British journalist: Chicago teachers’ strike touches on far-reaching issues | The Raw Story

British journalist: Chicago teachers’ strike touches on far-reaching issues | The Raw Story:

British journalist: Chicago teachers’ strike touches on far-reaching issues

By Arturo Garcia
Sunday, September 16, 2012 15:39 EDT

 

Topics: british journalist ♦ chicago public schools ♦ Chicago teachers

 

As Chicago teachers prepared to vote on a tentative agreement to end their weeklong strike, a British journalist appearing on Up With Chris Hayes Sunday said the issues at hand — not only teachers’ pay but evaluation standards, working conditions and government investment — are not just in play in their city.

“This conversation is taking place all over America and actually pretty much all over the western world,” said Gary Younge, a columnist for The Guardian. “There’s a similar conversation going on in my home country of Britain, which is, a withdrawal of education as a public good, something that is free at the point of service, which is good for the public. Instead, [we're seeing] the introduction of for-profit privatization and rote testing, particularly for poor kids. The rich kids get their art, they get their libraries, they get all of that.”

During the discussion, guest host Sam Seder referred to a blog post by one of the teachers taking

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