Will Emanuel continue Arne Duncan's destructive record of weakening public schools? On the eve of Emanuel's election, "The Chicago Sun-Times" ran this story, "Emanuel Backs Crackdown on Teachers."
By this article, the Democratic mayor-elect sounds like a combination of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and District of Columbia Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee.
Mayoral front-runner Rahm Emanuel supports curtailing teachers’ right to strike. And if they won’t agree to work longer hours for extra pay, he’ll ask state legislators to mandate it, he said.
“As we have [rules against strikes] for police and firefighters, I would have it for teachers because they provide an essential service,” Emanuel said.
The “Performance Counts” bill the state legislature is considering would severely limit the right of teachers to strike. The Chicago Teachers Union says it would essentially eliminate the right to strike.
There has been no teachers strike in Chicago since 1987.
Emanuel says he supports the package of reforms, which he says will reward high-performing teachers and give principals greater sway to weed out low-performing teachers.
In this era of teacher blaming and budget slashing, this sounds like a tool for eliminating experienced teachers in favor of less experienced, less expensive teachers.
Will Chicago's unions put up a stronger fight against Emanuel than New York City's unions have done with their anti-teacher mayor?
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