Chicago Schools CEO Brizard Out After 17 Months

Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

Just like the CEO of a private company that fails to act aggressively enough to maximize profits or to suppress worker discontent, Chicago Public Schools CEO, Jean-Claude Brizard, is out after only 17 months on the job. He is leaving by “mutual agreement,” the Chicago Sun-Times reports. In all likelihood, however, he saw the writing on the wall (the mayor was pissed off) and, like a good capitalist soldier, took a dive for the team.

Brizard had been handpicked by Emanuel to push through the his corporate education agenda, including the massive conversion of public schools into private charters, the unilateral imposition of a longer workday without commensurate pay, evaluations based on student test scores and merit pay. The teachers, not surprisingly, resisted, launching the city’s first teacher strike in 25 years and successfully rolled back some of these reforms. In short, Brizard failed the mayor and made him look the fool.

Brizard will be replaced by Barbara Byrd-Bennett, a former teacher, principal and Cleveland schools CEO. She had also been filling in as Chicago’s interim chief education officer for the past six months, helping to negotiate the deal with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) that ultimately got the teachers to return to the classroom. The final terms of Brizard’s departure have not yet been disclosed, but are expected to include a year’s salary of $250,000, according to the Sun-Times.

The Chicago Tribune reports that business leaders told Brizard that the mayor would blame him if the struggle with the CTU got out of hand (i.e., not crushed quickly with a decisive victory for CPS). Not only did Brizard fail in this, but he enraged the mayor by going on a family vacation just prior to the strike and he was absent during much of the contract negotiations. The teachers’ ability to spin the strike as a struggle against standardized testing and privatization was certainly an embarrassment to the mayor and he likely blamed this on Brizard, as well.

Byrd-Bennett is not planning on filling the position she vacated to become CEO and is expected to serve both roles, thus consolidating her power and sending the message to the teachers that her rule will be autocratic and decisive. This is important for CPS and Emanuel, as many teachers are already grousing about the rotten deal they got with their new contract (e.g., the raise doesn’t cover the extra hours they’re being required to work and 25% of their evaluations will now be based on unreliable and inconsistent student test data). Furthermore, the district has been withholding pay from teachers who participated in the strike and it is doing little about the dilapidated facilities, including many schools that lack air conditioning. The new contract also gives principals greater leeway in hiring outsiders and ignoring the pool of recently laid off CTU members.

The last thing Emanuel wants is a renewed strike or an escalation of discontent. Yet he is setting the teachers up for this with his new pension plan (see accompanying article below), which would cut benefits, delay the retirement age and increase employee contributions, thus further eroding teachers’ take-home pay and living standards.

Chicago Teachers Penalized by CPS and CTU

Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

Teachers who participated in the recent 10-day strike in Chicago saw smaller October 5 paychecks. Some received no pay at all. Yet the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), which did not extend strike benefits to the teachers, continued to collect full dues from them, according to the WSWS.

While many hailed the strike as a victory, noting that Chicago Public Schools (CPS) dropped its demand for merit pay and did give the teachers a raise, the new contract accepts student test scores as a substantial portion of teachers’ evaluations. Considering that these test scores have little to do with teacher quality and that they provide unreliable and inconsistent data, they have no place at all in teacher evaluations. The new contract also accepts a longer school day without compensating teachers fully for the extra time they will be required to work.

According to the WSWS, the CTU told members they “will pay a temporary penalty this week . . . For now, however, they will continue their sacrifice in defense of quality public education, as they draw from the savings they set aside in preparation for the strike.” The CTU also told members they “may” be eligible for personal loans from the United Credit Union. During the strike, instead of offering strike pay, the union’s parent organization, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), offered low-interest loans.

It is noteworthy that the Chicago teachers went on strike at all and that they were initially opposing the corporate reform agenda, including merit pay and the use of student test scores to evaluate teachers. It was particularly significant because unions have all but given up labor actions such as strikes as a means of achieving their goals, focusing more and more on lobbying and political campaign funding, which are far more expensive and less effective than job actions. It is interesting, but sad, to observe that the AFT was unwilling to support the Chicago strike or to use members’ dues to provide strike pay, yet they readily coughed up $31 million on electoral campaigns last year.

Chicago Teacher Strike Deadline Set

Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

Last Wednesday, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) House of Delegates gave President Karen Lewis authority to issue a 10-day strike notice. 90% of all CTU teachers (and 98% of those who voted) approved a strike back in June. According to Illinois state law, the union must also give the school board a 10 day notice before walking out.

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has been trying to lengthen the school day from 5 hours and 45 minutes to seven and a half hours, while also trying to close a $655 million budget deficit that is expected to reach $1 billion by next year, according to the New York Times. Initially, CPS tried to impose the longer workday on teachers without compensation, a ridiculous demand that has since been toned down. CPS agreed in July to fill the void created by the longer school day by rehiring laid off teachers, instead of making existing teachers work longer without pay. However, the union is still concerned about wages, job security, evaluations and other issues like smaller class sizes and increasing the number of social workers, counselors and nurses, reports Labor Notes. Much of this seems unlikely with the district slashing programs in hopes of closing their budget deficit.

CPS has also been bargaining in bad faith by violating the existing contract while new contract negotiations continue. For example, they have forced some teachers to take on extra duties during their prep periods, according to Labor Notes, which is a violation of their contract.

A CTU strike would be the city’s first teacher strike in 25 years. A strike date has not yet been set, but the soonest they could legally call for a strike would be September 10. Some teachers, whose school year had not yet started, have already been out on the picket line engaging in informational picketing in front of their schools. The school board, for its part, has taken the typical tact of bosses by approving $25 million for “alternative” arrangements, should a strike occur. Ironically, this $25 million, which will likely go to scabs, could have gone a long way toward closing the gap between teachers’ demands and those of the district.

Chicago Teacher Strike Looming?

Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

Students begin classes Monday at the roughly one-third of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) that are on a year-round schedule. Meanwhile, Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) president Karen Lewis is saying that a resolution of contract negotiations before then is virtually impossible, the Chicago Sun Times reported on Friday. Lewis went on to say that they hadn’t even started talks on compensation because they have been focusing on the smaller items during their 41 bargaining sessions. CTU is warning all teachers to prepare for a strike, as contract resolution may still not occur by September, when the rest of the schools are set to open.

A work stoppage on Monday would necessarily be a wildcat strike, however, as the union is required to give a 10-day warning to CPS and they have been forbidden from striking before August 18.

CTU is not going to sanction an illegal strike, especially with an interim deal still on the table. The interim deal would include the much touted longer school day for students, but not for teachers. This would require the hiring of many more teachers and bring many of the recently laid-off teachers back to the classroom.

The deal was a smart move by CPS, which has been demanding numerous concessions from the teachers. The longer work day may have been the most onerous of these concessions, as the district was demanding a 90-minute longer work day from teachers without extra compensation. It was also an easy one to give up (at least for the short-term), as an arbitrator recommended the district give a 20% raise for the longer hours. Thus, the district can spin itself as being reasonable and fair. It is hoping this compromise will convince teachers to accept the other concessions and avoid a strike—not an unreasonable expectation considering how averse to strikes teachers and especially unions have become.

One of these other concessions is CPS’ demand that student test scores be used in teachers’ evaluations and job security, something all teachers should oppose as the scores are unreliable and correlate much more strongly with students’ socioeconomic backgrounds than with teacher skill (see here, here and here).

Boston Teachers Reject Uncompensated Longer School Day

The Boston Teachers Union (BTU) and the Boston school district have reached an impasse after 21 months of bargaining, the Boston Herald reported this week. The next step is mediation. Should that fail to bring the two sides to an agreement over the teachers’ contract, the union could call for a strike.

Superintendent Carol Johnson blamed the impasse on the failure of the two sides to find a “middle” ground. However, Johnson hadn’t even bothered to show up for the majority of bargaining sessions, which is the reason BTU President Richard Stutman said the union filed the impasse.

Furthermore, her claim that the two sides have failed to find a middle ground is based on the fantasy that both sides had reasonable and realistic demands in the first place. In reality, the district wants teachers to accept a longer working day without extra compensation, a ridiculous and unreasonable demand. Teachers were asking for a 10.3% pay increase even without the lengthened work day, which quite reasonable considering their pay has been stagnant over the past few years. Their demand for additional compensation for a longer work day ought to be seen as a very generous compromise since it accepts the unreasonable demand that they work longer hours.

However, the district claims it does not have the money to support this. Thus, the only reasonable “middle ground” would be to drop their demand for a longer work day until they have the resources to “fairly” compensate teachers or simply drop the demand.

Longer School Days are Bad for Teachers AND Students

I use the term “fairly” in quotes because there is no fair way to overwork someone. Even extra pay cannot justify compelling a person to work longer and harder than is safe or effective. It is important to consider that teachers are already expected to do far more in the workday than is realistically possible. A typical secondary school teacher, for example, is expected to work 7 ½ to 8 ½ hours per day. In that workday, 5-6 hours are spent in the classroom teaching. In the remaining time they are expected to design and write curriculum; set up and break down lab, art and other projects and activities; contact parents; meet with colleagues and collaborate; write and grade exams and quizzes; grade essays, term papers and lab reports; keep up with administrative paperwork; address discipline issues; as well as a host of other teaching and bureaucratic responsibilities.

While lengthening the work day could provide more time for these responsibilities, in reality the longer school day movement is about increasing the instructional minutes for students, not easing the work burden on teachers. Thus, teachers are expected to use that additional time to teach an extra class, take on additional collaborative or school reform responsibilities, or provide additional remediation and support for students, rather than fulfilling existing responsibilities.

Additionally, the act of teaching itself is tremendously tiring and stressful. In no other profession is an individual expected to deal with 150-180 different personalities in 45-90 minute spurts, understand each student’s individual needs, tailor services to support these diverse needs, and provide support and empathy for those coming to school hungry, depressed, anxious, frightened, bullied, sick and angry.

In order to maintain sanity, patience and effectiveness, teachers need down time in between classes and at the end of the day. Lengthening the school day without hiring more teachers will increase the likelihood of teacher burnout and reduce teachers’ effectiveness in the classroom. Overworked, burned out workers are more likely to make mistakes. It is harder to notice when a student is struggling, sick or anxious. One reason that bullying often goes unnoticed by teachers is that large class sizes and overwhelming workloads prevent them from being aware of every student interaction that occurs in and near the classroom. Increasing the length of the school day will only worsen this.

Boston Teachers Mock Longer School Day With Stunt Plane

(Modified from image from Flickr, by dustpuppy)

Boston’s mayor, Thomas M. Menino, has accused the Boston Teachers Union (BTU) of engaging in a publicity stunt by flying a plane over City Hall in mockery of the city’s plan to lengthen the teachers’ workday. According to the Boston Herald, the plane carried a banner proclaiming that City Hall would now be open until 6:00 pm (a half-hour longer than it currently is). The union also produced fliers and newspaper ads stating that City Hall’s 720 employees “have agreed to work an extended day without any additional compensation.”

Calling the union’s action a stunt exposes the hypocrisy of Ed Deform efforts. BTU wants to ensure that its members aren’t forced to work longer hours without compensation. This is a reasonable and conservative desire. The longer school day fad (already well under way in Chicago and other cities) could be called a stunt. Supporters argue that it is a necessary “reform” for improving student performance, yet there is little evidence to show that it will improve test scores or other, more meaningful measures of student learning. Furthermore, like all the other reforms du jour, it completely ignores the primary cause of low student achievement: poverty.

There are of course putative benefits to a longer school day. Providing more class time might help some students catch up when they are behind in academic skills like reading and math. Longer class periods can also allow teachers to teach at a more relaxed pace, address student questions more thoroughly, take advantage of “teachable moments,” or go deeper into content. More time in class also means less time to get into trouble at home or on the streets. But an extra 30-60 minutes a day is unlikely to put much of a dent in the achievement gap. It will do nothing, for example, to provide food, housing and healthcare to students who are lacking these things. It cannot reverse the damage caused by malnutrition, iron-deficiency anemia, lead poisoning, exposure to second smoke, and other environmental insults that cause cognitive impairment and learning disabilities for so many lower income children. It will not provide enriching extracurricular activities during summer, like travel abroad, camp, or art classes. It will not reduce absenteeism due to untreated illnesses or provide reading to children when they are infants and toddlers.

Furthermore, it is pedagogically unsound to impose longer work hours on teachers. Longer hours mean that teachers will be more tired, increasing burn out and attrition, while also decreasing the energy they have for helping students in class. They will have less time and energy for grading papers and exams, thus encouraging the use of Scantrons and multiple choice assessments, while decreasing their assignment of essays and lab reports. Teachers will have less time and energy to design, set up and manage complex student-centered activities, labs, and projects.

It is also unreasonable and unfair to impose increased work hours on teachers without their consent or reasonable compensation. It is, in effect, a public sector version of the factory speed up, squeezing more work out of teachers, without a raise, except here there is no tangible increase in profits on the horizon. The mayor has offered a 5% increase over four years—1.25% per year—which is not likely to cover the increased cost of living in that time and which provides nothing for the extra hours of work. The BTU is asking for a 10% increase over the next three years, with no increase in work hours, which would cover the increased cost of living over that time period, plus help recover some of the losses in earning power teachers suffered over the prior three years.

Battle Lines Drawn: CTU Wants 30% Raise—What About You?

Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is imposing a longer school day next year and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has responded with a request for 30% raises over the next two years, the Chicago Tribune reported last week. Their proposal also calls for reducing K-5 class sizes from 28 to 23 students and shrinking middle and high school class sizes from about 31 students to 23.

Rahm Emanuel's longer school day initiative adds approximately 90 minutes to the school day in all CPS elementary schools beginning next fall. CTU’s proposal includes a 28% increase the first year and a 2% increase the following year, which they have argued is fair compensation for the roughly 21% increase in the workday and the additional responsibilities they will be expected to take on during those extra 90 minutes.

With the current state of financial affairs in CPS, it might seem delusional to think that CPS will accept CTU’s proposal, or anything close to it. Compelling teachers to work an additional 90 minutes and piling extra responsibilities on top of that without compensation ought to be seen as equally delusional, except for the fact that CPS has already drawn a line in the sand and insisted it has the right to unilaterally lengthen the work day, and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation giving it this right.

The big question is will CTU play hardball, stick to their proposal and strike if they don’t get it?

CTU is clearly considering this option. They have already started urging members to save their money in case they call for a strike before the start of next school year and they are offering a special savings plan at a local credit union.

They have also begun a PR campaign to counter the impending accusations that they are greedy and out of touch with reality. CTU President Karen Lewis made a public statement recently that the city has the tax base to properly support public education, calling for roughly $800 million in new funding by raising taxes on the wealthiest Chicagoans, closing tax loopholes for corporations, instituting a 6-cent premium on certain financial transactions and steering as much as $159 million in unallocated tax increment funding to the district.

Chicago Teachers Demand Raise—What About You?

Teachers across the country should pay particular attention to this battle and should be prepared to lend their support and solidarity. A defeat in Chicago could embolden legislators and administrators elsewhere to make similar attacks on collective bargaining and working conditions.

Virtually no teacher has seen a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) in the last three years, which means we are making the exact same salaries we did three years ago, despite three years of inflation. Consequently, we have all taken de facto pay cuts, while our unions have typically gone into negotiations from the very weak bargaining position of presuming there was no money available for COLAs and therefore not even asked.

It is time for all teachers unions and other workers to start demanding COLAs. Contrary to public misperception, a COLA is not a raise. It is merely a method to maintain one’s existing salary in terms of real dollars.

A COLA is a conservative and modest request and certainly shouldn’t be the ultimate goal. It is a bandage, a stopgap, the bare minimum of what we should be demanding. Most teachers do not get paid anywhere near what their education, responsibilities and commitment are worth. In the case of CPS teachers, the city is attempting to slash their wages by 21% by increasing their workday that much without compensation.

If CTU accepts this or anything close to it, it will be a major defeat for teachers and public sector workers across the country. The state legislation permitting CPS to unilaterally impose a longer workday without the consent of those affected represents a gutting of collective bargaining and is equivalent to forced servitude.

Smart Move for Union?

While CTU has lost the legal battle over whether the length of the work day is contractually negotiable, they can certainly demand to be fairly compensated and for better working conditions (e.g., smaller class sizes) and refuse to work if they are not provided. This indeed seems to be their strategy. They can void the legal consequences of resisting or striking over length of workday by demanding to be fairly compensated for it. If CPS refuses, they have a legal and legitimate basis for striking.

There are several problems with this tact. First, CTU is essentially surrendering its collective bargaining rights to the state and allowing it to undermine its contract with CPS. They are allowing the bosses to unilaterally lengthen their work day by over 20% without any guarantee of being fairly compensated. Most teachers no doubt have other personal and professional responsibilities that they fulfill when their workday ends that will now have to be given up, sacrificed, or transferred to evenings and weekends, thus depriving them of time with their families and communities.

Strategically, the length of the workday and collective bargaining rights are much more sympathetic causes than salaries, even if the former require civil disobedience against state law. CPS will certainly paint the teachers as greedy, selfish and out of touch, which will be difficult for the union to counter without large scale organizing among parents and communities and an expensive PR campaign.

One should also consider that any job action can be deemed illegal at any time through injunctions or ad hoc legislation, as Gov. Scott Walker attempted to do in Wisconsin last year. Indeed, all strikes were once illegal, but this did not stop workers from organizing and taking action. If there is sufficient solidarity and discipline, even illegal strikes can be won and lead to changes in the law. Well-organized and educated workers sometimes recognize this and engage in wildcat actions, in spite of the law and in spite of their conservative union bosses.

Nevertheless, CTU has played its hand choosing to fight the salary battle. It will be a hard row to hoe and one that is critical for them to win, as a loss will embolden other states to legislate away collectively bargained rights and job protections for not only teachers, but all public sector workers.

Testing Teacher Sycophancy in Chicago

CPS Imperial Guard With Teacher Slave (from Flickr ewen and donabel)

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is entering negotiations for their new contract. On the table are numerous assaults on their working conditions, including a longer school day. However, they are also locked in a battle with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Board of Education over a standardized test being used to screen out would be teachers who are pro-union, independently minded, or willing to fight the status quo in the interests of their students or their colleagues’ working conditions.

The test is called TeacherFit and it was specially designed for the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). In place since last spring, it has been used to bar teachers from teaching in CPS for 18 months, even if they had already been hired. According to a report in Working in These Times, some of the 31 questions include:

• I help people when they need it, even when that means risking a confrontation.  
• I love being a champion for my ideas, even against others’ opposition. 
• I love to challenge the status quo.

It turns out that nearly 33% of applicants failed the test, which is not surprising considering that many of the answers that would best serve students would annoy or frighten administrators. 

Most people go into teaching because they care passionately about children and want to help them. Therefore, it is presumed that we will help our students, even beyond their lessons, from time to time. Examples include calling home and meeting with parents and administrators over discipline, attendance and preparedness issues or seeking extra services for at-risk students or those needing mental health, special education or financial assistance. Any of these have the potential to lead to confrontations and conflicts with parents or administrators who are in denial, don’t want to be bothered, or who have other agendas and priorities.

Being a champion for our own ideas is how we develop and implement innovative new curriculum and how we advocate for our students’ needs. Either of these can lead to opposition or resistance from administrators. And while virtually everyone seems to feel that the educational status quo is not working, administrators want complete control over how it should be changed. They certainly don’t want to be challenged on their decisions.

As a result of the high failure rate, CPS is now using the results to recommend or caution against hiring applicants. Yet even this is a violation of labor law, according to Working in These Times . In an October 27th complaint filed with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, CTU argued that five of the test questions, including the above examples, constituted illegal intimidation and interference and violate collective bargaining rights.

Other test questions related to teachers’ willingness to work during their lunch breaks, evenings and weekends. While most teachers do some or all of these, it is not required by their contracts and they are free not to whenever they wish. It is certainly inappropriate for a boss to ask a potential hire if he is willing to ignore his future contractual protections as a prerequisite to being hired. It would be like asking him if he was willing to have sex with the boss during the job interview. Saying no means you he won’t get the job. Saying yes means he might get the job, but only with some very unpleasant and abusive strings attached.

Philosophically, the test is perfectly in line with the nation’s current obsession with data-driven reform, accountability and testing. It is also consistent with the drive to weaken union protections and workers’ independence, while increasing their servility.

Longer Chicago School Day: Truce or Surrender?

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) have been trying to unilaterally impose a 90 minute longer school day on teachers in violation of their contract. The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) sued to halt the contract violation and the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board ruled that CPS was using unfair labor practices in their attempt to get the longer school day without bargaining and winning an agreement with the teachers.

This, however, is not the end of the story. The Ed Deformers are convinced that a longer school day is just the thing needed to solve the problem of low student achievement—since their other magic bullets, like charter schools, merit pay and high stakes testing have all failed to do this—and they are unwilling to let a selfish and greedy union get in their way. Their goal now is to get the union to embrace their latest deform effort and convince their members to accept this attack on their working conditions.

According to a recent article in the Chicago Tribune, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who represents the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, brokered a truce between the teachers and CPS. The deal requires CPS to stop offering incentives to individual teachers or schools and the union to drop its legal struggle against longer school days for the rest of this school year. The 13 schools that have already voted to lengthen their days will get to keep their new schedules.

Battle Over?

New contract negotiations begin in a few weeks. Issues on the table, the Tribune reports, include restructuring teacher pay, new teacher evaluations and the district's plan to lengthen the school day. Complicating matters for the union is new state legislation signed by Gov. Pat Quinn that gives CPS the authority to implement a longer school day next fall without the union's approval, thus undermining collective bargaining.

In order to win this fight, CTU will have to strike not only against CPS, but the state of Illinois, a fight that is not likely to happen. Rather than using the lull to agitate and mobilize members, CTU President Karen Lewis has taken an entirely conciliatory tone, saying that she hopes “. . . we've taken some of the poison pill out of the water, and we can approach each other and work together," according to the Tribune.

The poison is still in the water. In fact, the water has been completely contaminated by the state’s intervention in the teachers’ contract and working conditions. Both the state and the city are hell bent on lengthening the school day. They only choices for the teachers is to accept this or fight.

If the union does not confront this directly and militantly, they expose their necks to continued manipulations of their working conditions by the state, on behalf of the Ed Deformers and they run the risk of making collective bargaining itself irrelevant.