'Too High of Price' (Chicago Education and NEA)

This morning we have decided that everyone is probably as sick and tired of reading about Obamacare after that phony victory last night as we are. Cap and trade (tax) has turned into a joke after what was revealed this week that the data used was tweaked to get the results they wanted so they could report something that was not true. It has shown some scientists who touted global warming to be extremely unethical.

While looking for a new and different subject to highlight on this Sunday morning we ran across an editorial on education that struck at the heart of the problem in school systems like Chicago.

The Chicago Tribune editorial this morning,"Too High of Price," gives the details of what is wrong with Chicago Public Schools and frankly we would like to say across America where schools are run by state and local teacher's unions. Local teacher's unions support the National Education Association (NEA) which is nothing more then a National Union for Teachers. In many cases, NEA members put their own benefits ahead of students which leaves the classrooms without the necessary resources they need -- like new books with enough for every student to have their own book to use not share a book. We believe that teacher's should not be allowed to strike to get more benefits for themselves. When they strike they are hurting the students while getting a vacation.

Thanks to state Sen. James Meeks, the Chicago Democrat, a pastor of Salem Baptist Church on the South Side, who provided the Chicago Tribune this You Tube Video and The Chicago Tribune for making it public. The video is from the National Education Association (NEA) aka Teacher's Union Convention in San Diego in July. We found it extremely interesting and uplifting that Sen Meeks is not going to be intimidated by the Chicago Teacher's Union. From the Tribune Editorial:

Meeks, who chairs the Illinois Senate Education Committee, has been in a war with the Chicago Teachers Union since he had some tough things to say about public education in a Tribune essay and in a speech at Rainbow Push.

The CTU responded with a vow not to give him another dime in campaign money until he apologized. Meeks promptly wrote a check for $4,000, giving back every dime the union had already given him.

No apology.

You have to love this guy. He's genuinely looking out for kids and doesn't back down to pressure.

This video provided by Sen Meeks will make you cringe when you realize people like this are involved in your children's education. It is an 'eye opener video' showing the top lawyer of the NEA, Bob Chanin, giving his last speech as their lawyer at the July NEA national meeting.

We are appalled after watching this video and believe the Chicago Tribune editorial writer sums up the video perfectly in his editorial:

Chanin closed his nearly 25-minute speech by explaining the influence of the NEA:

Despite what some among us would like to believe it is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not because we care about children and it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power.

And we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year, because they believe that we are the unions that can most effectively represent them, the unions that can protect their rights and advance their interests as education employees.

Oh, it gets more interesting.

This is not to say that the concern of NEA and its affiliates with closing achievement gaps, reducing dropout rates, improving teacher quality and the like are unimportant or inappropriate. To the contrary. These are the goals that guide the work we do. But they need not and must not be achieved at the expense of due process, employee rights and collective bargaining. That simply is too high a price to pay.

Too high a price to pay for educated children. Chanin got wild applause from thousands of NEA members at the San Diego Convention Centerfor his remarks.

NOTE: NEA refused to return phone calls of the Chicago Tribune which comes under fire everytime they write an article critical of the Chicago Teacher's Union. Seems to us they could write an editorial every day and be doing a public service. All the Tribune wanted to know was "if the rest of the union leadership believed that kids ranked behind collective bargaining on the teacher priority list." Crickets are still chirping from the NEA.

We found this information from the Chicago Tribune editorial to be the most refreshing we have seen on Chicago Education in years if not ever:

Meeks plans to introduce a bill in January that would give the kids at Chicago's lowest-performing schools a choice. It would give kids at 15 high schools and 48 elementary schools a voucher to pay for another school.

He plans to push to remove the cap on the number of charter schools in Illinois. The legislature raised the cap this year. But there should be no cap at all.

Meeks met on Thursday with Sen. Dan Cronin, the Republican leader on the Education Committee, to see if they can work out a bipartisan agenda.

Illinois and Chicago need more people like Senator Meeks who is willing to stand up for Chicago schoolchildren. Education should be bi-partisan and politics taken out of the public schools not only in the Chicago Public Schools but in all school districts in America once and for all and concentrate on the educating of children.

All of these years and the huge amounts of money given to the Chicago Public Schools has seen very little change in the classrooms and their ability to educate Chicago schoolchildren because of graft by politicians and their friends, and a union who puts themselves above the students. They control Chicago Public Schools and don't seem to mind the children are not getting a decent education. Any teacher that speaks out on failing schools and lack of Administration support is the subject of intimidation by the union. Recently, it was discovered that about 1,000 Chicago public school teachers call in sick "DAILY" which is disgusting, but then some teacher's make $90,000 in Chicago which is even more digusting when you factor in the test results from their students. The result is a huge public school system which is a dismal failure. We just learned from a friend of this site, that there is also a substitute teacher's union in Chicago who need to make money. Add 2+2 and you chances are the reason for so many teachers calling in sick is that substitutes need paid as well.

The recent 'suicide' of the President of the Chicago School Board Michael Scott which is still under investigation brings into question about the ethics of people running the schools in Chicago. We find that Mr. Scott was heavily involved in the Chicago Olympic bid with Valerie Jarrett where large pieces of property in the southside would have been bought up for huge sums for the venues. We did discover that when he was pulled from the river, the fire department hosed down the whole area before the crime scene investigators had a chance to investigate. Not saying he did anything improper with the Chicago Olympic Committee but his death with no suicide note makes you wonder if this is just another in a long line of suspicious deaths in Chicago.

With Chicago having a failing school system, many of us question why Arne Duncan, Superintendent of Chicago Public Schools, was named by his good friend Obama, to be Secretary of Education. Obama expects school districts to pay attention to what Duncan has to say? Not going to happen in most independent school districts. Was the naming of Duncan a payback to the National Education Association (NEA) for their huge support of Obama? We believe it was.

In looking deeper at Chicago Public Schools, we would be remiss if we did not bring up Obama's role in the $500M Annenberg Challenge which in the final analysis people see little benefit to the Chicago Public School but some people lined their pockets from this effort. Why was Obama chosen by Bill Ayers to head this project when Obama had little background? Rumor has it that Obama didn't make a move without Ayers' blessing.

If you don't believe us about the Anneberg Challenge was a failure, check the Fordham study on the the results of the Anneberg Challened which was to pump $500M into Chicago Public Schools. Here is the bottom line of their study from Alexander:

According to a piece done by Alexander Russo for the Thomas B Fordham Institute:

--snip--

But, while those who have benefited monetarily from the grants have enthusiastically praised it, there is little evidence to show that the program his enjoyed any actual success.

Beyond testimonials from those associated with the Challenge, however, it becomes difficult to find conclusive indications of the program's impact. Outside of anecdotal examples, few of the networks contacted were able to distinguish clearly what specific role Annenberg funds had played in their effectiveness, and none of the networks contacted could supply research that attributes student-achievement gains to Annenberg funding.

--snip--

Therein lies the problem. While few connected with them doubt the value of the programs supported by the Chicago Challenge, their impact is not yet established. This lack of hard evaluation data on the effectiveness of the Challenge is a source of widespread frustration in a city where test scores have increasingly become the coin of the realm. "We don't have a lot to tell you," admitted University of Illinois professor Mark Smylie, who is principal investigator for the Chicago Annenberg Challenge Study being conducted by the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago. The Challenge is "a difficult thing to evaluate," he explained. "None of these Challenges reflects a tightly designed programmatic initiative that renders itself useful to traditional evaluation."

While those closely associated with the challenge are certain that it is having a positive impact on the schools, there is no actual evidence to prove it.

So, what we have, is multi-million dollar educational boondoggle, being run by Ayres. What, you might be asking, does this have to do with Barack Obama? Thank you for asking.

Ayres, and the other founders of the Annenberg Challenge chose Barack Obama to be the first Chairman of the Board for the new program. Barack Obama, whose relationship to Ayres was "flimsy at best" worked directly for Ayres for eight years. This would seem to be more than just a casual relationship.

Bottom line of all of this is that Teacher's Unions for the most part put their own wants and needs ahead of their students or they wouldn't strike against their students. We have Chicago politicians running their schools which by all accounts are horrible schools and some of the worst in the Nation, but they continue to line their pockets and get elected by the Chicago Teacher's Union.

What Chicago needs on their school board are people like Rep Meeks who put the students first in spite of the thug tactics of the union. Only then will Chicago Schools start to educate their students instead of making politicians wealthy.

Not only is the Chicago Teacher's Union a powerful force in the Chicago Public Schools which they have virtually destroyed but are in many of the Colleges that dot the landscape of Chicago. First semester you are on probation but the second semester you have to join the union. The benefit is that your pay rises almost double for the same one class you were teaching the semester before. Same professor, same curriculum, but get a lot more pay because you are now a union member. Make sense to you -- it doesn't to us. That doesn't even include the fact you don't just have to join one union to teach local colleges but you have to join one at each and every one you teach. If you teach two classes under the non-union wage for the first semester, then the second semester when you join the union you teach one class for the same amount of money as you received from teaching two classes. Make sense? Only in union circles does it make sense.
This is your tax dollars at work! Thank you local teacher union member for putting themselves ahead of students all across America. Under Obama they are going to get even stronger. America needs to wake up and take back schools from the NEA and local teacher's union. Today is a fine day to start in Chicago and around the Country after this editorial which can be read in its entirety at 'Too High Price'.

Note: If you live in Chicago and want to help Senator Meeks, suggest you contact him at his Springfield Office at (217) 782-8066 or his district office at (708) 862-1515 and offer your support including support for his reelection since it looks like the Chicago Teacher's Union has made him a target. We are more then happy to support a Democrat on this site who puts Chicago school children first.