The Chicago School Teachers Strike Reveals the Need For School Choice

By Deacon Keith Fournier
9/16/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

It is time to move beyond rhetoric and ineffective top down federal programs and enact true educational Reform. It is time for school choice.

350,000 students are still out of school in Chicago. The Teachers Union called what the Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel referred to as a "strike of choice". The Mayor did not stop there, he added "And it's the wrong choice for children." The Mayor is correct. However, the right choice is school choice.

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CHICAGO, ILL (Catholic Online) - 350,000 students are still out of school in Chicago. The Teachers Union called what the Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel referred to as a "strike of choice". The Mayor did not stop there, he added "And it's the wrong choice for children." The Mayor is correct. I would add it's not the right choice for the parents and it's not the right choice if we really care about good education and the common good.

The right choice is school choice.

Some reports on the strike have criticized the salaries Chicago public schools teachers receive and point out that teachers work 200 days out of a year. In the year 2011 the median salary was $67,974. Some take issue with the labor union leadership which called for the strike, questioning whether it truly represents the best interest of the teachers, the parents and the children.

Others have focused on the poor performance statistics in the Chicago school system - only 60% of students end up graduating. Reports more sympathetic to the strike argue that the demand for evaluation of teachers is unfair and fails to recognize the full qualities and contributions of an educator because it focuses exclusively on test scores. Polls indicate that the strike is not faring well with the public, especially with parents.

The Chicago Teachers strike points to a much bigger social and public policy concern in the United States of America. This concern should become a main topic in the upcoming Presidential and Vice Presidential debates. It is time to move beyond rhetoric and ineffective top down federal programs and enact true educational Reform. It is time for school choice.

Those who oppose such a fundamental reform have taken to calling parental or school choice an effort to "privatize" education. In fact, it is an effort to "Parentize" education, by once again affirming that that the family is the first school and first government and parents are the first teachers. They should make the choices concerning the education of their children outside of the first school of the home.

Those who support school choice call for a public policy and enabling legislation which makes it possible for all parents, no matter what their socio-economic situation, to choose where to send their children to school. In her inspiring speech at the Republican Convention, Condoleezza Rice addressed our educational crisis and commended this approach:

"Your greatest ally in controlling your response to your circumstances has been a quality education. But today, today when I can look at your zip code and I can tell whether you're going to get a good education, can I honestly say it doesn't matter where you came from, it matters where you're going? The crisis in K-12 education is a threat to the very fabric of who we are."

"My mom was a teacher. I respect the profession. We need great teachers, not poor ones and not mediocre ones. We have to have high standards for our kids because self-esteem comes from achievement, not from lax standards and false praise. And we need to give parents greater choice, particularly, particularly poor parents, whose kids, very often minorities, are trapped in failing neighborhood schools".

"This is the civil rights issue of our day. If we do anything less, we condemn generations to joblessness and hopelessness and life on the government dole. If we do anything less, we will endanger our global imperatives for competitiveness. And if we do anything less, we will tear apart the fabric of who we are and cement the turn toward entitlement and grievance."

She is correct; we need to give parents greater choice. This choice should be available for parents from among a full array of options including public, private, parochial, virtual, charter and home schools. This is why I prefer to use the term "parental choice" in education when advocating for this reform. It recognizes that parents are the first teachers and should be the ones who make the choice where to expand their teaching mission for their own children.

As a constitutional lawyer I know this can be accomplished in a constitutionally sound way by empowering parents to make this vital choice through properly drafted voucher legislation, tax credits, or opportunity scholarships. Those who oppose school choice too often resort to scare tactics. They argue that it will detrimentally affect the public school system. Sadly, they rely on ignorance to fan the flames of their opposition to a truly just educational policy.

They claim that supporters of school choice are against public schools. That is not true. For example, this supporter of school choice grew up in the inner city of Dorchester, Massachusetts in a "blue collar" home. My parents struggled to give me the first four primary educational years in a parochial school. The remainder of my education was in a public school. They moved, at ...

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1 - 10 of 13 Comments

Warren
4 months ago
Interesting comments. Too bad you ignore the Catholic social teaching on the right to bargain collectively. This is a very narrow presentation of the facts constructed to validate a limited opinion. If you lloked farther afield you would recognized that the problems within your education system are not the fault of the unions, but rather, the fault of a misguided approach to education policy. All of the highest achieving education systems in the world have strong unions and a strong professional body that guides educational policy. The mishmash of education policy that would arise from your proposal would only serve to continue the descent of your education system into chaos. Looking from the outside, as a professional, your systems for granting teaching licenses are far too lax, with too many routes into the profession, your salaries far too low to attract talent (I make $95000), education policy far too focused on standardized testing and the achievement agenda, your unions far too weak to prevent misguided policy development and your funding far to sporadic and tied too closely to the community. Fix these farmore demanding problems first then talk school choice. I am a Catholic teacher in Ontario Canada.
Ray Downen
5 months ago
Public schools were once an asset to the nation. This is no longer the case. Textbooks distort our own history and world history, and encourage dishonesty rather than what is good for the student and for society. Children are better educated either at home or at most private schools than in the "free" public schools which are so very costly.
RAY CURIALE
7 months ago
The 200 days per year which the Chicago teachers work, if broken down into weeks equals a salary of approximately $171,000 per year.
Theresa H.
7 months ago
It's amazing, the teachers make more than most Americans do and they want MORE--at this time, especially--with the economy as it is! Apparently, they have no shame; it is sad. I don't agree that government-run schools are the way to go--After all, where does the government get its money for the schools? I think we, the people, would do a better job locally and our children would be better off--considering what they are being taught (and not taught) these days in our public schools. Home-schooling in small groups is also proving to be an excellent alternative.
Proteios1
7 months ago
Being married to a teacher and having many in my family I will tell you what I hear repeatedly. Unions can be a problem, but what is the trade off. Dema pander to the unions and the teachers are lukewarm voters as a result of it. The GOP isn't considered a viable alternative...not because of the anti union stand. I think most would switch parties and only about half are loyal democrats. But the other half begrudgingly votes against the GOP because the constant hate spewing lies of fox news and limbough, etc. who rather than limiting their anger to unions, they direct much of it to teachers. That, in a nutshell, is a barrier the GOP needs to overcome. I think it would be more lucrative then people think. Teachers deserve a career and respect and I get a strong impression they are openly disrespected by the right. I don't think most are loyal union and democrats. At least not in my family.
John
7 months ago
I think these teachers have an obligation to educate our children instead of going around and around on the sidewalk. Are not Juine , July and August already great benefits? Who else has three months off.!!!
techwreck
7 months ago
Chicago corruption is ugly! It is especially ugly when it hurts our children. But, in the end, we the people get the kind of government we deserve ... the kind we voted for!
DarthJ
8 months ago
Homeschooling time!
kelso
8 months ago
Utter greed. Typical American consumerist gluttony. 75Gs a year, 3 months off a year, and they want more $. They make almost twice what a certain editor I know makes with only two weeks off a year. Of course, the children in any case are better off out of these public institutions of moral corruption and misinformation. Try homeschooling, you parents.
Michael
8 months ago
I agree with practically everything you said, the one thing that would still concern me if everything went the way you stated. That concern would be the Church taking taxpayer money for the parents choice of a Parochial school over the "public school" since it would be paid by taxpayers contributions, which would then allow the Government to have a say in the schools overall rules and regulations. It would give the government to much say in the way we run the schools and I think the government needs to stay out of the Religious institutions/schools. That's been the problem between the Churches and the State. You have the State controlling social issues or social charities you give them the power to rule against them. Those who feed from the troth will be forced to take what is given. Time to wake up!

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