Thought for the Day

Education is our focus today. Timothy Meegan of the Chicago Sun-Times said this:

“Our schools are being starved into failure in order to justify mass privatization.”

In Chicago a struggle for improving public schools is historic. There are three bodies of thought on this issue:

First, public schools are a birthright of our nation and deserve to be supported to the same point of excellence that we expect from our citizens who graduate from those same schools. We get what we pay for. No greater or less an expectation than this.

Second, parochial education is a religious freedom issue and the Catholic schools have always been a strong part of Chicago’s history. Yet they seem always to be in competition with the public schools. The financial support public schools get from taxpayers is resented by the parochial system. This is not a small undercurrent issue in Chicago.

Third, supporters of private schools believe that excellence in education ought to be left to the free market. There are families who can afford to send their kids to the best schools money can buy. This is more a mark of elitism than excellence of education. Charter schools are an attempt to move this political issue to a forefront.

Thus public education is starved of financial resources needed to do the job. Those resources are spent on the political process to make decisions. Resources are also kept in trim so as not to compete too freely with parochial school interests.

Another player in this issue is the Chicago Teachers Union. It is a major political player in decision making affecting the public schools in Chicago. That ought not be the case. They are not responsible for the quality of the schools. The union is responsible for the compensation and benefit structure of its members. Period. That concern is not the same thing as concern for the quality of public education.

We do not elect the union to run our schools. The teachers elect the union to safeguard their own well being. If and when the costs of that well being reduce the education system to poverty, then both the education product is reduced as well as the contribution of the teachers in the system.

Reversing that is paramount to saving the public school system in Chicago. It doesn't take a mayor or a teacher or a union to make this happen. It takes all three acting together for the common good of our city, its future, and its people.

When might we expect such behavior?

February 28, 2015