Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Chicago Teachers Union Forces Rhambo Retreat

The surprise compromise followed a burgeoning revolt by parents concerned the 7.5-hour day would leave young kids exhausted and older kids unable to participate in after-school and extra-curricular activities.
Under repeated questioning, Emanuel refused to characterize the schedule change as a political retreat.

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, who has gone toe-to-toe with Emanuel repeatedly, welcomed the mayor’s compromise, but she couldn’t resist lecturing Emanuel.
“It’s about time the mayor listened to parents about the length of the school day,” Lewis said in a statement.
“Now, give our students the neighborhood schools, resources and support they deserve. Teachers have said this from the beginning. This is about quality — not quantity.”
Earlier this week, a coalition of sixteen parent groups demanded a meeting with Emanuel to go over the real research on a 7.5-hour school day and not the “misinformation” they charged CPS with spreading.
What is the difference between a union that engages in a rigorous fight back (CTU/Karen Lewis) and a union that plays footsie with the enemy (guess)?
The CTU has worked very hard to get community forces involved --- the key is not to be self-serving and the UFT will never be viewed that way no matter what they do.

Of course the Unity trolls will say, "They only got Emanuel to back off by a half hour?" These guys have been in control of the union less than 2 years, all of them coming directly out of classrooms. You guys for 50 years doing goodness knows what. Even I was shocked not long ago when a public figure who shall remain nameless used the term "quislings" to describe the UFT/AFT leaders. Jeez, even I don't go that far, only calling them Vichy. What is the difference? See Afterburn.

Excellent fact sheet that produced here: http://goo.gl/9ujda.

A White Paper on Chicago Public Schools’ Extended Day Proposal: The Best Education, or Just the Longest?
Chicago Parents for Quality Education April 9, 2012

Emanuel backs 7-hour school day after parents protest longer plan

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com April 10, 2012 11:00AM

Related Stories

Updated: April 10, 2012 2:08PM
Chicago Sun-Times - http://goo.gl/EXlzT
 
Mayor Rahm Emanuel blinked Tuesday in his signature drive for a longer school day.
Instead of requiring elementary schools to shift from the current 5.75-hour day to 7.5 hours, the mayor backed off and ordered a 7-hour day for elementary schools, beginning this fall.
High schools will stick with the mayor’s original proposal for a 7.5-hour day, but it will be limited to four days a week. On the fifth day, students will be dismissed 75 minutes early to give teachers more preparation time.




The surprise compromise followed a burgeoning revolt by parents concerned the 7.5-hour day would leave young kids exhausted and older kids unable to participate in after-school and extra-curricular activities.

Under repeated questioning, Emanuel refused to characterize the schedule change as a political retreat.

“There was nothing magical about ... 7 hours or 7.5,” the mayor told a news conference at Disney II Magnet Elementary, 3815 N. Kedvale, one of a handful of schools that pioneered the 7.5-hour day last fall.

“The goal was not the time. The goal was the educational opportunity and the quality that went with it. ... Time is merely an opportunity and then, how do you use it? And I would hope now that we’d stop debating about the time and start having a real discussion” about how to use it.

The mayor noted that he has compromised repeatedly in response to opposition.
It happened on the city budget, on his plan to install speed cameras and on the rules governing parades and public demonstrations heading into the NATO summit.
“I listened, as I have in each process. I set out a goal. We don’t compromise the goal. We find different means. That was true about the budget. That’s true on everything,” he said.
“But if you don’t start with a goal, we’d be stuck with 5 hours and 45 minutes and 170 days. And that’s unacceptable for the kids.”

The mayor refused to say how he plans to pay for the modified longer day, even as the Chicago Public Schools face a deficit approaching $700 million next year. He noted that his handpicked school team has found the money to make strategic investments while making hundreds of millions of dollars in budget cuts.

Funding remains a pivotal question, according to Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th), whose Southwest Side ward was home to the loudest parent protests against Emanuel’s original proposal.
“We’ve got the car. It’s a beautiful car. Now, we’ve got to put gas in it,” the alderman said.
O’Shea applauded the mayor for listening to parents concerned that the longer day would interfere with an extensive array of after school activities in Beverly and Mount Greenwood.
“If you go to one of my elementaries at dismissal time, you see a row of mini-vans. Mom is picking junior up. He is headed to floor hockey, touch football, piano, dance, art. The Beverly Arts Center is chock-full of neighborhood kids after school. There is so much after school [programming] and the parents are so involved, they feel they don’t need to be in school until 3:30-4 p.m.,” O’Shea said.

“… The fact of the matter is, the mayor listened. CEO Brizard listened. … The parents want to be heard and I think they were heard.”

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, who has gone toe-to-toe with Emanuel repeatedly, welcomed the mayor’s compromise, but she couldn’t resist lecturing Emanuel.
“It’s about time the mayor listened to parents about the length of the school day,” Lewis said in a statement.

“Now, give our students the neighborhood schools, resources and support they deserve. Teachers have said this from the beginning. This is about quality — not quantity.”
Earlier this week, a coalition of sixteen parent groups demanded a meeting with Emanuel to go over the real research on a 7.5-hour school day and not the “misinformation” they charged CPS with spreading.

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Afterburn:  

What is the difference between A quisling and a vichyite? The former refers to the Norway leader who purposely sold out his country to the Nazis whole the later made a deal with the Nazis after France surrendered. Maybe minor to some but I don't view the UFT/AFT as that evil to refer to them as quisling.


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