Bargaining with a child's education

UPDATING this story gives insight into the politics of education.

Apr 30 - In a story on the firing of 775 non-tenured teachers from Chicago Public Schools, there was this highly informative tidbit. [Bolding ours.]

Under a three-year-old policy, principals have the authority to fire probationary teachers without a hearing, something their counterparts in other districts statewide also do.

The policy was negotiated by former union president Deborah Lynch in exchange for the Chicago Board of Education agreeing to put 5,000 substitute teachers on a four-year track toward tenure.

Naturally, the union blames schools for not mentoring teachers for the "performance issues" that led to firing.

TT - The newspaper never asked if the teachers who were terminated were fired for a reason. But since the union blames the schools, it's a safe bet that non-performance or poor performance by the teachers was the reason for the firing.

School districts around the state can also fire non-tenured teachers without a hearing, but they didn't give into a demand to fast track 5,000 substitute teachers to tenure.

CBS News: The teachers were dismissed for various reasons, but the most common was an inability to manage their classrooms.
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UPDATE May 20 - In a union election, Marilyn Stewart was elected Chicago Teachers Union president. Stewart's vote tally was 15,734 compared with 5,036 for her opponent, Debbie Lynch, a former union president.

Stewart, 54, is a member of the United Progressive Caucus, which controlled the CTU for about 30 years before Lynch's upset victory in 2001. She taught deaf and hard-of-hearing students at Kinzie School for 28 years, serving as union delegate for 25 of those years.

Lynch, 55, represents the Pro-Active Chicago Teachers caucus, a faction that has embraced a more reform-minded agenda. Lynch returned to a teaching post at Gage Park High after serving as union president from 2001 to 2004. She previously worked on policy and teacher training for the union and helped launch the nation's first union-sponsored graduate school.

TT - Debbie Lynch negotiated the contract that allowed probationary teachers who were incompetent to be dismissed in exchange for a hefty salary increase and the agreement about fasttracking substitutes.

Chigago Sun-Times (May 20) :

The two women faced off three years ago, and Stewart won by just 566 votes, the closest CTU election in 30 years. Soon after, Stewart's win was nullified on allegations of voter fraud. After a standoff, the union's parent organization dismissed the allegations and declared Stewart the winner.

The agenda is already set for upcoming contract negotiations. From the Chicago Tribune:

Stewart would not discuss specifics of contract proposals, but an article in the union's newspaper outlined the key issues: lower health-insurance costs, more say over class size and better job security for non-tenured teachers. Salary demands and the length of the contract were not mentioned.

From the Chicago Sun-Times: "Stewart ranks job protection and security as her top priorities."

TT - We figured as much. What kind of people put job security and job protection above children?