Editorial: CTU's Stewart sabotaging move for elected school board
Chicago needs an elected school board. The dictatorship over the public schools that began in 1995 when Mayor Richard M. Daley was given the power to appoint the "Chief Executive Officer" and every member of the school board has made the city a joke, except to other dictatorial types. During one seven year stretch, every vote of the Chicago Board of Education was unanimous and without debate.
Substance editorial cartoon April 2008. Cartoon by Sandra Gordon.
The most dramatic example of this need comes from the Chicago Board of Education and the CEO's slavish willingness to follow the massive privatization program known as "Renaissance 2010." Now in its fifth year, "Renaissance 2010" is an attack on public education.
At its March meeting, the Chicago Teachers Union’s House of Delegates voted that the union should organize for an elected school board in Chicago.
Despite the fact that the Chicago teachers union has a large staff of on-leave teachers, technical and clerical workers, CTU President Marilyn Stewart made no effort to mobilize the union's staff — let alone its 30,000 members — to help circulate petitions on behalf of the elected school board for Chicago. Above: Members of the CTU staff cheer Stewart during a press conference held on August 29, 2007, announcing that Stewart and the Board of Education had reached an agreement on a new five-year union contract. Although the contract was opposed by the majority of the members of the House of Delegates two days after the above photograph was taken, Stewart simply refused to count the "No" votes and went on to announce that the contract had been recommended for approval by the House. Then the union staff was mobilized to bring in a "Yes" vote in the schools from the referendum held on September 10, 2007. The same union staff and activists who were mobilized to support Stewart's sellout to Mayor Richard M. Daley could have been organized to support the elected school board proposal, which was approved by the House of Delegates. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.
But Marilyn Stewart and some of the leaders of the CTU are devoutly committed to following Mayor Daley and his agenda as slavishly as are the seven members of the Chicago Board of Education.
As a result, there has not been one mention of the elected school board on the CTU Web site, or in any other CTU material. Stewart and her closest cronies have spent more than three years violating just about every by-law and rule in place in the CTU. Elsewhere in this Substance, we note that Stewart is refusing to publish the “Delegates Directory”, thereby keeping this vital information from the members of her union.
Of course, Stewart dutifully provides Arne Duncan with the information about which schools have delegates (and, equally important, which schools don’t as the union sells out to the point where even the strongest teachers are becoming demoralized). So what’s just one other dishonest sellout after so many?
The elected school board is different. It is the one thing that could catch the public’s attention and bring back democracy — and a respect for public schools — to Chicago. It’s an idea whose times has come, and the Chicago Teachers Union must be behind it.
Editorials, Substance April 2008.
