Chicago: School wars continue

In recent weeks the unelected and corporate sponsored Chicago school board has stepped up its attack on the public schools. In addition to the draconian closing of 50 schools, massive budget reductions have been ordered.  On June 14, the Chicago Public Schools sent layoff notices to 850 school employees, including 550 teachers.
The cutbacks have been met with protests by teachers, parents, students and community people trying to save our schools. The anger thermometer is rising as emergency meetings are called and further protests are planned. The outrage has extended to a group of “progressive” city councilmen (aldermen) who issued this statement:
“As elected representatives of the communities of Chicago, we are alarmed by the stripping of basic necessities which define a school. The neighborhood schools have been reduced to beggars, lacking such essentials as sanitation supplies, library book funds, field trip money, playground supervision. The principals have been given the new budgets and told to ‘do more with less.’
In addition to the skirmishes in Chicago, the national corporate gangsters have dropped another stink bomb on public school teachers claiming they are inadequate.  On June 18, 2013 the self-appointed National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) released its “report” entitled Teacher Prep Review. Its website says, “Based in Washington, D.C., the National Council on Teacher Quality was founded in 2000 to provide an alternative national voice to existing teacher organizations and to build the case for a comprehensive reform agenda that would challenge the current structure and regulation of the profession.”
We learn immediately that the document is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Gleason Family Foundation, Laura and John Arnold Foundation, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Searle Freedom Trust, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Teaching Commission and other anonymous funders.
The document begins with the same old tired song:  American schools have slipped into mediocrity. Presumably we have fallen from world leader to somewhere in the middle of the pack. While issues such as lean budgets, poverty and crowded classes are acknowledged, this document blasts “poor teacher preparation.”  They argue that the colleges and universities producing America’s traditionally prepared teachers have become an industry of mediocrity, churning out first-year teachers with inadequate knowledge and classroom management skills. The problem, the report concludes, is bad teachers rather than a disastrous economic situation.
NCTQ is no Bible. Similar to other corporate propaganda, it claims to be based on years of research and a large number of cases: 1,130 colleges and universities with teacher training programs. Presented as a consumer guide, closer examination finds their “ratings” are arbitrary and meaningless poppycock. While this is not the first attack on the education of teachers, it is joined to the larger offensive against public education.
Instead of a national campaign to close schools and against teachers, we need a national program to provide equitable funding for all.
Save Our Schools!
Save Our Teachers!