No Struggle, No Progress

One of the unintended consequences of the attack on public education is the politicization of educators. Generally speaking, teachers like to close their classroom doors and do their own thing. There doesn’t seem to be any point in getting involved in “politics” and so they mostly don’t. But the times are changing.

Suddenly, like it or not, “politics” is interested in teachers. Suddenly, wealthy and powerful people have become obsessed with them, and with what goes on behind those classroom doors. As the billionaire investors and their political allies attempt to refashion education in their own image, they increasingly force teachers to sit up and take notice.

Does this mean we now have a national movement of teachers united in a collective struggle to defend and improve public education? Not quite. Where teachers already have large organizations — their unions — they rely on them to defend their interests. The problem is that those unions have, by and large, conceded much of the ideological terrain to the billionaire privatizers.

That’s where Chicago comes in. While other unions have jumped at the chance to trade tenure, merit pay, charter schools, and other “free market” reforms for pay increases, the Chicago Teachers Union has drawn a line in the sand. The CTU is the first union to threaten a strike against so-called “ed reform”.

Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, says he wants a longer school day, for example. The CTU has responded, effectively: “No, we want a BETTER school day!” The CTU has boldly pointed out the apartheid-like conditions in the Chicago Public Schools, and demands that funding be restored to the arts, sciences, physical education, counseling, and smaller class sizes. Their research document, The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve is a must read.

Importantly, their stance has galvanized parent support. Erica Clark, a Chicago parent, wrote:

“We formed Parents 4 Teachers because we were fed up with the abuse that teachers were taking from politicians. We saw that there wasn’t recognition of what we saw as parents—that the interests of the teachers in the schools go hand in hand with the interests of our kids… The things that teachers are fighting for in their contract—smaller classes, more nurses and counselors, a better day not just a longer day, art and music for all schools—are the things that parents want. These are the things that teachers want.”

Daring to stand up to Rahm Emanuel — Obama’s former chief of staff — during an election year, is no small feat. But CTU is blazing a new trail for educators in this country.

Check out the Network of Teacher Activist Groups website to find out how you can build solidarity (including by making a donation to the CTU Strike Fund).

If contract negotiations fail, CTU members voted to go on strike on September 10. On that day, teachers, parents and students all over the country will wear RED in solidarity with CTU.

If you’ve got a red shirt, and if you want the CTU to win, you should, too.

In a very long and thoughtful article on racism today and its relation to Barack Obama, Ta-Nehisi Coates points out that the first Black president has carefully avoided discussion of race, although, naturally, racism is a central factor in everything about the way his presidency has played out. Coates doesn’t blast Obama for this avoidance, but neither does he ignore the consequences. He writes:

“Whatever the political intelligence of this calculus, it has broad and deep consequences. The most obvious result is that it prevents Obama from directly addressing America’s racial history, or saying anything meaningful about present issues tinged by race, such as mass incarceration or the drug war. There have been calls for Obama to take a softer line on state-level legalization of marijuana or even to stand for legalization himself. Indeed, there is no small amount of in­consistency in our black president’s either ignoring or upholding harsh drug laws that every day injure the prospects of young black men—laws that could have ended his own, had he been of another social class and arrested for the marijuana use he openly discusses.”

But there’s another Black president that’s worth watching right now. One that has decided not to avoid racial questions, but to confront them head on: Karen Lewis. She’s the dynamic new president of the Chicago Teachers Union. The CTU is in the fight of its life, against a mayor, Rahm Emmanuel, who is determined to crush them and implement the kind of neoliberal, business-oriented education “reform” that’s sweeping the nation. So in Obama’s home town, in an election year, Obama’s former chief of staff is doing battle with a union president who has decided to draw a line in the sand. 

The CTU released a report that’s worth reading, titled “The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve”. The report notes that, for example, 69% of African American students and 42% of Latino students in Chicago are currently attending segregated schools. The document makes specific anti-racist policy proposals, such as early childhood intervention, nurturing bilingual programs, and focusing on hiring and retaining teachers of color. CTU teachers have voted to give the leadership the authority to call a strike if need be. You can watch Karen Lewis discuss the latest negotiations here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vV6ZUBEsiY&feature=youtu.be. A balance sheet of this struggle is drawn well by Lee Sustar here. He writes:

“That’s why the CTU’s struggle in Chicago is so important. Four years after the financial crash of 2008, politicians and employers are still using high unemployment and tight budgets to try to permanently cripple organized labor while dismantling what remains of decent social services—and public education is in the crosshairs.”

Don’t expect Obama to step out in front when it comes to challenging racism. But there’s another president who is leading a fight that will make a huge material impact on the lives of students, teachers, and families of color in Chicago, and possibly, in the nation.