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“Monumental” education reform bill passes 59-0

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Illinois

* Wisconsin and other states really ought to take heed…

Illinois teachers unions have numbers and money that translate into influence at the state Capitol, but they’re still agreeing to major concessions on job security and strikes under legislation approved Thursday by the state Senate.

While union leaders said they were driven by what’s best for kids, they also acknowledge watching high-profile fights over public employee rights in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana.

“It made all the parties more cognizant that everyone was going to have to come away with less than their ideal on some issues,” IEA President Ken Swanson said Thursday. “But at the end of the day, this thing was too important to not come to agreement.”

The Senate showed yesterday that there are real paths to reform which do not require unilateral, partisan, mean-spirited attacks on school teachers. We can only hope that this approach will be applied to the other searing issues facing the General Assembly this year.

* The process isn’t over yet, however…

But the legislation still must pass muster in the House, where Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) advocated in the late 1990s for the outright elimination of teacher tenure and has bottled up attempts to allow teachers to take tenure from job to job as Lightford’s bill allows.

“For my part, I wasn’t willing to agree that this was the version that wouldn’t have any changes. That would be disingenuous,” said Rep. Roger Eddy (R-Hutsonville), a House GOP point person on education.

More…

State Rep. Roger Eddy, R-Hutsonville, the House GOP’s point person on education, and House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, both praised the Senate bill, but they also said it is unlikely that the House will rubber-stamp the Senate’s version.

“There are two chambers for a reason,” Currie said. “We, of course, will have our own ideas, but I think a lot of what I’ve read about what they plan to do sounds very much in keeping with our own agenda.”

“To expect everyone to summarily agree with something they haven’t read yet, that’s not how this process works,” Eddy said.

However, he added, “this bill, in many ways, achieves the goals that we all had when we started this process in the House (last year).”

Currie said Democrats have resisted some provisions in the bill before. But she also said she hopes changes made in the House “would not so upset the apple cart that we end up with nothing.”

* A unanimous vote in one chamber (in this case, the Senate) offers no guarantee of success in the other chamber. We’ve all seen 59-0 Senate bills fail in the House, and vice-versa. But this is a big deal, not some little “merely” bill, and there is clearly some serious momentum behind this legislation. For instance…

Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel said he is pleased with the new reforms because it puts the Chicago Public School students on what he calls a level playing field. Emanuel said he campaigned on the components of the bill so he is relieved state legislators worked together to achieve a common goal.

“Like the police and fire, we will now have responsibility as teachers to provide essential services that make sure to raise the threshold,” Emanuel said.

And…

“The kids in the state of Illinois — the entire state of Illinois — have a chance to get a better education because of this bill,” added Sen. Matt Murphy, R-Palatine, who predicted the legislation would help school boards save money and make sure the “better teachers stay and the lesser teachers go.” […]

“The reforms in this bill put Illinois at the head of the class nationally,” said Jessica Handy, policy director of Stand for Children. “Any one of these changes alone would be significant. Together they are monumental.”

When you get Matt Murphy, the Chicago Teachers Union and Stand for Children on the same page, you’ve truly accomplished something.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 9:04 am

Comments

Rich, as a journalist I beleive you are obligated to refer to this as a perfect storm…. afterall whats a story without some media cliches.

Comment by Ghost Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 9:44 am
It is quite hard slogging through all the gooey praise gushing from every orifice of the Capt Fax, but let’s be a little picky and say any time the unions are calling something “historic reform” ya gotta wonder if someone got bamboozled — again.
We don’t see MuttMuprhy’s endorsement as very meaningful praise.

Let’s recall the last great education reform was the expansion and overhaul of the charter school laws nearly two years ago. The CTU has been footdragging implementation and little has happened.

So don’t expect little Johnny or Janey to get a lot smarter real quick.

Comment by CircularFiringSquad Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 9:52 am
Pretty amazing what can be accomplished when everyone puts away the petty talking points and gives a little for an objective larger than the next election.

Comment by wordslinger Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 9:57 am
It’s not really reform if the unions support it. They only agreed because they knew they were on the run.

There’s still tenure - guaranteed job for life, and there’s still the so called “right” to strike. This bill may weaken them, but it’s not eliminated.

There is no moral justification for a strike during a school year.

Comment by Downstate Illinois Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 10:04 am
CFS,
Little Johnny or Janey will not get a lot smarter until all of the parents in this state start caring about their kids’ education. Without parents being personally invested in the education of their child, no amount of money or beneficial administrative processes is going to solve the problem.

Comment by Old Milwaukee Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 10:17 am
Tenure does not mean a guaranteed job for life, when are you people going to get this straight? We’ve had quite a few tenured teachers lose their jobs in my district.

I’m glad they’re making it easier to get rid of bad teachers, will the administration finally step up and do their jobs in this process? You hire us, after four years of non-tenured status, why are there bad teachers in any district?

No more excuses, you don’t have reason to blame it all on the teachers after this goes into effect. Maybe now, the serious problems facing education in inner city schools and high minority/poverty communities will be addressed and administrations, along with ISBE, held accountable.

Comment by Wensicia Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 10:20 am
-There is no moral justification for a strike during a school year.-

Well, there certainly may be an economic justification.

There’s also no moral justification for paying teachers less than what they’re worth.

Besides, the bill requires 75% of the entire membership, not just those voting, before a strike can be authorized. This is virtually a no-strike clause, it would be incredibly difficult to get that many votes on any issue.

-It’s not really reform if the unions support it. They only agreed because they knew they were on the run.-

You’re claiming union agreement was meaningless because they “were on the run”, yet this same meaningless ascent prevents the reform from being “real”? The logic doesn’t follow from one statement to the next.

Comment by chi Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 10:32 am
Sen. Don Harmon was touting this (esp. Sen. Kim Lightford’s role) on his Facebook page.

I asked the following questions.

Will it improve education? By what measure? If it fails to improve education, who should we hold accountable?

I think there needs to be more attention paid to what people claim changes are going to accomplish and check if the changes live up to the hype.

Comment by Carl Nyberg Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 10:45 am
Senator Lightford has accomplished what no man or woman has ever done…you go girl!! Great work as a servant of the public…if only there were more like her in elected office…very pleased she is my Senator…

Comment by Loop Lady Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 10:48 am
1. The CTU has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the approval of charter public schools. They are approved by local school boards.

My guess is that the reason we haven’t seen a dramatic expansion of charter schools in Chicago is that like any business venture, it takes quite a few years to get a good plan together.

2. This isn’t really as much a “school” reform bill as it is a union reform bill. Except for the provision allowing for a longer school day in Chicago, it doesn’t contain any actual school reforms that I know of.

Now, I guess if you believe that the reason our schools are failing is because of the teachers unions, you can call this school reform.

I for one believe that when Toyota makes one bad car, you can blame the guy on the assembly line, but when Toyota has to recall ten million cars, you have a management problem.

And let’s not kid ourselves into believing this is just a Chicago problem or just an inner city problem.

Yes, dropout rates in Chicago are too high and graduation rates for Latinos and African Americans are too low.

But 1 in 4 students fails to finish high school in four years across the entire state, including 1 in 7 white students.

The state with BEST public school system in the country by the way, Maryland, provides teacher tenure in three years, not four as currently required in Illinois, and has been giving their teachers raises over the past three years while Illinois lawmakers are busily devising new ways to stick it to teachers.

And here’s another little fact for all of the union haters: Chicago Public Schools have the lowest salary cap for teachers in the state: $96,000 for a teacher with an advanced degree and fifteen or more years of classroom experience.

Meanwhile, the lowest paid principal in CPS makes more than $100,000 a year when they walk in the door.

Again, blame the unions all you want, but until we come to grips with the fact that we have a management problem with our schools, don’t expect any dramatic changes in the classroom.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 11:03 am
The most significant correlation between money and student achievement is this: the wealthier the parent, the better the student.

Most of the education problems are problems of poverty. Ironically, the best way out of poverty is education. It’s a conundrum.

We can have longer school days, longer school years and rocket scientists teaching in every classroom, but until parents and students roll up their sleeves and make the most of their education, not much is going to change.

That’s the sad reality that no legislation and no appropriation can change.

Comment by 47th Ward Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 11:24 am
Absolutely correct, 47th. Both education and healthcare spending have risen at about the same rate over the past 50 years. While heathcare is about to break the bank, at least we have worldclass procedures, and the death age has increased enormously. However, education has at best remained flat, and some would say decreased in its effectiveness to educate students, Money is definiely not the answer.

Comment by Cincinnatus Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 12:27 pm
I disagree with the sterotype that i the union agreed to it, it cant be reform, or is bad etc etc.

WHen people use the word union its almost like your looking to dehumnize a group of people so ou can think of them as non-humna and take pot shots.

Unions are comprised of people. Teachers unions are made of individual peoples who are the teachers in the classroom. Many teachers are disatisfied with senoirty based systems or tenure potection of bad teachers. A compromise law which addresses the problem is supported by people who reached on agreement on a fair way to address the problem.

We as a society like to discuss how we have moved beyound the concepts and tenents of discrmination, but we tend to lump people into groups and brand them all with loathsome chracteristics if they dont adhere to our beleifs or agenda.

I mean, its not lik these folks are republicans, so they shouldnt be lambasted just because they dont share your views….

Comment by Ghost Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 1:10 pm
Lets hope the House follows suit. So far so good.

Comment by mokenavince Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 2:09 pm
Again, blame the unions all you want, but until we come to grips with the fact that we have a management problem with our schools, don’t expect any dramatic changes in the classroom.

While the unions should not be let off the hook for the awful education model across the US, the fact is that you are correct in this instance.

It is the entire system that needs transformation, not reform.

Illinois teachers unions have numbers and money that translate into influence at the state Capitol, but they’re still agreeing to major concessions on job security and strikes under legislation approved Thursday by the state Senate.

Major Concessions? If this weak bill is “major”, then real reform will be dead for decades, as Swanson will cry crocodile tears at stronger reforms, and sigh that the teachers just caved to “major concessions.” What nonsense! They didn’t give up a thing that matters, as the entire apparatus is in place to wait out, filibuster, and rollback anything they want in the next few cycles.

It’s aggravating. IN, WI, and OH are making real strides and we sit here fiddling while Rome burns acting as if we just passed the Magna Carta.

59-0, in Illinois! If there was ever an indicator of relative value, that vote total is all you need to look at.

There’s also no moral justification for paying teachers less than what they’re worth.

No one knows their worth. They don’t compete in an open market, and they barely have any competition to test their worth or value.

Salmam Khan (www.khanacademy.org) produces top notch content and gives it away for free. Why should society pay one dime more for a teacher than it has to?

____

The entire conversation is ludicrous. Parents and children had no place at the negotiating table, and NONE of their interests were represented here. The fact that they may see a slight, but completely unmeasurable benefit based upon this legislation isn’t worth the ink or electrons spent touting this.

Comment by Bruno Behrend Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 3:48 pm