Sunday, July 22, 2012

Chicago Teachers – Canaries In The American Coalmine | OurFuture.org

Chicago Teachers – Canaries In The American Coalmine | OurFuture.org:


Chicago Teachers – Canaries In The American Coalmine

When a leading conservative pundit compliments a labor union leader for getting something right, it's usually worth noticing.
That's exactly what happened recently when The Washington Post's conservative op-ed columnist George Willpraised Karen Lewis, the head of the Chicago Teachers Union, and its members for being "not all wrong" to pick a fight with Chicago mayor Rham Emanuel.
Will pointed out that Emanuel is forcing tough new "accountability" policies, including "merit pay," on teachers and schools at time when the city is "experiencing an epidemic of youth violence," "social regression," and "family disintegration."
His perfectly reasonable conclusion is that the mayor is ratcheting up the demands on teaching at a time when