Friday is Important Naturally...

Who leads our union is vital to our continued good work in this city of challenges. And you should vote for PACT and Debbie Lynch if you believe that teachers and education should be a progressive influence in our civic life. If you are among those who might say something like "Chicago ain't ready for reform", then by all means..aw heck, no I won't say it. Just go and vote for PACT.

But I urge you, regardless of who you vote for, to realize that ours is not the most important challenge Illinois or our nation faces.

This is.

Marilyn Stewart Makes A Deal For More Charters In Chicago

The full story is here at Catalyst.

Well, well, well. What is it about incompetence that people find so attractive? Anyone who votes for these guys is just plain foolish. Marilyn and the UPC are cutting a deal in Springfield to bring more charters to Chicago. I guess losing over 2,000 dues paying teachers wasn't enough for the UPC crowd. They want to weaken our union more. This makes me sick to my stomach.

Here are some excerpts from the Catalyst story:

Chicago would get 15 new charters, but have limits placed on expansion campuses of existing charters, under proposed legislation crafted by Senate President Emil Jones Jr. and the Chicago Teachers Union.

At least three of the new charters would be required to serve chronic truants and dropouts, an idea hatched by legislators who recently visited several such schools in California.

The compromise proposal is significant because the Chicago Teachers Union and its statewide parent union, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, had made reining in charter expansion a centerpiece of their legislative agenda this year. Meanwhile, Jones had sought to double—from 30 to 60—the number of charters allowed in Chicago Public Schools.

And here is an interesting comment I found on the Catalyst comment section of this story from someone named Rod Estvan.

Now that the education funding bill has sunk, it is not at all clear that the CTU/Jones deal is still in place. CTU needs a funding bill to be able to cut a deal with CPS for pay increases. Right now there is no funding bill in sight that can pass the General Assembly. The main reason for the compromise was to get money to CPS, now that deal is gone. Will a stand alone deal on specific charter school expansion in return for limiting individual charters from having multiple sites under one charter be worth it for the CTU? I would guess it might not. Because in two years the whole issue can start again with calls for more charters, so the deal is basically meaningless.

Rod Estvan on Fri May 5, 2007 at 05:47:50 PM

Click here to read his comment in total.

What are your thoughts? Why did this story not break until this close to the election? What is going on over at the Merchandise Mart?