nearly 100 charter schools, and 52,000 of the students in those schools will be attending classes on schedule and outperforming public school students academically.
Is this another case of the charter schools getting the better students, thus performing better not because of any inherent competence at the new schools but because of selection?
Exactly. Charter schools, like private schools, are not required to take all comers and can expel, essentially, at will.
Another issue: if you add up the total enrollment of the charters, the Catholic schools, and other private schools in Chicago, it comes to about 100,000 students. The CPS has an enrollment of about 350,000. Two implications. The charters, Catholic schools, and other private schools probably have the top 25% of students in Chicago. And there is no near term substitute for the CPS.
I know that one of the charter schools in this city, I believe run by a national for-profit organization, doesn’t just seek to enroll the best students, it seeks to expell or convince challenging students to go elswhere after they enroll.
The selection bias in these studies, the discomfort with recognizing that some kids by birth and family experience are predisposed to do far better in school than others, and the anxiety of parents, makes it difficult to figure out what a school or what a good teacher should be.
While private schools can expel or refuse to take students, this is not as simple as it seems. Private schools cost a lot of money, and each student expelled needs to be replaced by another student. The ability to pay the tuition and fees is a large component of the selection process. Furthermore, a healthy donation to the building fund can make a student’s bad behavior more acceptable.
Private schools are run like a business, and they are subject to supply/demand dynamics.
To attend an open-enrollment school, the student needs transportation. This can be an issue for the students and the parents. Parents need to be able to get to the school to participate in parent activities.
On average, charter schools produce similar to slightly worse scores scores on standardized testing than the districts from which they draw (or cherry pick) their student populations. Some, like KIPP, have demonstrated a willingness to work with low income students in large numbers; while this is commendable, even KIPP will not take or keep students with the lowest performance and highest needs (Special ed, disciplinary problems). In apples to apples comparisons, the academic performance of charters is so little differentiated from public schools that their primary educational effect is actually as a social sorting mechanism.
The Illinois Policy Institute likes charters because they are non-union shops that pay their teachers significantly less for longer hours and larger teaching loads, albeit with high rates of employee turnover. And because the for-profit charters make a nice, steady, revenue stream for investors when coupled with new markets tax credits.
Dr. Schuler,
I believe the implications and purpose of this strike are more interesting than you realize.
From reading various Progressive outlets, (and here is some independent info: Reuters)
this strike is very much about Wisconsin.
This strike is the line in the sand – the foothold for further battle – so to speak.
The CTU contract is ancillary. This is the unions trying to reassert their dominance.
The interesting part is that their definition of winning requires the complete emasculation of Rahm Emanuel.
I expect your strike to continue for a great long while.
Cfpete
I think you are on to something, there. I guess we will see how the next 48 hours go.
But to your point, despite all the Armageddon talk in Wisconsin…….it worked. The world did not end. This is tough for big government, public union types to deal with.
I’m a finance and management guy. The jig is up. The coffers are empty. And the BS has to stop. There is a cold, hard reality, period, full stop.
The notion that the private sector can simply be parasitically drained without bound has been the “standard model” for decades. It’s over.
The real question is, how do you bring modern management and efficiency techniques to the public sector, where these concepts are anathema. I own a baseball bat. I guess we could try that, but I’m not optimistic.
The truth is, I’m flummoxed as to how to deal with people who think money grows on trees. And we have a political class who foster this notion for bald faced political and personal gain. Our current President is Exhibit A. Now what?
Of course Wisconsin is on their minds. That isn’t the point. The question is what the outcome of the strike will be.
I suspect that on Saturday or Sunday an agreement will be announced and schools will reopen on Monday. The agreement will include some face-saving measures for the mayor but, essentially, he will have backed down. The teachers will get the 16% pay increase over four years that has already been agreed to. There won’t be any increased employee contributions for healthcare insurance or pensions.
There’s an outer boundary on the length of the strike. IIRC the longest teachers strike in Chicago history was in 1983. It ran for three weeks. Emanuel can’t tolerate beating that record. If it goes that long, he’s finished, particularly if the strike ends with his caving.
I’m not saying that the agreement will be realistic, practical, or good for Chicago. I think that those are the contours that the final agreement will have.
Dave,
In the polls I have seen, Chicagoans are favoring the CTU.
I don’t believe this strike has anything to do pay raises or healthcare benefits. The rank and file union members may believe that. They are easily manipulated. The unions and progressives want to stop “school reform.” This is their stand – in Chicago – which is not Wisconsin. They think they can win. Two predictions: Rahm completely caves with no face saving. Karen Lewis gets a nice “no-show” federal government position.
You may be correct, but I have my doubts!
Another thing, the unions and their allies will interpret a win in Chicago as having national relevance. They will be wrong.
Dave, one thing that struck about the Reuters article was the point that the Chicago School Board is appointed, not elected. I think that might be a source of any problem with some schools having leaking roofs and building maintenance problems. Appointees are too accountable to politicians, elected members would be more accountable to the neighborhoods and would draw attention to these problems.
PD Shaw,
The elected members would just be union patsies.
That is what happened in the past – that is why most urban school districts don’t have elected boards.
cfpete:
We’re in agreement in most of what you’ve said in your last several comments. Whatever outcome the strike may have it will only have relevance to Chicago. Emanuel will cave. And Karen Lewis is bound for a DC position. She’s a perfect candidate: Ivy-educated (Dartmouth) black woman. Both of her parents Chicago teachers. Been going to union meetings practically since the day she was born.
“We’re in agreement in most of what you’ve said in your last several comments. Whatever outcome the strike may have it will only have relevance to Chicago. Emanuel will cave. And Karen Lewis is bound for a DC position. She’s a perfect candidate: Ivy-educated (Dartmouth) black woman. Both of her parents Chicago teachers. Been going to union meetings practically since the day she was born.”
Whatever your singular view about Ms Lewis, does anyone else have the same reaction I have? Isn’t this the problem with government for the last five decades? This is it in a nutshell, with a bow on it.
And we are broke.
cfpete, Rahm doesn’t have the traditional organizational support of a Chicago pol; he largely got elected with outside money and national recognition. I assume there are pols waiting for a screw up or an opening to mount a challenge. He’s got his back to watch.
Overall though Illinois dynamics are entirely different because its unions versus Democrats. Wisconsin Republicans cut the funding channel from the government unions to the Democratic Party, Illinois Democrats won’t do that. But the Democratic politicians that want to use the government to advance their campaign promises, find themselves strapped by legacy costs of rising union salaries and benefits, yet are still beholden to union support to win elections. It would appear something has to give.
The truth is, I’m flummoxed as to how to deal with people who think money grows on trees.
Joke will be on you when the genetic engineers come up with a money tree. They’ll even customize them to group bills with serial numbers in sequence and they’ll work in the signatures of whomever is in office.
Actually, the joke will probably be on me. Why grow a whole tree? Just modify some kudzu or air potato, and you can grow the stuff faster and be ready to change signatures more often. Yeah, money kudzu & money air potato, that’s the way to go! Yeah, kudzu and air potato and the South will be THE net exporter of funds for the rest of the nation!
@Drew, I’ll reserve my judgment for the outcome. If she comes away with a commitment for more air-conditioning and better text books for the students, I’ll have one set of opinions. If she comes away with enough teacher salary raises and more flexibility for teachers to transfer to better schools within the system, I’ll have another set of opinion.
It’s my understamding that, before the actual strike, teachers got their incredible 16% raise. The issue being put forth, was not money, but was dealing with teacher evaluations. Basically they want no accountability.
Basically they want no accountability.
Which shows that they’re smarter than I gave them credit for.
Here’s a concise blog piece, with salient links, discussing how Chicago strike stalls over accountability and laid off teachers.
Apparently merit pay has been shelved, and the teacher evaluation process is being watered down. How can teachers possibly continue with the meme that it’s “all about the children,” when the children’s education is the one that is being under-served?
I have a money tree….still waiting for the bills to sprout though.
No we aren’t the government can spend as much as it wants since it has a “printing press” (or more accurately a computer and a mouse, but whatever). And the upshot is that all those deficits will mean savings will sky rocket!!!
All Blues.
Note on “accountability”.
SB 7, the Illinois education reform law, *required* the new evaluation instruments to be collaboratively designed by the union and the school district and that there is a minimum 30 % of a teacher and principal’s evaluation tied to student test performance. How that 30% (or more if agreed to) is composed and with which test(s) is up to the two parties; if agreement was not reached within 180 days of bargaining, the State would impose it’s own evaluation model (which has yet to be created).
My guess is that before the strike, Rahm was not particularly collaborative on this point and the clock was ticking for the CTU.
That’s a good point, zen. Under Illinois law SB7 evaluation instruments must be based at minimum 30% on student achievement test scores. The state has said that the ultimate goal is 50%. The CPS wanted the proportion under the new contract to be 40%, presumably to move in the direction of the state’s goals. To the extent that accountability, defined as evaluations based on test scores, is the objective, that’s already been mandated by the state.