Rahm, the artless dodger

Rahm retreats "this much."

“Now that the mayor is starting to listen to parents, teachers and research regarding the pitfalls of the longer school day program being pushed in school districts across the country, it is now time he used both ears to hear everything we are saying about the types of schools our children deserve.  It is not the length of time but the quality of time that truly matters here.” -- CTU President Karen Lewis

Here's how the mayor works politics. First he throws out some education catch phrase that might grab the attention of unwitting voters in the short run --- like a longer school day. I suppose the logic is that if schools are "failing" more seat time will produce better outcomes. Of course, there's no research in the field to validate such nonsense and nothing can be further from the truth.

So the next step is to throw out some arbitrary school-day length. How about 7.5 hours, with no high-quality content added in nor any plan to pay teachers for extra work time? He knows that no high-performing school, especially the private school where his kids go, would ever accept such a long day or thoughtless plan. 

You see, all of Rahm's demagogy was never really about improving the teaching/learning environment. It was always about his grab for naked power. The immediate target was the teachers union and it's collective bargaining agreement. Rahm knows that if he can impose new work rules on teachers and other public employees, rather than allow them, as typically done, to be collectively bargained between the teachers and the board, he has won the battle, regardless of the final outcome of the length-of-day struggle. 

So when parent groups around the city finally get wise to all of the mayor's phony research baloney and start marching against the 7.5-hour school day, Rahm offers a weak compromise without dealing in any of the fundamental issues raised by the parents and the union. 

Pretty slick -- he thinks.