Interview with 'Renaissance' inventor R. Eden Martin
Interview with R. Eden Martin. R. Eden Martin is a director at AON insurance and the President of the very influential Commercial Club of Chicago and its Civic Committee. The Civic Committee is well known as the central architect behind the Board of Education’s Renaissance 2010 plan.
The interview was conducted by Jackson Potter on July 23, 2007.
Jackson Potter: Why would you support charter schools as a solution to our educational problems in the city, when study after study shows that they are not any more effective than public schools.
Eden Martin: They are proven [to work]. Union studies are biased. CPS does a careful evaluation and they outperform [public schools].The longer charters are in existence, the larger [will become] the quality gap.”
JP: What is your objective in promoting charter schools here in Chicago?
EM: Part of the objective is that competition will pressure and improve all the schools in Chicago.
JP: Why not promote unionized charter schools, if your objective isn’t primarily to get rid of the Chicago Teachers Union
EM: Charters can be unionized if teachers want them to be. Many teachers prefer the charters. You don’t have to teach there. In many schools there are 9,000 to 10,000 kids lined up [to get in].
JP: There have been a number of studies that suggest that school closure are creating tremendous hardships for at risk students in communities of color. Do you view that as a problem?
EM: Everyone recognizes that closing a particular school can be a hardship for a community, regardless if it’s [being replaced by] a charter. The real problem is the quality of the school. The best way to deal with this is to improve quality, that doesn’t mean every charter will succeed, but it does create the pressure to improve.
JP: You were recently quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times saying you were opposed to allowing the CTU to strike, can you explain
EM: I never said that. The CTU has a legal right to strike. What I did say is that it would be a good idea to have an amendment to the law that would provide a fact finding third party mediator so that there isn’t an automatic strike in September. There is currently a bill in the legislature around this issue.
JP: The Commercial Club of Chicago has represented the powerful interest in municipal affairs for over 100 years, at the turn of the century you guys were promoting vocational education for the working class and a more traditional model for future ‘civic leaders’ is same philosophy in place today?
EM: Improvement of the public schools is more important today than it was at the turn of the 20th century. It used to be enough to have a high school education. In a hi-tech society, high school is not enough. Most need college. The basic function of schools needs to prepare people to operate in a technical world.”
The Civic Committee is working with the City Colleges to offer technical preparatory work.
JP: It has been stated numerous times in education circles that the Civic Committee’s Report “Left Behind” is the template that the mayor used to create the Renaissance 2010 plan. It seems as if your group has tremendous influence in the realm of public policy.
EM: I think you overstate our influence, I’m not sure it’s true. We try and make a difference. Much of what happens that affects schools occurs in Springfield, and there the Chicago Teachers Union is one of the most influential groups in the state.
