After two hours of clandestine deliberations Tuesday, the teachers' reps for the CTU voted to end the strike with a 98% majority. Just in time, too. A judge scheduled the hearing for the injunction suit filed by Rahm Emanuel for early Wednesday morning. Karen Lewis says the injunction suit had no influence over the union rep decision. Over the next two weeks, the reps will review and decide on whether to approve the tentative agreement struck between Lewis and Vitale last Friday.
People have differing opinions over who won the strike and many have written blog posts and editorials explaining why. Proponents of the strike claim that valor and courage in the face of tyranny explains the outcome. The scrawny kid stood up to the town bully and got to keep his lunch money. Opponents of the strike point to the incremental gains in reform, complying with state law and national policy.
Let's Make a Deal
Here's a break down of who got what out of this messy ordeal:
Teachers
- Struck down the merit pay system. The district proposed higher pay for teachers whose students perform better academically. CTU said no.
- Any teachers laid off by a school closing will get preferential bids on new positions.
- Got a longer school day and a longer school year. Rahm Emanuel says that a student starting kindergarten after the new contract commences will spend the equivalent of 2.5 more years in the classroom.
- The teachers will receive the 3-2-2% raise bump that I explained in an earlier post. The district calculates that, including seniority raises and education raises (more money if you have a Master's) already in place, the average teacher will get a real raise of over 17% in the next four years. This will push the average salary very near the $90 thousand mark. Originally, the teachers demanded a 30% raise over the same period. This would have pushed the average salary well over $100 thousand a year.
- Evaluations based on student performance remain, you know, since they are mandated by state law. However, the district has agreed to make student performance a lower percentage of the total evaluation and teachers who get bad evaluations have access to an appeals process.
Lake Forest
The Lake Forest strike ended yesterday as well. Wearing ties and sitting in camping chairs, the Lake Forest teachers protested for two or three days for raises and better benefits. 80% of the teachers in this district make $100 thousand a year or more. To be fair, though, 99% of them have Master's degrees and they produce some of the most successful students in the state. Depending on who is looking at these numbers, different people see different things. Some see a correlation between teacher pay and student performance. Some see a correlation between parent income and student performance. Some see a correlation between professional excellence and employee salary. I'm not good with all this Sociology stuff, so you decide.
Walmarch
Also ended. It was a march against Walmart. You see what they did there. Employees of a distribution company contracted by Walmart walked off the job last Wednesday. These warehouse workers, complaining about unsafe conditions, began a 50 mile/6 day hike across the state of California. Some farmworkers joined them. Warehouse workers in Illinois (here's where we tie it in) heard about the strike and joined it by walking off the job. Spokesman for Warehouse Workers United said, well, no, they don't technically work for Walmart, but Walmart dictates the standards of operations for its contractors, so there. And also Walmart sucks. End quote. The strike ended when Walmart said, sure, we'll look into all these allegations.
A Little Closer to Home
The union representing graduate student teaching assistants is threatening a strike over contract details. I'm new to the unionized part of the world. In Texas, unions are regarded much like third world air pollution: something far away that doesn't affect us. As such, I haven't paid attention to union activity. I don't know if this period between the blistering summer heat and the lethal winter winds, being conducive to standing outside with signs, is just Strike Season. Sort of like Hurricane Season on the Gulf Coast. Or if this goes on all year, like humidity in Houston.
Viking Schools
I read a blog about Finnish education. Finland has the best education system in the world (measured by student performance), followed closely by those syrup-guzzling socialists in Canada. Students don't start school until age 7, spend less time in the classroom than American students, and don't have to take a rigorous standardized test until grade 12. And they are outperforming us. The key is the teachers. It's not enough that they have a pulse and have just been doing it for a long time. All teachers in Finland have a Master's degree and only the top students can hope to compete for a teaching position. The profession is competitive and rigorous and is more revered than medicine or law in the US. All teachers are trained as researchers. This means, rather than adopting a teaching strategy akin to a frontal assault at Gallipoli, they actively evaluate themselves and their methods and find creative solutions for presenting curriculum. Also, they don't allow politics to influence education decisions made by administrators. They sort of treat education and politics like two different spheres. I know, it sounds crazy.
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