The vultures after our schools
reports on the latest fronts in the corporate school reformers' offensive.
August 27, 2013
Students and parents on the march against school closures in Chicago (Sarah-ji)ONE YEAR after the successful Chicago teachers' strike stunned the corporate education reformers, public schools are once again under the gun.
School districts in cities across the U.S. are pushing school closings, budget cuts, layoffs, privatization and demands for sweeping concessions from teachers' unions--with Philadelphia leading the way.
In Chicago, the school year began this past Monday with 50 fewer schools open. A vengeful Mayor Rahm Emanuel pushed the closures through, while calling for an equal number of charter schools to open--all while pushing budget cuts that will result in layoffs and overcrowded classrooms.
To show just who's boss, prior to the school year starting, Emanuel ordered the bulldozing of an elementary school annex used as a parent and community center in a Mexican American community.
But this fall, the front line in the battle to defend public education is in Philadelphia, where budget cuts threatened to stop schools from opening at all until the city borrowed $50 million in mid-August.
Furious over the cuts and union-bashing, more than 1,000 teachers, parents and supporters marched against unelected School Reform Commission (SRC) at its August 24 meeting.
The five-member SRC--three of whom are appointed by Pennsylvania's Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, and two by Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, a Democrat--is demanding that teachers take $133 million in concessions to restore the jobs of some the 3,895 educators and support staff laid off earlier this year, as journalist Daniel Denvir noted.
That's twice as much money as the SRC is seeking from the city--and $13 million more than what the school authorities want from the state. The impact on teachers would be devastating: a pay cut of 13 percent for veteran teachers and the imposition of out-of-pocket health care costs for the first time.
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THE PHILADELPHIA schools have been under control of the state of Pennsylvania for
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