WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Cook County Jail is now the national epicenter for COVID-19.

Prof. Marc Lamont Hill 

Easter calls us to remember the plight of the prisoner. Because of his political activism and message of social justice, Jesus was declared an enemy of the Roman State and sentenced to the death penalty...The story of Jesus is a reminder to challenge state authority, question unjust laws, and offer humanizing mercy to the prisoner. -- Ebony

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on her support for Biden

I don’t think this conversation about changes that need to be made is one about throwing the progressive wing of the party a couple of bones — I think this is about how we can win. -- New York Times

Chris Wallace, responds to Trump

"One of us has a daddy problem, and it’s not me." -- The Hill

Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin 

“Wisconsin has a long pattern of this … Time after time, they have acted to disenfranchise people to make it tougher and tougher to vote.” -- MSNBC

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert.

Earlier social distancing measures 'obviously' would have saved more lives. We make a recommendation. Often, the recommendation is taken," Fauci said. "Sometimes, it's not. But ... it is what it is. We are where we are right now." -- NBC

Is the Gov. From the State of Koch too big to jail?

I wonder why there's no mention of the Koch Bros. in S-T's coverage of Gov. Walker's crooked campaign fundraising tactics. Walker is after all, the Gov. from Koch.

Remember when a prankster called Gov. Walker  posing as David Koch and mentioned "special interests" the governor didn't flinch. He didn't have to be told in whose interests he was working. Koch had bankrolled his campaign and contributed over $1 million to the Wisconsin Governor's Assoc. The Koch-funded Wisconsin T-Party were his campaign workers.

Prosecutors are now on his trail but teacher-bashing, union-busting Walker may be too big to jail. He's one of Limbaugh Party's main hopeful's for White House run in 2016. NYT reports:

...the Club for Growth become “a hub,” according to prosecutors, for coordinating political spending by the Walker campaign and an array of outside groups. These ranged from the Republican Governors Association to Americans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group co-founded by the billionaire industrialist David H. Koch and financed by the political network overseen by Mr. Koch and his brother Charles.

Back in 2011, I had to hand it to Walker for truth-telling in a to talk with supporters at the stodgy, tie-only Union League Club. A group of protesters had donned business attire and sneaked inside the meeting, greeting Walker with chants of, "Union busting -- it's disgusting!" before they were finally escorted out by security. But Walker was clever enough to retort:

“I found it amusing to be referenced in the same vein as Rahm Emanuel, the mayor, but, really, some of the reforms he’s trying to do here echo the things we try to do in the state of Wisconsin and I give him credit for that despite the fact I’m a Republican and he’s a Democrat." 

Couldn't have said it any better, myself.

Education Apartheid

Occupied Chicago Tribune

Dyett High School students are not allowed to enter the front door of their school. Instead, the more than 170 students at the Southside high school enter through the back. From there, they must spend their day pushing through other students in the one open hallway, after half of the building was placed off limits. -- Education Apartheid: The Racism Behind Chicago’s School “Reform”

Reuters

A Wisconsin judge struck down on Friday the state's controversial collective bargaining law pressed by Republican Governor Scott Walker, ruling that it unconstitutionally limits the rights of many public sector union workers. Dane County Circuit Court Judge Juan Colas ruled that the law passed by Wisconsin lawmakers in a contentious session in 2011 violated the union members' free speech, association and equal protection rights in the state and U.S. constitutions. -- "Wisconsin state judge strikes down collective bargaining law"

Alan Singer

The strike, if successful, will benefit teachers, students and parents, not only in Chicago but across the entire country, as well as both unionized workers and non-unionized workers. This strike has the potential to go down in history along with other labor actions, such as those in Homestead, Lawrence, Paterson, Ludlow and Flint that ultimately built the union movement in the United States and transformed life for what used to be known as the working-class but what politicians today euphemistically refer to as the middle class. -- "Chicago Teachers Strike for Us All"

Reuters

Those realities in Chicago include children walking to school through neighborhoods full of gang violence, poverty and parents just trying to survive day-to-day. Lewis champions giving more resources to such schools to lift them up rather than closing them and opening new non-union charter schools. -- "The Firebrand Leading Chicago's Striking Teachers

One bright spot in Wisconsin recall

Lost in all the talk about Walker's win over Barrett was the apparent senate race victory by John Lehman (D-Racine) over incumbent Van Wanggaard in a tight race. Lehman's victory will give the Democrats control in the State Senate. However, Lehman’s victory is largely symbolic. The state legislature is out of session until November, when 16 of the 33 state senators will be up for election. But it caps the recall season that began with a Democratic attempt to flip the state Senate last summer. That recall effort succeeded in unseating two incumbents, but Democrats fell one seat short of control.

Trying to make some sense of the Wisconsin vote

Precincts Reported: 99%

As of 3:16 a.m. ET

%

Votes

WALKER (R)

53.2

1,331,076

2.

BARRETT (D)

46.3

1,158,337

Source: Associated Press

Indicates winner

The right is jubilant. Just look at them dance for joy. Read their headlines:

Governor Walker's Victory Spells Doom For Public Sector Unions" -- Forbes
"Victory for Walker could spell doom for Obama" -- FOX News
"Biggest losers: Teacher’s unions earn “F” for Wisconsin recall abuse" -- Michelle Malkin

I haven't had time to really analyze the vote totals yet. I'm still not sure who voted and who didn't, especially in cities like Milwaukee, Madison, Kenosha, and Racine although I hear the turnout there was at record highs. Three-fourths of the state's African-American population lives in Milwaukee and I know the black and Latino vote went heavily for Barrett, as did the youth and women's vote.

What I can already see is that, considering Walker outspent Barrett 10-1, his 7-point margin of victory ain't much. Nobody in Wisconsin really won anything here. If anything, this was a victory for Citizens United and the Koch Bros. and a big defeat for the democratic process, such as it is. And what did Walker's T-Party billionaires really get for their $45 million? They managed to retain control over the State House that they already had. Only now, they will have to spend the rest of the year, heading into the national elections and the rest of Walker's term, confronted by a well-organized (if poorly-funded) grass-roots movement, spearheaded by organized labor. Does that put them in an envious position? I don't think so.

Interestingly, exit polls showed that 65% of Walker's votes came from people who didn't necessarily agree with his union-busting policies, but  who thought the idea of a recall election was a bad way to get rid of election pols. Also, Barrett, wasn't a strong candidate, only ran a short, underfunded campaign and certainly wasn't really a strong pro-union candidate. Some 37% of union households voted for Walker.

As for "doom"  for Obama, I doubt it. The Democrats carefully and consciously kept Obama away from Wisconsin as did the Republicans with Romney. Wisconsin is a battleground state that went for Obama in '08. The Dems certainly weren't going to invest big capital in a race that they had already decided was a probable loser.  As a result, Obama most likely comes out of this unscathed. In other words, Obama once again did the smart thing rather than necessarily the right thing.  What else is new?  Exit polls showed most voters favoring Obama over Romney by a 9% margin, a bigger margin that Walker's victory over Barrett.

Nagging questions remains however. What if the DNC had put $10 million more into this race? What if Obama and other heavy hitters had been more visible and held massive campaign rallies in Milwaukee and Madison? Could they have squeezed another 150,000 votes on top of an already high voter turn out? We'll never know.

What-ifs aside, the progressive movement in Wisconsin continues to grow. Hopefully it will regroup and continue to fight in defense of schools, teachers and collective bargaining rights for the state's public employees.

Steering clear of the fight

After Romney laid out the Republican platform on eduction, including union busting, vouchers and larger class size, the Democrats, including Pres. Obama and Sec. Duncan, immediately went into hiding. The reason? Thus far, their own agenda on education has been essentially the same as the Republicans and their appears to be no change in sight. Even on the few issues where they supposedly disagree, for example on school vouchers, Obama won't take Romney head-on, for fear I suppose, of alienating his wealthy and powerful corporate "reform" backers in Democrats for Education Reform (DFER).

As a result, the fight to save and transform public education has been left to a growing and vibrant grassroots movement of independent voices. Here's Dan Archer and Adam Bessie, masters of graphic journalism, posting their hard-hitting comic strip at Truthout:

Welcome to other side of the looking glass, and into the Bizarro world of so-called "education reform" - an upside-down universe in which up is down, left is right and multimillionaire CEOs are civil rights heroes championing social justice, while public school teachers are corrupt fat cats, maintaining a status quo which oppresses students in poverty and racism. -- The Disaster Capitalism Curriculum

Along the same lines, with a day to go in the Walker recall election in Wisconsin, the president finally spoke out in support of Walker's opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett -- sort of.  After Obama flew over Wisconsin twice without stopping,  White House spokesman Jay Carney was repeatedly asked by reporters, why Obama, who has been criss-crossing the country to raise money for his reelection bid, did not do more to help Barrett, Carney replied:

"The president endorsed Tom Barrett right after he won the primary. The president supports him, stands by him. The president absolutely stands by Tom Barrett and hopes he prevails. The fact is the president has made clear all along his opposition to those who would take away workers' rights, to actions that would take away or diminish workers' rights, and he's also made clear his support for Tom Barrett."

Oliver Knox posts at The Ticket:

The phrase "stands by" might not be such a bad way to describe Obama's support for Barrett. The president hasn't exactly poured it on for Walker's challenger. In fact, he has mostly steered clear of the fight.

That pretty well sums things up until this point.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Marquette Prof. John McAdams

If Walker survives, "even Democratic governors facing fiscal problems will be a little bit emboldened to take on public-sector unions." -- USA Today, "Recall targets Wis. Gov. Walker, reversal of union rights"

Cal State Chancellor Charles Reed

“We’re not replacing library books, we’re not providing the kinds of student services that we need to, we’re not providing the kind of health care that we need to. This is supposed to be our work force for the state. We go down this road and we’re looking at an ugly Russian winter for the economy.” -- NYT, "California Cuts Threaten the Status of Universities"

Michael Winerip, NYT

My concern is that the lists are stacked. Schools with the greatest challenges can appear to be the biggest failures. At a time when public education is so data-driven, that kind of thinking can cost dedicated teachers and principals their jobs.-- "In Lists of Best High Schools, Numbers Don’t Tell the Whole Story"

Blogger Jonathan Kantrowitz

So, with little to no communication between Bridgeport’s superintendent of schools and the teachers that actually do the teaching, Vallas decided what text books to purchase... What was it that the Queen of Hearts said? Oh yeah…”Sentence first! Verdict afterwards.” Welcome to Paul Vallas’ Wonderland. Where he is working to do to Bridgeport what he did to Philadelphia. -- Paul Vallas - Fan of British Literature? CtNews Blogs

The most vile attack yet on Wisconsin teachers

This is the most cowardly and treacherous attack yet on public school teachers, make that, on all public employees. That image above is of a full-page newspaper ad taken out in the Janesville Gazette, the local newspaper in Paul Ryan's district. The Gazette, to its credit, didn't print the ad, but it still managed to find its way into subscribers' mailboxes through fliers placed in the paper's home-delivery tube system. The names you can't read in this image are the names of teachers in Janesville who signed the petition to recall Scott Walker. Next to their names, is their salary. At the bottom of the unsigned ad, there is a space to sign to "opt-out" of any teacher's classroom who signed the petition.

Walker and his cronies at the Heartland Institute and front group,  Citizens for Responsible Government, aka CRG Network, have figured out another way to use their Bradley Foundation and their Koch Bros. money to first, go after the unions, and then after any teachers who dare exercise their democratic right to sign a petition, with public acts of intimidation.

The flier distributed by CRG this weekend is done in the same style as a flier stuffed in Janesville mailboxes in March. Those fliers listed the salaries of some district administrators and teachers and made specific charges against public schools, including "dumbed-down curriculum," "Marxist/globalist agenda," "sexualization of children" and "union bullying and vindictive targeting of students." The first flier also contained no information about who made it. It suggested parents pull their children from public schools and put them in private schools.

Wisconsin public school parent karoli, posts in Crooks & Liars blog: 

I have never seen any teacher who deserved the treatment they are receiving, and I've never seen any reason to tell any teacher they don't have the right to participate in our political system and still teach school. What outrages me most about this evil, cynical, ugly, thuggish act on the part of rich old men and women in Wisconsin and their precious John Birch principles is their utter lack of humanity. 

One can't help but notice the similarities between this style of attack on teachers and the publishing of teachers' names next to student test scores in the L.A. Times. If anyone ever needed a better reason to recall Walker or to  fight in defense of teacher unions, I don't know what it would be.

Gov. Walker got one thing right in Chicago speech -- "Rahm is echoing me..."

Protesters disguised as Republicans lay in wait for Walker  inside Union League Club

Wisconsin's union-busting governor tried to slip quietly into Chicago yesterday, to talk with supporters at the stodgy, tie-only Union League Club. So protesters donned business attire and sneaked inside and greeted Walker with chants of, "Union busting -- it's disgusting!" before they were finally escorted out by security. 

According to Stand Up! Chicago, the 70 protesters who attended the breakfast comprised almost half the total number of attendees. Outside hundreds more marched in protest of Walker's appearance. 

"It is an outrage and a shame that we sit at this fancy breakfast to listen to someone who has wreaked havoc on the lives of working families," the group said, according to a statement from Stand Up! Chicago. "Governor Walker has vilified unions and insulted the 99% who depend on living wages and adequate benefits to support their families, while on the payroll of the right wing billionaire Koch brothers.” -- Huffington

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker heckled at Chicago's Union League Club from WBEZ on Vimeo.

After making a 1950's Dixiecrat-style case against the power of the federal gommn't and for "states' rights," the besieged Republican governor had the nerve to actually claim that he was supported and liked by Wisconsin's unions. He obviously hadn't bothered to look out his window where hundreds of thousands of union members have been rallying all year against his policies and calling for a speedy end to his and his colleagues' political careers. The massive anti-Walker protests have spread nationwide and were in many ways, a catalyst for the current dynamic Occupy Wall Street movement.

In the end, Gov. Walker may have gotten one thing right. He came out and said what we in Chicago have been thinking for months:

“I found it amusing to be referenced in the same vein as Rahm Emanuel, the mayor, but, really, some of the reforms he’s trying to do here echo the things we try to do in the state of Wisconsin and I give him credit for that despite the fact I’m a Republican and he’s a Democrat." -- Sun-Times

Cuts have been a disaster for public ed

Conservatives hail cuts as "an opportunity"

Huffington's Joy Resmovitz reports that a UFT survey of 900 New York City schools finds that three quarters of elementary schools, 61 percent of middle schools and 59 percent of high schools had increased class sizes. 

"What we know is what we feared was happening," [UFT Pres. Mike] Mulgrew says. "Now, all 1 million of our students are ... having their education negatively affected by what has happened between the federal, state and city budgets." In addition to budget cuts, all city agencies were recently warned that they would have to make a total of $2 billion cuts in aggregate for the next year. -- Huffington Post

The problem is that our political leaders, particularly our secretary of education, don't believe that exploding class sizes are a problem. Get rid of him, President Obama.

Even worse, Republican governors in Wisconsin, Ohio, New Jersey and Florida for example, are pushing for even deeper cuts and the privatization of public schools. Chester Finn and his cabal of right-wing think-tankers over at the Fordham Institute  are celebrating the massive cuts.

“If states look at this as a way to really look at how education is structured, it can be seen as an opportunity,” said Chris Tessone, director of finance at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative education think tank in Washington, D.C. “It’s a chance to be innovative, to rethink their staffing model. We see this new normal as an opportunity.” -- Fiscal Times

The Daily News reports that almost half of the city's middle schools bought fewer textbooks. Over a third of high schools cut advanced placement classes, electives and gym. 

“We’re suffering from these budget cuts,” said Christine Wong, a special education teacher at Public School 1 in Chinatown. She said her classes have on average jumped from 17 to 25 students this year. If these cuts continue, it will be devastating,” she said. Wong said her classes suffer from a lack of basic supplies, including copy paper, workbooks and pens.

Over at Bridging Differences, Diane Ravitch describes a district (San Diego) which has been  recovering from years of top-down control by corporate reformers.

The district is now led by a dynamic school board chairman, Richard Barrera, and a low-key superintendent, Bill Kowba. Barrera has a background as a community organizer in the labor movement, and Kowba is a retired rear admiral with 30 years in the Navy and administrative experience in the San Diego public schools. Together, they are passionate and effective advocates for the San Diego public schools.

But whatever progress district schools are making is now threatened by budget cuts.

The state legislature has slashed $15 billion in funding from California's public schools in the past four years. San Diego alone has lost $450 million since 2007-2008 and has had to lay off teachers and other staff, increase class size, and eliminate programs for children. San Diego may be forced to declare bankruptcy, along with many other districts.

The latest NAEP scores are but one indicator that the combination of corporate-style reform and massive budget cuts are failing to improve things and are instead continuing to widen the so-called "achievement gap." WaPo's Valerie Strauss suggests a new T-shirt which would read:  “My nation spent billions on testing and all I got was a 1-point gain.”

Without mentioning the Occupy Wall Street movement, Merrill Goozner, writing at Fiscal Times, believes that a political backlash is building against education spending cuts which could have an impact in 2012.

Nearly all the top ten toss-up states in next year’s presidential election have sharply curtailed their education budgets since the recession began in 2008, a survey by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities shows. And with federal stimulus money evaporating, a new round of cuts to state and local budgets are in the offing. That could turn education into a major campaign issue next year, or at least one that roils the local waters where presidential politics will play out.

It's again worth mentioning one more time that after 10 years, we are continuing to spend upwards of $2 billion a week fighting a murderous, senseless, and unwinnable Afghan war. Can we do this and still maintain a public education system in this country? Uh uh.

Obama's Labor Day speech

Yes, the president did mention Wisconsin (ever so slightly) in his Labor Day speech in Detroit. But much of the speech could have come directly from Gov. Walker himself.

"When union workers agree to pay freezes and pay cuts, they're not doing it just to keep their jobs, they're doing it so that their fellow workers, their fellow Americans can keep their jobs."

What a bunch of horse bleep. 

Obama's in Illinois today

It "not a campaign tour" but Obama's in Illinois today, holding some town hall meetings downstate. But he won't be in Chicago, correctly figuring that the city vote is already in the bag for 2012. And with the T-Party loonies and corporate GOP assaulting him, it would have been near impossible to raise any of our school issues to him directly. 

"It's telling that the Republican Party, which believes corporations are people, would attack the president for meeting with Americans in their communities," said a spokeswoman, referencing a recent quip by GOP front-runner Mitt Romney. -- Crain's Chicago Business

Another reason why we need to build post-march SOS in order to confront both parties on school policy, here in Chicago and nationally. We will hold our first post-march SOS meeting in Chicago on Saturday, August 27th.

Alabama's assault on immigrant students

In Alabama, they are virtually deputizing school bus drivers to identify undocumented immigrant students based on a new state law. But federal law, The McKinney-Vento Act, mandates schools to teach all students, regardless of legal status.

According to immigration attorney, Michael Wildes,

“The law has effectively caused states to deputize school bus drivers as an enforcement measure, because of lack of guidance on immigration. Because of federal inaction on comprehensive immigration reform, states are taking things into their own hands and enacting potentially unconstitutional laws in backlash."

To speak with Michael, please contact Rena Resnick at 212-584-4323.

More victories in Wisconsin. Gov. Walker next?

Both Democratic senators up for recall Tuesday won double-digit victories in spite of millions of right-wing  dollars that flowed into the state to support the Republicans . Sen. Jim Holperin (D) defeated Kim Simac, a tea party organizer, 55 to 45 percent. In the District 22 race, Sen. Bob Wirch (D) defeated Jonathan Steitz, a corporate attorney, 58 percent to 42 percent. The two senators were among the 14 who fled to Illinois to boycott the vote on Gov. Walker's union-busting bill.

Walker is barely hanging on to a one-vote majority in the senate. Now the movement can focus on recalling him next year.

For their part, Democrats claimed they succeeded in creating a Senate that will be less of a rubber stamp for Walker's policies. They also said the closer margin will help to give Democrats their voices back just in time for the 2012 national election cycle. -CSM

In the mailbox

Volunteers needed in Wisconsin recall elections

Wisconsin Democrats are now within striking distance of taking back control of the state Senate and putting the brakes on Scott Walker’s out-of-control agenda in Madison. As momentum continues to build behind efforts to flip the chamber, we’ve entered the home stretch towards the critical August 9th elections against 6 GOP senators whose careers are now on the line for blindly following Walker and rubber stamping his extreme agenda. To continue our drive to the finish, we are running one of the most aggressive GOTV and voter contact efforts the state has ever seen. We still have dozens of GOTV volunteer shifts to fill, and we need your support. We've never been closer to recalling the Republicans who callously put corporations over working families. At the end of the day, the victory will go to the campaign most able to mobilize their base. This is why we need volunteers to help out during GOTV -- August 6-9.

We have volunteer shifts to fill in all 8 Senate Districts. Below you'll find a list of elections and their dates. For volunteers in need of supporter housing and transportation, we'll work to accommodate all needs, but these resources are in short supply, so we encourage volunteers to partner with one another as much as possible for these arrangements.

For more information on traveling to the state, please contact Keauna Gregory at keauna@boldprogressives.org or 770-547-0513.

In Solidarity,

Keauna Gregory

This is a stick-up. Your pension or your job.

Mugging in Milwaukee

Supt. Thornton just fired 519 city teachers. Now he is threatening massive lay-offs unless the 5,600 members of the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association would agree to pay $20 million more into their own pension fund. Of course there is no guarantee that a pension give-back, once surrendered, would prevent more firings.

MTEA President Bob Peterson released a statement Wednesday night defending the union's refusal to make pension concessions. He also criticized Gov. Scott Walker and the Legislature's Republican leadership.

Instead of creating jobs, Peterson said,

"Gov. Walker and his Republican supporters have forced the elimination of hundreds of family-sustaining jobs in Milwaukee" through layoffs. -- JS Online

No pension give-back for Chicago mayor

During the four decades he held public office — as mayor of Chicago, Cook County state’s attorney and Illinois state senator — Richard M. Daley paid a total of $393,679 into his government pension plans.
 
He’ll get all of it back within 26 months. Daley has begun collecting his pension, which, for now, comes to $183,779 a year. Next year, he’ll start getting automatic cost-of-living raises that will boost his pension by 3 percent every year. Daley, 69, chose to retire under the state’s most lucrative government pension plan — the one that Illinois legislators set up for themselves. It provides Daley with a pension equal to 85 percent of his final mayoral salary of $216,210. The state pays two-thirds of his pension. The city — which also is providing the former mayor and his wife with two limos and 5 bodyguards for life — picks up the rest. -- Sun-Times

Rahm does his best Ronald Reagan

"Not to quote Ronald Reagan, but I will: 'The facts are a stubborn thing,' " Emanuel said.

If there was any doubt that the mayor is itching for a union-busting showdown with Chicago teachers, he's made it perfectly clear by invoking an old hero -- Ronald Reagan. Emanuel's corporate handlers over at the Civic Committee have assured him that blaming rich, greedy teachers for the budget crisis and going after teachers pay, tenure, and pensions is a political winner.
 
They even had him quoting Reagan yesterday, conjuring up images of the great communicator busting the PATCO strike in 1981 and firing over 11,000 workers to the cheers of strike-weary air travelers. But this may have been a mistake at a time when Democrats need to stem the rise in joblessness.
 
Rahm and the corporate school reformers see the current crisis as their big chance to do nothing less than bust the teachers union the same way that Reagan busted PATCO. Only this time they are counting on the acquiescence of the union leadership to avoid another Wisconsin-type battle. Fresh off their victory with the passage of SB7, the reformers got the school board to block Chicago teachers' scheduled 4% pay raise.
 
Demagogue Rahm defended the salary cut, claiming "that three out of four Chicago Public Schools teachers will get other types of raises even without the 4 percent increase." So much for facts being stubborn. The point here wasn't that Rahm wanted to save the budget-conscious school board some money. Rather, he wanted to nullify the whole collective bargaining process which produced the raise. In essence, Rahm and the reformers are pursuing the same strategy as the Tea Party govs in Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, Indiana and Michigan. The only difference is in tactics. They want to do it to the workers. Rahm wants to do it to the workers, with their collaboration.  
 
But they may have overplayed their hand this time. This isn't 1981. Now they've pushed the CTU leadership's backs to the wall. This is a leadership that won the last union election by promising to lead a fight- back while attacking the conciliatory approach of the old union leadership. Now they have to stand up and fight or lose credibility. It's not just the promised pay raise but for the very future of their union that's at stake. 
  
 Greg Hinz at Crain's Chicago Business writes:

 "Mayor Rahm Emanuel clearly threw down the gauntlet today, as his new Board of Education unanimously voted not to pay scheduled 4% raises for members of the Chicago Teachers Union. Now the question is, what will the CTU do about it? Union chief Karen Lewis has used lots of angry rhetoric lately, but she has only a few days to make a really heavy decision: Whether to accept the cut or use it as a legal device to reopen negotiations on the now somewhat obsolete contract with Chicago Public Schools."

Even though SB7 has weakened the union's ability to organize a strike by requiring 75% of union members to vote for one as well as requiring a long mediation period, this all could still work in teachers' favor by allowing the union time to organize. It could also help build support from other public employee unions, like the cops' and fire fighters'.  It sounds like Karen Lewis and her troops have decided to go beyond the rhetoric. She went on TV last night and warned:

“We could easily strike because of this.” The teachers union president correctly blamed the school board for a possible strike by teachers stating “we are still shocked that the board would take an action that could possibly lead to a strike…” 

Even the threat of a strike, blue flu, and job actions by public employees as we head towards the 2012 elections, could well wipe that shit-eating grin off of the mayor's face.   

Friday morning TYs

Now that I've turned another year older, I'm trying to act my age, a little more mature if you will. So I've dropped my Friday morning FUs in exchange for Friday morning TYs (thanks) in order to get back on a positive footing and class-up the blog a bit. You see, some of my readers, including the sisters over at Our Lady Of Mercy (who follow me on Twitter) were complaining that they felt limited when it came to forwarding my profanity-riddled SmallTalk posts. I hope my FU fans will forgive me.

This morning's TY goes out to Judge Maryann Sumi of Dane County Circuit Court in Wisconsin for her ruling granting a permanent injunction that voided Gov. Walker's law banning collective bargaining rights for many state and local employees.

Another TY goes out to my favorite faux-research and think-tank debunkers, NEPC, for including my post on the new Social-Darwinism in their list of best ed blogs.

Finally, TY to IL congressional candidate Ilya Sheyman for creating a petition to The Illinois State House, The Illinois State Senate and Governor Pat Quinn, which says:

"We stand with workers across Illinois in calling on our legislators in Springfield to honor their commitments to public employees and vote "No" on SB 512."

You can sign the petition here.

Rahm: I don't like what they're doing in Wisconsin. However...

Our new mayor's  inauguration speech yesterday takes demagogy to new heights.

"I reject how leaders in Wisconsin and Ohio are exploiting their fiscal crisis to achieve a political goal. That course is not the right course for Chicago's future. However..."

Yes, if you want to know what these guys really think, always ignore the part that comes before the but or the however.

The mayor reminds me of Bush's  Ed Sec. Rod Paige who wrote in his book, The War Against Hope, "I have no problem with teachers," he wrote. "What I do have a problem with are the powerful unions."

Whenever you hear someone begin a statement with, “I have no problem with…(blacks, Mexicans, Jews, or fill in the blank (_____), you know there’s a “but” coming and that they actually do have said problem. Paige definitely had a problem with teachers.

Rahm implies he doesn't go along with Gov. Walker's attacks on public employees' collective bargaining rights. Then comes the "however." You know what's coming next. He actually does agree as his support for SB7 clearly demonstrates. Like any good demagogue, Rahm counter-poses taking away teachers' rights to "opposing reform" or "doing everything the same way we always have." Actually, Rahm's reform is basically doing the same thing as his predecessor -- more privatized charter schools, more testing madness, more school closures and mass teacher firings, all under the name of reform. It's Duncan's Race To The Top and  Daley's failed Renaissance 2010 on crack. Only this time around, with massive budget cuts.

I guess the only appropriate answer is: YES, we support reform. HOWEVER, this crap isn't really reform.

Case in point: Rahm's call for a longer school day (which nobody argues with) is based on the Houston model (shades of Bush's "Texas Miracle").

By high school graduation, a student in Houston has been in the classroom an equivalent of three years longer than a student in Chicago even when both started kindergarten on the very same day. 

Yes, if you can afford to add 30 minutes/day (4 minutes & 45 seconds/class) for 13 years, it does add up to somewhere around 3 years of seat time for kids. But more seat time doesn't necessarily add up to more or better learning. If kids are bored stiff in test-crazy schools, doing the same  longer will only push more of them out of school altogether.  Rahm fails to mention that HISD doesn't graduate any more students than does CPS and hasn't made AYP in 3 straight years or that they are cutting out a day per week of summer school.  For more on Rahm's infatuation with Houston, see my post on Huffington, Rahm Still Believes in Texas 'Miracles'.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Marcus Yam for The New York Times

A sign at 168th St. and Broadway in Manhattan announcing enrollment for KIPP Star Elementary, a charter school.

Educator Takes On Charter Chain

"There is a quiet but fierce battle going on in education today, between the unions that represent the public school teachers and the hedge-fund managers who finance the big charter chains, between those who trust teachers to assess a child’s progress and those who trust standardized tests, and occasionally it flares out into the open over something as seemingly minor as the location of a school." -- Michael Winerip, NYT

Biden visits Delaware high school

Biden acknowledged that “beating up unions” had become en vogue for some, but credited the key role unions were playing in improving Howard High. “Do you know what these guys did?” Biden asked. “They said, ‘We’ll take a chance.’" -- Education Votes

Experience makes teachers better

"Having $40 billion or $50 billion does not mean you know how to engage, entertain, inspire, motivate and educate a classroom of 25 10- and 11-year-olds for 6½ hours each day. Have any of these people even set foot in a classroom in the last 20 or 30 years, other than for the occasional photo-op?" -- Edward Johnson, teacher at West Elementary School in Sycamore, Il 

Al L.A. rally

"This is a direct attack" on all unions and the entire middle class, Mitchell shouted, warning that similar policies could soon be introduced by politicians in California, which is grappling with an estimated $26-billion deficit. "An injury to one is an injury to us all!" -- Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin.

Florida for sale

"The Florida Legislature proved this past week, once and for all, that it is the utter Whore of Babylon." -- St. Pete Times columnist, Howard Trolxer

Quotables

La Cucaracha

"In Madison a new governor, Scott Walker, is applying the Rahm Emanuel axiom that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste." -- Michael Miner, Chicago Reader

******

David Brooks on Obama: "we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pants." -- TNR 

******

"There is something deeply shameful about continuing to use 9/11 as a justification for remaining in Afghanistan." -- Jeremy Scahill

******

"Walker kicked the hornet’s nest..." Victor Kamber, The Hill

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Unions a Civil rights issue

"Dr. King lost his life struggling to help sanitation workers – public sector employees – achieve their goals for a dignified existence as workers. We think that's an extraordinary backdrop in which to frame the debate over what's taking place in the country today." -- Wade Henderson, president of the NAACP Leadership Conference.

Power shift

"This is a fight for workers, this is a fight for the middle class, this is a fight to try to stave off the shift in power and wealth that is starting to become gross." -- Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

Obama keeps his distance

Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, the nation's largest nurses union, called Obama "largely a bystander" in the debate over collective bargaining. "I think we're feeling a sense of betrayal from him and not liking it much," she said. -- Huffington

Destroit

"Bobb has set off a vicious cycle undermining even good schools." NYT's Michael Winerip Detroit -- Hope for the Hopeless