My very own personal view of the Extended day situation

First, readers should know that members of Raise Your Hand (RYH) including the steering committee do not agree on everything.  There are a lot of spirited debates on a multitude of education issues.

It seems to me no one ever left a CPS school for a private or suburban school because of the hours, it is always because of quality. My blog is not against a longer CPS school day and year.  I think it can be possible if it is well-planned, well-rounded and well-funded. And as a member of RYH, it is my mission to make that possible. But unfortunately, it does not seem to be going well between the city, CPS and the CTU. They have all forgotten what the goal should be.

Recently, I was going through the CTU contract from 2007 that is up for negotiation next year. In the preamble of the contract, the first paragraph says:

The BOARD and the UNION recognize that they have a common responsibility to work together toward the achievement of quality education. The attainment of this objective requires mutual understanding and cooperation between both parties and all members of the professional staff. 

There it was, beautifully written, right there on page 1. Problem is, we have not been witness to much cooperation and mutual understanding between the parties. Yes, there are some great public schools out there, but the system is inconsistent. Quality seems to be driven more by zip-code than policy or programs.

I feel it all started with some fuzzy logic. In an answer to giving teachers a contracted 4% raise, Mayor Emanuel, fresh in office, declared that in 'good conscience' he cannot abide by the CTU contract because it gave public school children the 'shaft'.  So even though three parties signed the contract - CTU, CPS school board and the City of Chicago - someone had to pay for this disservice to children and it's the teachers. After all, it's not about saving money, it's about saving children, right?

Not included in this logic, were the confluence of factors contributing to school difficulties, such as the continuous increases in classroom headcount, the lack of funding, the lack of support to diagnose kids with special needs or the challenges of teaching English language learners. As the logic went, if teachers were better at their jobs, they should be able to overcome all the social and economic ills and have the kids racing to the top.

If this is not the best of times to be giving 4% raises but then this reasoning should hold true for all areas of government,  and not just for teachers. At the same time the board was voting down the raise, the new president of the board, David Vitale, was justifying new higher salaries for CPS executives.  He had a good reason; the new execs were going to have 'enhanced responsibilities' and a larger work load. Makes sense, work more and get paid more.

We are now looking at an extended day for all schools next year. Currently, the pilot program is for 7.5 hour day. And while there is a one-time 2% bonus for teachers who move to the longer day this year, there is nothing concrete for next year since a new contract is coming up. Teachers will have a significantly longer day but probably not get compensated for it. It seems in the teachers' case, the logic above, work more, paid more is not an option.

Of course, it doesn't help that teaching is a predominately a female work force. Because women should just be nurturing and taking care of children, something as silly as money should not get in the way.  Now if this was a male-dominated industry it may be a little different. 

Has anyone asked Streets and Sanitation to work a longer day? Nope. What about firemen? No. Other unionized city workers? No one has asked them to my knowledge. To be fair some of these workers are asked to take a large amount of furlough days to cut costs.  See how that works, work less and paid less. Certainly seems fairer then work more and get only half of a contracted raise, which essentially is getting paid less. 

Before all of you start writing in to tell me that the private sector has been hit hard and has to take pay cuts and work longer hours, please understand that I know this first-hand. As I see it, if I get laid off, I don't think my neighbor should get laid off or get a salary decrease to make up for my struggles. I would hope that my neighbor does well and maybe hires me.

I think sometimes we forget that this acrimonious situation between CTU and CPS is not just about the money; it's about how people are treated.  It's about not being mean and petty and making a whole profession feel undervalued and the scapegoat for societal issues. It's about shared sacrifices and equity. It's about the total lack of cooperation and mutual understanding between the parties who are responsible for our children's education. And there is not one side that is totally right or totally wrong.

And how are some parents feeling about all this? Put simply we are exhausted.  Here's my message to all the bickering parties and I am sorry if it sounds crabby but that's where I am with all this: Teachers, if you hate your job and/or feel apathetic about it, please leave. I am not talking about a few bad days; I'm talking about long periods when you hate teaching. You do impact children's lives and unfortunately have a grave responsibility. CTU, we parents only hear from you when you are fighting CPS.  Don't be so quick to jump on every action by CPS and don't be a roadblock to progress.  Stop publically making the teaching profession, professional martyrs.  It garners little sympathy and takes away from seeing teachers as professionals.  And CPS, please respect our teachers who decide to hang in there; do not demoralize the people who interact with our children on a daily basis. Understand that they are invaluable resources who should inform policy.  They are "on the ground" and if you want to be successful, you'll use their wisdom and respect their committment. Do not drive away the talent!

Please CTU, CPS and Mayor Emanuel go and reread the contract preamble. Stop making this about your ego, be the bigger person and make quality your goal. Because this CPS parent is really fed up.