The June 2008 issue of Substance:

National resistance grows to cuts in public education and expansion of high-stakes testing

Above: May 2008. San Diego teachers protest cuts in the public schools. Partly because of the growing recession across the USA, cutbacks in education and other public services are increasing, with some of the largest slated for California. Protests by San Diego teachers (above) helped deter some of the cuts. Substance photo by Rich Gibson.

As school winds down, it appears the resistance heats up. Integrity comes forward. Can the resistance be sustained, or make sense? . . .

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SEIU and other unions facing crisis as disputes between and within unions escalate

By Earl Silbar

SEIU International President Andy Stern spoke to SEIU organizers and staff on October 10, 2006, at Chicago’s UNITE HERE union hall on Ashland Ave. At the time, Stern was in Chicago promoting his book. Since Stern’s Chicago visit, tensions between SEIU and other unions, on the one hand, and within SEIU, on the other, have escalated, at times resulting in violence. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

While discussions of other unions may seem obscure, in fact the Service Employees Union’s (SEIU) current direction actually impacts millions of us outside their organization. . . .

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Will Alderman Smith's 'facilities' money go to break Senn HS into 'small schools'? $6 million on tap for Senn High School?

By Jesse Sharkey

After the Senn High School staff, students, parents and community opposed the placement of the Rickover Naval Academy inside the Seen building (above) on Chicago’s Northeast Side, Alderman Mary Ann Smith of the 48th Ward began a campaign to break up Senn. Despite the overwhelming support for maintaining the school as a general high school (with one of the most diverse student populations in the USA), Smith has tried a number of plans to end the public school character that has been Senn for nearly a century. After failing to have Senn turned over to charter school operators in 2005, Smith continued her campaign. Despite a new Strategic Plan developed with more than a year’s work by Senn, Smith has launched a new campaign to eliminate Senn and replace it with four “small schools.” Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

Talk around the halls at Chicago’s Nicholas Senn High School has turned recently to $6 million in “facility improvements” that were floated by Alderman Mary Ann Smith at a local block club meeting in early . . .

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Farewell "Goodnight Moon" -- Pre-school reading for the global economy is now The Wall Street Journal

By Susan Ohanian

My neighbor is teaching her two-year-old to read the Wall Street Journal

It all began when she woke up one morning
and heard on NPR that US kids are behind.
And there was her . . .

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CTU must become militant again

By Substance Staff

We need to remind our readers — both local and national — that Chicago has been providing the nation with many of the ugliest templates in the attack on public education that has only been embodied in ‘No Child Left Behind’ since the Bush administration took power seven years ago. . . .

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Editorial: Union people must defeat Marilyn Stewart's budget and her attack on Ted Dallas

By Substance Staff

Substance. June 2008. Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Ted Dallas continued to advocate for the union's members during the hearings on school closings and reorganizations in February 2008. On December 26, 2007, CTU President Marilyn Stewart had written a letter to Chicago Schools Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Arne Duncan telling the school system's chief that Dallas had been stripped of his powers to meet with administrative officials at the Board of Education. Subsequently, Stewart also tried to order Dallas not to participate in meetings at Chicago schools where teachers' rights were being discussed. When Dallas spoke at the hearings on the closing of Andersen Elementary School on February 15, 2008 (above), he was not speaking officially on behalf of the Andersen teachers and other school workers. The official statement on behalf of the CTU regarding Andersen was delivered by CTU Financial Secretary Mark Ochoa, who was unable to make it clear whether the union opposed the closing of Andersen or not. CTU President Marilyn Stewart did not attend any of the hearings or speak out on behalf of the union's members between February 5 and February 22, 2008, leading many union members to believe that she had secretly cut a deal during contract negotiations during the summer of 2007 to allow Mayor Daley's appointed school board to continue closing and privatizing schools without serious opposition from the 31,000-member union. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

With the two national teachers’ union preparing to meet, a Presidential election looming, and growing national resistance to high-stakes testing, why should an apparent soap opera playing out inside the Chicago Teachers Union be worth our attention this month? . . .

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How union solidarity saved one teacher's job

By John Kugler

“March 11, 2008. Dear Mr. Bennett: Based on the results of the investigatory conference held on February 13, 2008, I have determined that sufficient basis exists to terminate your services as a probationary appointed teacher in the Chicago Public Schools. Therefore, you are hereby notified that you are suspended without pay, effective March 12. 2008.” . . .

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CTU staff even get pensionable car allowance: Almost $1,000 per month!

By Allegra Podrovsky

CTU staff member Nick Cannella (above, being camera shy) was one of more than 50 CTU staff who were given the option of getting a pensionable car allowance of taking their car allowance as part of their salaries as part of a lucrative deal that was kept secret from the union's members. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

Here, the Chicago Teachers Union, which hasn’t been able to get anything besides the basic 6-hour day pensionable for its rank and file school-based classroom members, has been able to get a $925 a month car allowance for its “Professional Staff” (field representatives) pensionable. . . .

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Petition for elected school board gains widespread support in Chicago

By George N. Schmidt

At the February 27, 2008, meeting of the Chicago Board of Education, hundreds of people protested the Board's plans to reconstitute, reorganize and radically change 18 Chicago public schools. One of the many speakers who denounced the Board's planned actions was the Rev. Charlie Walker (above), who criticized the Board for ending the

The petition initiated by PURE (Parents United for Responsible Education) and other groups has been gaining momentum. The declaration that Chicago needed an elected school board was made by the Rev. Charlie Walker (left) of . . .

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Practical solidarity in action... What does 'Union' mean?

By John Kugler

One group of teachers from the “small schools” at Orr will not be fired this month. At the end of the 2006-2007 school year, Arne Duncan moved the “Phoenix Military Academy” from Orr to the Grant School “campus” near Adams and Western Ave. (above). Mayor Daley protected his military program from the pogram he was preparing for the rest of Orr. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

Unionism is a new word in my vocabulary and in the vocabulary of many newer teachers in Chicago. It’s been more than 20 years since the last teachers’ strike, and a whole new generation has come into teaching since then. . . .

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Four years of Senn struggle reported in Substance

By George N. Schmidt | 0 comments

Above: On November 5, 2005, behind three layers of security (military; Chicago police; Chicago Public Schools) Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley dedicated the

More than a dozen news reports, analyses, and dozens of photographs documenting the intense struggles of the teachers, students, parents, and community members to keep Chicago’s Senn High School as a general high school are . . .

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Vallas Philadelphia contract now a model for urban school systems' 'CEOs'

By George N. Schmidt

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported May 24 on the contract of the new ‘CEO’ of Philadelphia schools, as well as on the pay and perks of the former CEU, Paul Vallas.

According to the story, . . .

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Chicago Board of Education delays budget hearings for second straight year

By George N. Schmidt

On February 14, 2008, CEO Arne Duncan held a press conference (above) to tell the press that, once again, he was going to be cutting “administration” because the Board of Education was facing a “deficit”. Because CPS did not have any reasonable budget figures to provide to the press at the time, most of the story was deferred until June 2008, when the administration is legally required to present a proposed budget to the public for public hearings. Again this year, instead of providing a proposed budget to the public, in June 2008 Duncan arranged to delay the budget presentation and hosted another media event. On May 28, the day the Board of Education was supposed to meet, Duncan left town for Springfield, and the “May” meeting was rescheduled for June. Substance photo by George Schmidt.

For the second year in a row, the administration of the Chicago Public Schools under Chief Executive Officer Arne Duncan will fail to present the Chicago Board of Education with a budget before July 1, . . .

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'CORE' stands for 'Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators'...New caucus begins to develop platform for Chicago Teachers Union

By Substance Staff

CORE and the UIC Collaborative are sponsoring a forum in June for all Chicago educators.

CORE is a group of dedicated teachers, Paraprofessionals and other champions of public education. We hope to transform our Union into an organization that actually fights for its members. Below is a proposal for change that we hope you will help us develop and fine-tune. . . .

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Grim Fairy Tale: June Is Bustin' Out All Over

By Sister Grim | 0 comments

Sadly for the membersheep, the year ended as badly as it had begun.

Once upon a time it was June in the city of Chicago, still stuck in the sorry, scandal-ridden cheapskate state of Ill-A-Noise, and the hardworking membersheep of the CTEwe were trudging resolutely towards the finish . . .

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Editor's Commentary on Contents for June 2008

By George N. Schmidt

As the print edition of Substance went to press for the last issue of the 2007-2008 school year, it was clear that things had gotten better for public education, democracy and working people in many . . .

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Substance Staff June 2008

By Substance staff

The staff of Substance for the June 2008 issue . . .

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Teachers will be paying more than $1,000 per year union dues to CTU by 2011

By George N. Schmidt | 0 comments

By George N. Schmidt

Union dues for teachers who are members of the Chicago Teachers Union will be increasing dramatically over the next four years, with the burden hitting the newer teachers the hardest . . .

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Advertise in Substance

By Substance Advertising Department

For a limited time, you can get a quarter page ad and three months on the Web for $100 like this advertiser did. Call Substance at 773-725-7502 or e-mail us at Csubstance@aol.com for further information.

Advertising in Substance just got easier, and with more outreach. . . .

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CSDU is formed

By Substance News Staff | 0 comments

Another new caucus in CTU is the "Coalition for a Strong Democratic Union" (CSDU), which has been formed by supporters of Ted Dallas and others in the Chicago Teachers Union. . . .

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'Nuking' CTU Vice President Ted Dallas

By Theresa D. Daniels

Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Ted Dallas spoke forcefully against the Chicago Board of Education's plans to close or reorganize 19 public schools (and end the careers of hundreds of union teachers) during the February hearings on the proposals. Above, Dallas spoke against the closing of Andersen Elementary School (which was changed into a

CTU President Marilyn Stewart may not be ‘blaming’ anyone for the union’s financial mess, but she seems to be trying to blame her vice president Ted Dallas for everything else. . . .

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CTU Civil War

By George N. Schmidt

Chicago Teachers Union President Marilyn Stewart hosted a press conference (above) on February 25, 2008, at the union offices. That morning, she excluded two union officers — Vice President Ted Dallas and Treasurer Linda Porter — from her media event. At the time, Stewart told the media how the Board of Education could fire teachers the union way, asking CPS to postpone planned firings until she was consulted. Two days later, ignoring Stewart, the Board voted to “reconstitute” six schools (Harper and Orr high schools, and Copernicus, Fulton, Howe and Morton elementary schools) and fire all their teachers and principals. Since January 2008, Stewart has tried to order the union’s vice president not to meet with union members whose jobs are being taken away by CPS. On May 28, 2008, Stewart began the process of trying to fire Dallas for ‘insubordination’. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

With the national convention of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) coming to town on July 7, 2008 — and a planned address by the probable future President of the United States scheduled as part of that event — Stewart decided to clean house with an ill-timed and unprecedented attempt to purge the union’s elected Vice President (and the man whose organizational skills elected her twice before he became her most effective critic), Ted Dallas. . . .

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CTU President Marilyn Stewart dodges budget 'transparency' with doubletalk

By Theresa D. Daniels

When Chicago Teachers Union President Marilyn Stewart appeared before the Chicago Board of Education at its January 10, 2006 meeting (above) the union’s members did not know that increased pay and benefits for her top staff were slowly bankrupting the 31,000-member union. Surrounding Marilyn above are (left to right): Coleen Dykas; Peter Ardito; Sandy Schultz; and Traci Cobb Evans. By the time this photograph was taken, coordinators such as those above were being paid for a ‘53-week year’ and had unprecedented fringe benefits. Two years later, many of the deals are still secret. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

Chicago Teacher Union President Marilyn Stewart reiterated at the May 7th, 2008 House of Delegates meeting the news announced in the April issue of the Chicago Union Teacher, the Union monthly newspaper.

The Chicago . . .

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Capital hearings draw hundreds, outline poor conditions at many Chicago schools

By George N. Schmidt

Holding a sign and wearing purple tee shirts that read “One Gallistel, Not Three”, more than 600 students, teachers, parents, and community supporters nearly filled the auditorium at Morgan Park High School on May 22, 2008. The Gallistel Elementary School contingent arrived by car and in 13 buses, making them the largest contingent to testify during the six-day hearings on the Board of Education’s Capital Development program in May. Standing at the podium on the right (above) and wearing his Gallistel tee shirt is Alderman John Pope (10th Ward) who spoke about the need for a new Gallistel school to consolidate the present three-school reality. Gallistel supporters filled most of the main floor of the large auditorium and the front row of the balcony. Whether Gallistel ever gets relief from its problems is another question, one not answered by the officials who hosted the hearings. Since Arne Duncan became CEO of the Chicago Public Schools in July 2001, schools like Gallistel, which proudly proclaim that they are public schools, have been short changed in all capital expenses, while school improvement and construction budgets are manipulated to support privatization schemes and other programs promoted by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. Substance photo by George N, Schmidt.

On May 22, 2008, while the eyes of Chicago’s media were elsewhere, hundreds of people ranging in age from two and three years old to senior citizens got off buses in front of Morgan . . .

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Rethinking Schools Charter school book is George Soros privatization propaganda

By Jim Vail

All ten of the “campuses” of the Chicago International Charter “School” (CICS) are located in derelict Catholic Schools that are usually rented by the Chicago Board of Education from the Archdiocese of Chicago or from the Catholic religious orders that once ran the schools located in the buildings. The “Prairie Campus” (above, at 115th and Prairie on Chicago’s South Side) is more than 20 miles from the “Northtown Campus” (below right, at Peterson and Pulaski on Chicago’s Northwest Side), yet Chicago considers the two schools are “campuses” of one “Charter School” (CICS), which stretches from one end of Chicago to the other across ten separate buildings. In addition to promoting the “campus” fraud, Chicago also allows the CICS campuses, like the one above, to keep all of the religious symbols that were on the buildings during their earlier incarnations as parochial schools. In some places, CICS marketing obscures the fact that CICS is running publicly funded schools. At no location have Chicago school officials asked that the Roman Catholic religious symbols on CICS “campus” buildings be removed. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.
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Review: “Keeping the Promise? the debate over charter schools”, Edited by Leigh Dingerson, Barbara Miner, Bob Peterson, and Stephanie Walters (Milwaukee: Rethinking Schools Publications, 2008; 122 pp. $16.95) . . .

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Breaking CTU workers' contracts costing CTU millions of dollars

By Substance staff | 0 comments

Former Chicago Teachers Union Director of School Security and Safety George N. Schmidt (above, speaking at the 2007 Chicago Board of Education budget hearings at Lane Technical High School) won a court case against the Chicago Teachers Union and CTU President Marilyn Stewart after nearly four years of litigation. In May 2008, a trail in Cook Country Circuit Court in Chicago found that the CTU owed Schmidt a total of $160,000 because Marilyn Stewart had fired Schmidt from his union job in August 2004 in violation of a contract he had with CTU. After attorney's fees and costs, Schmidt said, the amount was

Most estimates place the total cost of the lawsuits at more than $1 million. . . .

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Letter: Chicago retirees: Beware another 'People Soft

By Sarah Loftus

Above: Substance Union News Reporter Theresa D. Daniels picketing the December 2007 Chicago Board of Education meeting in protest against the failure of the Board to provide the pension fund with accurate information on teachers who had retired six months earlier. The protest, organized by the Chicago Teachers Union, was criticized as another example of

Chicago Public School teachers who are retiring in June should make sure they can afford to wait quite a long time for their full pension. . . .

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Letter: New York teacher faces firing over students' test boycott

By Martha Foote | 0 comments

Apparently, the kids have had 22 standardized tests this year when you add up the state and city tests, plus these extra practice tests that the principal mandates. The kids had had it with all the testing. . . .

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Letter: NAACP opposes Virginia charter school -- but is silent in Chicago

By Sharonjoy Jackson | 0 comments

May 27, 2008

Substance:

I hope you and your family had a nice weekend and holiday. It is so sad we are still fighting an unjust war which is causing so much misery . . .

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Letter: Right wing 'reporter' slanders public school teachers, unions

By Paul A. Moore | 0 comments

So just who is Jordan Melnick? . . .

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Letter: Flawed 'accountability' in Georgia

By Bob Schaeffer | 0 comments

It’s clear that Georgia’s “no pass, no promotion” law supports a political agenda, not an educational one, when there is no system of accountability in place to determine whether the policy actually works. . . .

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Letter: Class struggle or contract unionism?

By David Stratman | 0 comments

Your recent articles regarding the state of the unions — including the Chicago Teachers Union — highlights many things. Here are some questions, then a piece I published two years ago. . . .

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Subscript: Are Union leaders in Chicago now barred from using the F word?

By Subscripts Staff | 0 comments

When Marilyn Stewart and her fellow CTU officers were talking strike at the union's August 8, 2007 press conference (above, after a House of Delegates meeting) nobody was criticizing anyone in the CTU for using rough language with the bosses of Chicago's public schools. Once Stewart had sold out to Mayor Richard M. Daley's negotiators, however, it became clear that the language police would control the union, and nobody would talk rough with the boss. Stewart censored CTU vice president Ted Dallas by December 2007 and then her supported charged that using foul language as a union leader was one of the grounds for firing Dallas from the union's vice presidency by December 2007 and May 2008. Substance photo by George Schmidt.

…Anyone want to know how the city of broad shoulders has withered? Maybe now we should rewrite Carl Sandburg to refer to Chicago as the "City of Soft Shoulder Pads"? . . .

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Subscript: Duncan as the Master of Mendacity

By Subscripts Staff | 0 comments

Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Arne Duncan (above, at podium) may have no experience or qualifications in public school teaching, but he tries to master media manipulation. Faced with the prospect of at least two major protests before the December 2007 Chicago Board of Education meeting, Duncan hastily convened a media event upstairs at CPS headquarters, hoping to keep the press from covering picketers on the sidewalk in front of 125 S. Clark St. But even though Chicago's

…Some little boys aspire to be Masters of the Universe. When he was a child, Arne Duncan must have fantasized about becoming the Master of Mendacity. Everyone knows that when he’s speaking in public or . . .

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Subscript: Barack Obama has been a loyal follower of Mayor Richard M. Daley's teacher bashing privatization agenda

By Subscripts Staff | 0 comments

…There seems to be some novelty to covering the spats Barack Obama has been having with the spiritual advisors he used to consult in Chicago. A longer and closer look at the actual Obama record has to be in order at some point. For those of us in Chicago who know him best, it's time to ask the country: Just what kind of "change" is Barack Obama promoting? . . .

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Subscript: The Daley administration lies when it lets public schools crumble. The money is there once the buildings are privatized

By Subscripts Staff | 0 comments

…The next time you hear "There is no money" for fixing up the crumbling school your children attend, know you're hearing another official lie. Take Austin High School on the farthest western edge of Chicago. . . .

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Subscripts: The May 2 alleged rape of a student inside CICS

By Subscripts Staff | 1 comment

…The May 2 reported rape of an elementary school student at the Chicago International Charter Schools (CICS) “Basil Campus” (the old St. Basil’s Catholic school on Garfield) called to mind the most famous sex criminal to walk the corridors of CICS — former "Belden Campus" Principal Joseph Nurek . . .

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Subscript: Should Chicago mourn the demise of Catalyst magazine?

By Subscripts Staff | 0 comments

…How much should Chicago mourn the demise of the print edition of Catalyst? Was it ever more than just corporate propaganda? . . .

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Subscript: The problems at the school at the Audy Home (Cook County Juvenile Detention Center) stem in part from the drive to privatize the security guards

By Subscripts Staff | 0 comments

…There is not a bad idea from Baghdad to Bangkok that Chicago won’t try as long as it promoted privatization, the destruction of public education, and union busting. Take privatized security (as opposed to unionized . . .

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Subscript: Marilyn Stewart could have stopped the school closings in the new contract, but sold out instead. Was it stupidity or corruption?

By Subscripts Staff | 1 comment

…Just how badly has Chicago Teachers Union President Marilyn Stewart sold out to Mayor Richard M. Daley at the expense of her union's members? . . .

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The June 2008 issue of Substance:

Remember, Substance stays alive because of your subscriptions, individual purchases, and donations! Support Substance and allow us to expand our web content for your convenience!

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