Stop Rahmunism!

(Another) Jabbo Special Edition:
Teacher's Strike Day Two

Yesterday, thousands marched in downtown Chicago in phalanx that stretched over two city blocks. Today, they were at it again.

Apparently, the problems started last year when Rahm Emanuel hired Jean-Claude Brizard as CEO of public schools. Aside from having a suspiciously French sounding name, he worked in both New York and Rochester school districts where he became notorious for advocating performance standards and merit pay for teachers. Also, charter schools. Then Rahm vowed to lengthen the school day. Chicago schools (aside from having the highest paid teachers in the nation) had the shortest school days in the nation. Teachers didn't want to work more hours. As part of the negotiations of the past few months, Rahm got what he wanted, a longer school day, and the teachers got what they wanted, a pay raise and a promise to hire more teachers.

But no one's giving ground on the teacher evaluation issue. Chicago students have a whopping 60% graduation rate and only 6% of Chicago students go on to graduate from college. Everyone knows a problem exists. The CTU, however, claims that the evaluations don't take into account poverty, violence, and homelessness that affect standardized test scores.

Of course, this has become an issue in the Presidential Race. Romney has already released a statement condemning the strike. Obama has remained silent so far, but he has a history of supporting conservative reforms opposed by teacher's unions, including the creation of charter schools, the weakening of teacher tenure systems, and basing teacher evaluations on student performance. There's no doubt that a conflict between his party and his party's constituent base in Obama's backyard will have some political repercussions.

The news folks are touting the nationwide effects of this strike. Union political influence has been on the decline, only to suffer a major blow in Wisconsin this summer. A union-led recall of Wisconsin's Republican Governor Scott Walker totally flopped: Walker won the recall vote by a larger margin than he won the election. News people seem to think this struggle is bigger than disgruntled Illinoyances. If this strike fails, it could sound the death knell for unions everywhere. If they succeed, then stick a fork in education reform.

Granted, this is the same melodramatic media that has set up the 2012 election as a cage match between a misogynistic Thurston Howell (the third) and a Muslim Che Guevara. On the other hand, events in Illinois have had nationwide political impact before, like the creation of the NAACP and Labor Day and Abraham Lincoln's career.

However, unless something is resolved soon or the teachers start pillaging or Pat Quinn calls in the National Guard with tear gas and rubber bullets, I might start to lose interest. School Board President David Vitale promises a deal will come soon. The teachers promise they'll bang their tambourines for as long as it takes.

Double Quoi?
While watching some video of the strike, I saw a teacher waving a strange flag:

I looked it up. You are now gawking at the Municipal Flag of Chicago, adopted in 1917, rippling in the wind of symbolism. The white stripes stand for the north, west, and south sides of the city. There is no East Side of Chicago. Paper Lace lied. The blue stripes stand for Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. The red stars stand for Fort Deaborn, the Chicago fire of 1871, the World Columbian Exposition of 1893, and the Progress Exposition of 1933. In case you're perplexed by the dates, the original flag had only two stars, and the others were added later. A fifth star has been proposed multiple times for different reasons, but to no avail.

They chose six pointed stars because five pointed stars signify a sovereign nation (see also: Texas Flag). Each star point means something as well, but when I got to the one that stood for Salubrity, I got bored.

I found the picture here (also, you can read what the star points mean):
http://www.midwesternadventures.com/chicago-flag/

This is not uncommon: a disgustingly large number of cities in the US have municipal flags. Austin, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio all have flags. In Oklahoma, each county has a flag.

You can find your Municipal Flag here (click on the Muni link):
http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-state.html

Patriot Day
At the risk of downplaying the valiant struggles of Chicago teachers, we shouldn't forget that today is September 11. Illinois native Susan Sauer died in the attack on the World Trade Center. Hundreds of Illinois firefighters participated in the rescue efforts in the week after the attack. And well over 200 Illinois soldiers have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.