Open letter to Mayor Rahm Emanuel
After nearly a year of collective bargaining and a seven day strike, you have reached a tentative agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union.
Dear Mayor Emanuel:
After nearly a year of collective bargaining and a seven day strike, you have reached a tentative agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union. This agreement may have ended the strike, but otherwise we believe it is inadequate. In economic terms, it will force Chicago Public Schools either into drastic cuts or bankruptcy. In academic terms, it’s simply not good enough.
The good news is you can still make Chicago a model for education reform. But doing so will mean advocating new alternatives to the Chicago Public School system.
The current system is unaffordable. The district is draining its reserves and it faces a $1 billion shortfall next year when the pension “holiday” expires. We estimate that the teachers’ pension system is only 32 percent funded under new accounting standards. This isn’t something that can be swept under the rug; CPS must resume making its regular contributions for teacher retirements. With the district’s budget in such poor shape, across-the-board pay increases ought to have been out of the question, but the new contract calls for pay hikes approaching 16 percent. CPS cannot afford these pay increases.
CPS could ask taxpayers in Chicago or statewide to cover the shortfall, but you cannot assume that struggling families will be willing to bail out CPS. Unemployment in Illinois remains stubbornly high and taxpayers are still dealing with the 67 percent hike in income tax rates. Nor is federal assistance a safe bet. There is no guarantee the current administration will still be in office come January. Issuing even more debt may be appealing, but that will be increasingly difficult.Two credit rating agencies downgraded CPS bonds within the past two months.
There is little reason to hope for a dramatic change in academic performance in the wake of the new contract. The evaluation process is watered down. Merit pay has been rejected. There are many superstars among Chicago teachers, but their success will go unrewarded. There is also no guarantee that you will be able to identify and remove the weakest teachers and there is little that you can offer to mediocre teachers to motivate them to improve. Only 60 percent of CPS high school students graduate. Only six of every 100 high school freshmen get four-year college degrees. This ought to be unacceptable, but these results are likely to continue if we keep going down the same path.
It’s time to take an entirely different approach. Teacher layoffs and school closings will be extremely hard to avoid under the new agreement, but the process of shrinking the system will mean opportunities to promote alternatives, especially charter schools, online learning, and vouchers.
Chicago’s charter schools only spend 75 cents for every $1 spent by CPS. They pay an average teacher salary of $49,000, compared to at least $71,000 in CPS. Even so, charters often outperform CPS schools. In 2011, nine of the 10 open enrollment, non-selective Chicago public high schools with the highest average ACT scores were charters. At least 15,000 students are on charter waiting lists. Let parents choose better schools for their kids; join the fight to remove the cap on charter schools.
Online learning also opens up new avenues, allowing students to access the best curricula and instructors. In our increasingly interconnected world, there is no reason why students’ choices should be limited to what is offered in a particular building.
Most of the students who attend CPS live in or near poverty. A quality education is their first step to a better life. Too many Chicago schools are failing to provide a sound education. We are morally obligated to provide parents with a way to opt out of these failing schools. And we have a pretty good idea where those schools are; many of Chicago’s worst performing public schools have been at the bottom of the list for the past decade. Extending “Opportunity Scholarships” to families that would otherwise be trapped in these schools will mean students will have the opportunity to get a quality education. As Rev. James Meeks –a state senator and a voucher advocate – put it, “Who could begrudge students in a failing school a chance to get out if they want to get out?”
By now you know as well as anyone that CTU is an obstacle to building quality schools. Improving CPS from inside will be nearly impossible as long as the union retains its power. CPS can only be improved from the outside, by bringing in new competitors. We at the Illinois Policy Institute will continue to make the case for structural change, but the people of Chicago deserve to hear the truth from you, too.
Money is not needed to improve education in Chicago, but political will is absolutely critical. We don’t see eye-to-eye on everything, but we believe you understand what’s at stake. Now we hope to see you demonstrate the will to make education reform a reality.
Paul Kersey
Director of Labor Policy
Ben VanMetre
Senior Budget and Tax Policy Analyst