Ironically, as focused as I've been on the back-to-school season all week, those folks who aren't drunkenly celebrating da Bears win today are chatting about how it may be coming down to the wire and we may be reversing that season starting tomorrow -- it will be back-to-home or back-to-the-streets if the teachers go on strike as threatened.
And it's a mess. Clearly, teachers in the modern day urban environment such as Chicago deserve hazard pay. But this battle seems to be all tied up in big egos and politics and it seems like the actual teachers, not to mention the kids themselves, are but a small part of the equation.
Curiously coiffed Karen Lewis continues to be the spokesperson for the union despite her well publicized gaffes, and she's even gone on record to complain that Mayor Rahm-bo (he of the Napolean complex, I fear, so determined to prove how "tough" he is ...) swore in private meetings, as if his linguistic saltiness was not a well established character trait. The latest propaganda -- a lack of settlement might keep Obama out of office as it will strain his relationship with big labor going into the elections (which sounds all too transparently to me like a negotiating tactic put out by a spinmeister).
With a 60% graduation rate in the city and reading ability scores lagging national averages, time off from school due to a lack of cooperation between all parties is NOT what is needed right now. And combined with the violence in the city, staying in school might just literally save someone's life. I may not have any skin in the game as my kids don't go to school in the city (which is more because I don't have kids yet, as opposed to some voucherish choice I've made), but dear old Whitney told us that these kids are the future -- let's not cut that future short by refusing to strike a deal!
IT'S SET FOR TOMORROW!:
http://chicagoist.com/2012/08/31/chicago_teachers_union_set_sept_10.php
IT'S NOT HAPPENED HERE FOR 25 YEARS!:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/07/us/illinois-teachers-strike/index.html
THE CURIOUSLY COIFFED KAREN LEWIS AT HER "BEST"!:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/us/karen-lewis-chicago-teachers-union-president-apologizes-for-remarks-in-seattle.html
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