CPS Mommy Urges Teachers Not to Strike

Today, the Chicago Teachers Union announced that in their strike authorization vote, 98% of the teachers voting and 2% voted against.  This number is out of about 91% of the teachers voting.  You know who else used to get vote results like this?  Sadam Hussein.  I'm just saying, it wasn't until he was overthrown that we learned that the people in Iraq weren't really 100% behind Hussein either.

This strike vote is clearly against the spirit of SB7 -- a law carefully crafted by lobbyists, hedge fund managers, politicians, and other education experts to take away strike votes from the Chicago Teachers Union.  There are a lot of angry people who invested a lot of money in taking away strike rights from the Chicago Teachers Union.

I am not one of these angry people.  I love, love, l-u-v teachers.   In fact, I am in the process of making 26,000 friendship bracelets that I will soon give out to the members of the Chicago Teachers Union signifying that we are all BFFs.  That is how much I love the teachers of Chicago.  I am simply a CPS mommy or at least I hope to be when I have children and move to Chicago. 

What the Chicago Public School teachers don't realize is that they have now given CTU leadership such as recording secretary Michael Brunson the ability to use a strike vote as leverage during contract negotiations.  This leverage could very well lead to a strike.   I am sure teachers didn't realize this.  After all, if they're so smart, why are they teaching?

The vote count was coordinated by financial secretary Kristine Mayle, but what do we really know about Kristine?   As seen in this photograph, Kristine is very short and much closer to the tables where votes are counted than other taller union workers.  In fact, the ABC camera person could barely get 1/4 of Kristine's face in the picture.  It would be very easy for someone of Kristine's stature to reach down and tamper with ballots before a taller person would even realize anything had gone awry.  I don't know who the ministers supervising the count were, but things like Roman Collars and monk's robes obscure the vision and make it very difficult to spot chicanery.

The teachers have allowed Karen Lewis, Jesse Sharkey, Kristine, and Michael to whip them into a frenzy.  They are obviously not thinking clearly or they wouldn't have voted for the strike.   As parents or hopefully future parents we need to set them straight.   Surely, a strike vote like this is too important to leave to 75% or 90% of the teachers.   Shouldn't a strike authorization vote require 100% of the teachers to vote for it?  We need both sides at the table.  If you think so too, we ask you to  text the letters D-O-O-V-E-R to 3-1-1 to let the mayor know that you believe the Chicago Teacher's Union should have to redo the vote. 

The Secret to Effective Teaching - Galvanic Response Bracelets

Diane Ravitch recently broke the story of the Gates Foundation awarding grants to both Clemson University and The National Center on Time and Learning for a combined 1.2 million dollars to study the use of Galvanic Response Skin bracelets to determine student engagement.   This high tech bling measures emotional arousal via skin conductance, a form of electrodermal activity that grows higher during states such as excitement, attention or anxiety and lower during states such as boredom or relaxation.

I am happy to report than working in conjunction with Tyrell Corporation, we have developed a prototype bracelet for students and teachers to be used in trials during the 2013-2014 school year.   The bracelets will also be fitted with electric fence technology to end the problem of students ditching once and for all.
We have long believed at Last Stand for Children that education must be an exciting process for students.  A relaxed student is a student that is not performing at their highest level.  We can use smart technology to find out which teachers are best able to keep students excited, agitated, and anxious throughout a full class period. 

Future enhancements are planned for the bracelet to emit a brief electric shock to return a distracted student's attention to class as well as an attachment to allow the device to release a steady dose of Ritalin throughout the school day for students suffering from ADD or ADHD.   The future of education is here today and if we have the courage to grasp it, we will finally give our students the education they deserve.

 

A Message to Chicago Teachers from JC on the Strike Vote

Dear Teacher,

Earlier this evening, I emailed you requesting that you reconsider voting yes in the strike authorization vote in our schools beginning Wednesday, June 6.  I have it on very good authority that many of you did not heed my missive and in fact some of you have even taken to openly mocking it on forums and on Facebook.  I am asking you again to reconsider and this time the gloves are off.

I told you already about SB7.   This legislation was carefully crafted by very wealthy people both inside and out of the state to crush your union and take away your ability to strike.  Frankly, we never even thought there was an outside chance that you could hit 50% in a strike vote.  You may have seen the Jonah Edelman video going around where he explains the thinking behind the law.   You are upsetting a lot of plans and we are not amused.   Grow up and wait for the fact finder to rule on the small number of points he can rule on.

As you know, CPS and CTU are in the middle of the collective bargaining process established in SB7 and just because we've been at it since November without progress doesn't mean results aren't right around the corner.  For one thing, I haven't attended a single negotiation session yet.  When I show up there with my top secret offer, the union will be very pleasantly surprised.  When we offered a 2% raise, we really meant a 20% raise.  When we said we would absolutely not budge on things like class size, we really meant, "We welcome negotiations that will help all the city's children."  Of course, you won't know that if you go out on strike.  Will you?  If you vote for a strike you're disrespecting the process.  Believe me, if there's one thing we know about it's disrespect.

CTU continues to grossly distort our positions:

CPS is not changing its class size policy and has told CTU this repeatedly.  We are simply taking any class size protections from the contract, but come on this is JC.  You know you can trust us.

CPS has enhanced staffing levels by maintaining quota positions and giving schools an additional $130 million in discretionary funding that can be used for additional staff positions if your schools doesn't need books, or paper, or toilet paper.

CPS has offered teachers significantly more professional development time for both elementary and high school teachers by allowing teachers to stay after school until late in the evening or come into work on Saturday.

Third, Miss Lewis and Mister Sharkey have expressed interest in taking the strike vote now because teachers will be on vacation over Summer and it will be difficult to negotiate over the Fuller School Day after it has already begun.  Seriously?  You can't vote over Summer because you want to take your kids to the Dells?   Isn't it time that the children of Chicago didn't get the shaft while you got a trip down a fancy water slide?  Also, wouldn't it be made in the Fall when all teachers can make an informed decision including the 5,000 or so just hired teachers completely new to the system and lacking tenure protection?

I am confident that CPS and CTU will reach an agreement that is fair to its members, students and taxpayers. My team and I are committed to that. I was a teacher, my wife was a teacher, both my parents were teachers, I have friends who were teachers, I had a former teacher squeegee my car today and Common's mom was a teacher. We not only respect and support the work that you do, but believe very strongly that you deserve a raise.  All that talk about you not deserving a raise when we took the 4% from you last year---that was Rahm's idea.  I had nothing to do with it.   Authorizing a strike will likely derail that process, not aid it.  Then you might have to take a pay cut and while I would continue to support you, my heart just wouldn't be in it.

  

For more information on the intent behind SB7, watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kog8g9sTDSo.

 

Start thinking about the kids, you selfish jerks.

 

Sincerely,

 JC

CTU Respect Yourself

I've been so upset about the Chicago Teachers Union strike authorization this week, but I haven't been able to figure out why.  Sure I care about the students who will be left without a school to go to and the hardship these families face, but I realized what the answer was when I head CPS' CEO Jean Claude Brizard tell reporters, "What are they voting on? You’re asking educated professionals to decide something that they don’t know what they’re deciding on. That is disingenuous and disrespectful of teachers."

That's the problem!  Since the Chicago Teachers Union is made up of teachers obviously, the problem is that these teachers don't even respect themselves enough to wait until the Summer to take their strike vote.  Sure they'll say things like the fact finder can't even consider some of the issues most important to them like class size and a better school or they'll say a 2% raise is so insulting, there is no point in waiting.  However, the problem is teachers simply lack self-respect.

Fortunately, philanthropists like myself the Crowns, The Pritzkers love and care about this damned teachers union.  We care about it too much to let a bunch of teachers wreck it, like they already did to the schools care about so much.  It is time we took back the Chicago Teachers Union once and for all from the teachers that are destroying it all in the name of a contract.   I looked up what the ten steps for an intervention were at www.drugintervention.org and I think it's definitely time for an intervention:

Drug Intervention Step #1: Don't Rescue the Addict Friends and family members can attempt to protect an addict from the consequences of his behavior by making excuses about his addiction or getting him out of trouble.  We can't afford to do this with the teachers.  If they wanted a fair contract, they should have become consultants. Drug Intervention Step #2: Don't Become an Enabler Family members should be careful not to reward the addict by paying his bills, bailing him out of jail, letting him stay for free or ignoring his behavior. In other words, giving them a raise will hurt and will not help their self respect. Drug Intervention Step #3: Find the Right Time We've been telling them to wait for Summer to take a vote. Drug Intervention Step #4: Find Strength in Numbers Stand for Children has a couple hundred members and I think there's about a half dozen college students in Democrats for Education Reform.  I think we can scrounge up 150 or so.   We need more of you to help us stand up to these teachers and make them confront their problem. Drug Intervention Step #5: Be Honest No problem here.  Our school board is really good at this whole honesty thing. Drug Intervention Step #6: State the Consequences Tell the addict that until he gets help, you will leave him to the consequences of his behavior and will no longer bail him out. Make it clear that you are not trying to punish the addict, but protect yourself from the harmful effects of his addiction.  In education we call this accountability.  Again, we're very good at punishment. Drug Intervention Step #7: Listen During your drug addiction intervention, the addict might ask questions regarding potential treatment. Listen! These questions are a sign that he is reaching for help. OK, not a strength.  Brizard hasn't even shown up at a negotiation meeting yet, but we can always hire people to listen. Drug Intervention Step #8: Be Prepared We didn't prepare because somebody assured us they couldn't get a 75% strike vote.  Thanks a lot Jonah. Drug Intervention Step #9: Don't Give Up If the addict refuses help, don't give up. Be supportive and don't enable or allow his behavior. Listen whenever you can and be ready to help the addict into therapy when he is ready. It'd be a lot easier to just fire them. Drug Intervention Step #10: Find a Good Rehab Center Treatment Referral will help you find a center that effectively treats alcohol, drug and substance abuse beyond the initial cleansing of the system, addressing the behavioral and thinking patterns that directly contribute to the individual's disease. I would think returning to the classroom would be best. It's just like Bruce Willis says in that song he wrote all those years ago, "If you don't give a damn about yourself than nobody else is going to give a damn about you."

Sinister Teachers Union Treachery in Chicago

In its long history, the Chicago Teachers Union has done some pretty horrible thing, but the rally that they had on May 23rd may take the cake.   You know who else had rallies?   Nazis had rallies.   Looking at Chicago lawyer Matt Farmer tear into the children of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Hyatt Heiress Penny Pritzker in the above video simply because their parents want better for them than for the rest of the city of Chicago was disgusting.   Who is this lawyer to tell these parents, that their children should have to go to school with poor children or that poor children could even appreciate the fine arts, technology, and small class sizes so prevalent at elite schools.

The rally itself was unique.  By this video, I judged that there must have been at least 200 people there and possible as many as 1000.  The thing that stands out is that they are all wearing red shirts.  Do you know who else all wore the same colored shirts?  Nazis all wore the same colored shirts.  In the video, you can see how the teachers intimidated parents, nurses, and even cops into supporting them.  This rally is only the first step as the CTU races head long into a strike vote on this Wednesday.   The teachers seem unwilling to accept a 2% pay increase for working only 20% more time.   They also have taken offense to the notion of having 55 students in a classroom.   They're lucky to have jobs.  

Now, at the beginning of the video is a clip of Jonah Edelman.  I feel so sorry for Jonah right now.  Stand for Children does much of the same work that Last Stand for Children First does.  Stand spent good money buying state legislators to get through a law called SB7, which allowed the Chicago Public Schools to refuse to negotiate with teachers on most issues having to do with the quality of the school day.  They covered their butts by requiring a 75% strike vote by the teachers.  How was he to know they could actually get it?  It seems to me if you spend good money on a whole branch of government, they should pass another law to protect your investment as a sort of a warranty. 

Chicago's elite are hurt the most by this turmoil.  You just wish these lazy teachers cared as much about the children of the city as heiresses and hedge fund managers do.  Heiress Susan Crown, whose family has given more than $580,000 to Stand for Children, blamed teachers union for the mess. "I don't think the unions speak to the highest common denominators anymore," said Crown, who has started her own foundation focused on digital learning. "They speak to some of the lowest." 

I can confirm just what she said.  I observed a so called 5th grade math class in a Chicago Public School last month and the whole time the teacher was talking about finding the lowest common denominator.  She kept having her children find the lowest common denominator and not once did she tell her students to find the highest common denominator.  In this way, she was already indoctrinating her children for a future teacher's strike.  You know who else indoctrinated children?  Do I really have to say it?

Chicago Uses Math to Ease Budget Problems

The only thing more alarming than the $700 million dollar deficit the Chicago Public Schools is running this year, is the fact it's had these budget deficits for many years before miraculously getting saved by founding money in Springfield, Washington, or by searching the lobby furniture in Hyatt hotels for loose change.  However,  this isn't a depressing story about budget woes because CPS has found a way to extend the school day and save money at the same time.

Currently CPS students have a 5 hour and 45 minute day, which is about 45 minutes less than the state average.  This is because over 30 years ago, the Board asked the teachers to move their lunch to the end of the day and have a closed campus schedule.  While many suburban districts go 6 and a half hours with a study hall, CPS has a day that is intense, but short.

Next year, CPS will go to a 7 hour day for students that will require teachers to do 35 minutes more teaching a day and 15 minutes more supervision at the elementary level.  They are expected to this for a 2% pay increase.  The automatic roughly 4% pay increase most teachers earn up to year 12 for experience would instead be frozen.  Basically, CPS is asking teachers to work 10 more days and go from a 6 hour and 15 minute day with 45 minutes of lunch after school to a 7 hour and 25 minute day.

However, the part that I just love is CPS is now telling teachers they're not getting their salary for a 7 hour and 25 minute day, but for a 7 hour and 40 minute day.   Those extra 15 minutes are too be banked and used to make teachers stay after school or come in on Saturday for professional development.  You see a new law lets CPS add as many hours to the work day as they want.  It seems to me that it's sill to tell teachers that they're banking 15 minutes a day.  Why not make it 2 hours a day?   It's not like it costs CPS any money.  However, this would allow teachers to owe CPS 10 hours at the end of the week.  Surely, the city could use 10 hours of free labor.  There are a lot of charter schools that would love to have some certified teachers, but there are also buses to drive and parking tickets to write.

CPS has taken a bold step in using math to stretch their spending, but can't we go just a little further?  You have to wonder what Juan Rangel could do with 30,000 certified teachers who owe the city 10 hours of work each week. 

Reflections on the New School Venture Fund Summit

Flying into San Francisco for this year's NSVFS, I felt myself extremely lucky.   Not only was I sipping a wonderful Mimosa in my seat, but I was going to the New School Venture Fund Summit for the first time in three years.  For those of you who haven't been, NSVFS is a lifetime changing experience.  The place is full of the optimism for changing the world that only comes from giving two years of your life to teaching our nation's youth or managing a hedge fund.  It's a place where deals are done and where people who desire to serve our students come together with experts who spent nearly 400 days reaching young minds.

There was great corporate sponsorship at the Summit.  JP Morgan Chase was there with a powerful message that nobody cares more about the children of the 99% than the adults of the 1%.   Even Target hosted the opening reception showing that they believed in the future of our children regardless of how much their business relies on the children of third world countries producing clothing and other goods for their stores.

Actually, things got rather ugly at the opening reception.  There was a horrible mix-up and the hospitality table had fresh pineapple.  Let's just say that Pearson was not pleased and the pineapple was quickly removed to be replaced by a plate of pigs in blankets.  I was doing so much schmoozing and drinking, you can bet I was glad that the hotel pool, didn't have any chemical to discolor urine if you get my drift.

Later that night, we all gathered round to see a movie that I think will change education in America called I Won't Back Down.   It may just have been the liquor talking, but I think I Won't Back Down was as good as anything I've ever seen on Lifetime.  The movie will be this generations Not Without My Daughter.   Ben Austin gave a rousing speech on the need to get parents to feel more disdain for their children's teachers, so that we could have a chance to finally see the parent trigger pulled.

The next morning I was up with only a few hours sleep for morning yoga class.  That may have been a big mistake as I was hoping to meet some of the young reformers.  There were a lot of very attractive 25 year old retired teachers who were making their way into policy, but I soon collapsed on the mat for a much needed hour nap. 

I gave our presentation on the art of counseling out difficult students.   I think people were very excited to hear charter success stories this year after all the bad press and if our 22% reduction in stabbings doesn't count as success I don't know what is.  Charter schools can save a lot of money, improve test scores, and reduce problems with difficult students.  If you are willing to fine the students like Noble Charters in Chicago, you can make some nice pocket change as well. 

I attended two fantastic presentations during the day as well.  Forethought Academies, is behind the push for more power points in schools.  They gave a great power point on how power points make learning more fun and engaging for children.  At the end, they even showed a trick to make a fireworks display at the end of your power point.

The other presentation was by Young Educator and New Teacher Alliance.  They were looking for ideas on how to push out older teachers with five or more years of experience out humanely with a minimum of fuss.  They took several ideas from a science fiction novel called the giver.  They suggested having a party for teachers on the last day of their fifth year and having a "release party" for them.

The final speech of the night was by Rahm Emanuel who had the best quote of the who event saying, " failure is the most important thing in your life because it teaches you who you are."  He then went on to explain his goals for transforming the Chicago Public Schools by closing down those schools where too many kids are failing the standardized test. 

Rahm also warned that if you give parents a choice, they'll take it.  I assume this is in reference to his unwillingness to meet with parent groups unhappy with his plans for a log unfunded school day.  Finally, Rahm called for more educational entrepreneurs to set up shop in Chicago.  I will agree, there's a chance to make a real buck here.