PACT: ProActive Chicago Teachers and School Employees

Dear CTU Member,                                                

We know that the Stewart administration has spent the last several years attacking and blaming the PACT Caucus for everything that has gone wrong on their watch.    It’s the one thing they’ve done very well. What they have not done very well at has been delivering on their promises. They promised you a better contract. They promised you lower health care costs. They promised you job protection. They did not deliver.  Members lost after school overtime pay at their hourly rates. They saw a huge boost in the cost of emergency room visits, higher co-pays and a 5-year contract in a process which did not even allow CTU delegates who opposed the contract to have a vote.  (Stewart’s salary alone, however, has doubled, to over $200,000 of our dues, as she used the size of the CTU to get herself a second job as the # 2 officer of our state union, the IFT.)

To add insult to injury, as many more schools are closed and hundreds of CTU members are being discredited and fired, their team members are fighting amongst themselves instead of fighting Duncan and the Board on members’ behalf.  The current losses are in addition to the thousands of lost CTU jobs from school closings over the last three years.

We are writing to tell you that, despite four years of attacks against us by the Stewart team, we are still here, alive and well.  Most of us are members of the CTU House of Delegates, still fighting for CTU members.  We have tried to respect the members’ election choice.  But we simply cannot stand by as Duncan destroys our school system and our union in his efforts to charterize and privatize our schools and demonize our members while our union does nothing.  The Stewart team did not even bring an Item for Action on the closings to the February House meeting.  The contract should have been the CTU’s leverage to prevent more school closures.  We were the ones who promised in last spring’s officer elections that, if elected, we would deliver a moratorium on school closures or there would be no contract agreement.   Sadly, that opportunity has been lost, but we can still take a stand and make a statement of fierce opposition to this policy by asserting that we have no confidence in Mr. Duncan’s leadership. 

If you are as outraged as we are over this situation, please sign the attached petition for a vote of no confidence in Mr. Duncan, circulate it among your members, and return it to us by February 25 at the above address (and though CPS does not want us to raise these issues and has blocked our website, you can still access it from your personal computer.)  Our recent survey results indicate that over 60% of CTU members now live in fear that their school will be closed. 

We know the devastating effects of the closings on staff and students. Someone must stand up and speak out against this deplorable policy.  Will you join us in this effort?                    

In real solidarity,     

The PACT Team

                          PRESS RELEASE 2/12/2008

PACT: ProActive Chicago Teachers, a caucus of the CTU

P.O. Box 543387, Chicago IL 60654,   www.ProActiveChicagoTeachers.com

 ProActive Chicago Teachers’ Caucus: “Duncan Must Go”

The ProActive Chicago Teachers (PACT) Caucus of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) announced today that it has taken a vote of “no confidence” in the Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools over his policy of closing Chicago schools for academic reasons resulting in the firing of their staffs.   The group is also launching a campaign to gather signatures of teachers and staff across the city in support of the “no confidence” vote.   “Mr. Duncan is once again ravaging low income schools serving primarily African American students and the staffs who believe in them.  He began this tactic in 2002 with three schools but, after our intense opposition, the then officers of the CTU negotiated an agreement to stop it,” said PACT leader, past CTU president and current Gage Park High School Teacher Delegate Deborah Lynch.   That deal, ended under the current CTU administration, prevented Duncan from closing any more schools unless and until any targeted school was given additional time and resources, and the staff had a say in bringing in a research-based school reform model.  Dozens of schools have been closed since 2004, however, devastating the lives of students and staff.  Thousands of school children have been put in danger, walking to further schools across gang territory, only to be stigmatized in their receiving schools.   Too often, the receiving school’s test scores went down as a result, and many of them have been closed, too. 

Duncan has recently found a new way to avoid the crying parents and students pleading for their school each year, though there is no evidence whatsoever to support it.  His “turnaround” plan involves keeping the students but dumping the staffs.   “This approach still amounts to abuse of our students,” said Kevin Condon, Delegate of Stevenson Elementary School, “because, for too many of our students, particularly low income students, school provides the only sense of family, security and safety they have.”  The fact is that Duncan and his team don’t really know what else to do with schools struggling with large numbers of children at risk of academic failure.  So they continue to contract out the management of these schools to charter operators and private ventures.   “But it is not the teachers and principals in these targeted schools who are the problem, nor is the problem the union or its contract,” said Condon.    “CTU members work under contract at both our highest scoring schools and our lowest.   The fact is that our schools are dealing with many entrenched and almost intractable problems and our low income students (and their teachers) need more than what they’ve been given.”  Low income children face homelessness, violence, crime, family break-up, teen pregnancy, abuse and neglect, and the need to work to help their families .  How many social workers and counselors have been provided to these struggling schools?  How many administrators have they had in the last few years?  How many brand new teachers?  How many security staff members? What was the class size for the critical primary grades? What has the staff turnover been (and why would anyone want to work in such a school if it was in danger of closing anyway)?  What is the percentage of homeless students?  “In two first schools to be closed, for example, the mobility rate was 40%--half students who entered in September weren’t even there in May to be tested,” said Lynch.  “Staff who have remained in these struggling schools have survived on their own--and have kept their passion--despite not getting the support and leadership they--and their students--need.”

Research on teaching students at risk of academic failure is clear and compelling: they need master teachers, an extended school day, and small schools and class sizes to break the debilitating hold of the crushing poverty and other social factors that impact their learning. Unconscionably, Duncan is providing these ingredients to the outside managers of the new closed schools, but not to the existing staffs.  The members of PACT ask why the public hasn’t questioned CPS leaders on why they can’t run their own schools and support--instead of bash--their teachers.  It stands on its vote of no confidence in Mr. Duncan and his wrongheaded policy of “turnaround” schools and calls on the mayor to find someone who really can help turn Chicago schools around.

 The PACT Caucus of the CTU, an organization committed to improving teaching and learning conditions in Chicago Public Schools, represents hundreds of members and has garnered 5,000-11,000 votes in recent CTU  elections.

Vote of No Confidence Petition 

Mr. Arne Duncan, Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools, has continued his policy of closing schools for academic reasons instead of providing the kind of leadership and support these schools need.  This policy has resulted in the displacement of students and staff, putting students’ lives in danger when forced to attend other schools, and the stigmatization of the very staff members who remained in these struggling schools over the years to serve these students despite the threat of closures.  Because of the continuation of this damaging and unconscionable policy, we the undersigned state that we have no confidence in Mr. Duncan or his leadership and support a vote of no confidence in him.

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