It is eight weeks before Election Day. Do you know where your teachers are?
On Monday, more than 20,000 teachers walked off the job in Chicago-area schools. This left hundreds of thousands of students with nothing to do, and parents with extra headaches.
The teachers are striking mostly due to “a precipitous decline in public school funding and rising public demand to use standardized test scores in teacher evaluations,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
A law passed in Illinois in 2010 stated that standardized test scores should be factored into teacher reviews and evaluations. Those scores will account for up to 30 percent of teachers’ evaluations by 2014. The educators feel that is too much weight.
“There are a lot of factors that go into a child’s education that is not reflected in test scores,” said Chicago teacher Rick Sawicki. “Children are more to me than their test scores.”
This protest is in President Obama’s hometown; his backyard, his stomping grounds.
It doesn’t shed a positive light on the relationship between teachers’ unions and the Democratic Party.
“Our principal concern is for the students, and his principal concern is for the students and families who are affected by the situation,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said. “And we hope that both sides are able to come together to settle this quickly and in the best interest of Chicago’s students.”
Some parents blame teachers for the consequences of their strike. Rachelle Cirrintano, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, worried about her son.
“There was no reason to do this when they just got situated,” she said. “All the teachers should be let go for their irresponsibility to the children and their families.”
Should we criticize the teachers for speaking out about the wrongs they feel they have been dealt? Or do we empathize with them for wanting to be treated fairly and to reach justice?
It’s tough to understand teachers who go on strike after the school year has already started, but if you ask them, this could have been resolved a while ago.
“This could have been solved on day negative five,” said Christopher Barker, a math teacher at George Manierre Elementary School.
Quippy math jokes aside, maybe the problem should have never reached this point. This strike is caused by more than just petty differences, and it is affecting more than those in schools.
“I don’t see a (reason) for a fight,” said Rose Davis, a grandmother of two. “They could have come to decision before kids even started school, because my grandkids love going to school, they don’t want to be out.”
Despite Davis’ painful diabetic condition, she “walked with them Monday the six blocks to Benjamin E. Mays Elementary Academy in Englewood — about five blocks farther than the school they normally attend — where they ate breakfast and lunch, read books, worked on computers and played games. She went back four hours later to escort them home,” according to The Associated Press.
