Mondays with Mike: It’s complicated

My mom taught school most of her adult life, only taking time off when I was born to get me to kindergarten–and then returning to the classroom,. I can tell you, it was not an 8-3 job. It wasn’t a 9-5 job, either. It was—maddeningly for my sister and me—a constantly on-call job. As in, phone calls with concerned parents virtually every evening. They might be worried about grades, or wanted to explain issues at home. My mom would also get stopped at the grocery store or at a shopping mall by a worried parent. And then there were the projects—construction paper and art supplies strewn throughout the kitchen or living room—as she prepared seasonal bulletin boards or what-not.

Esther also worked, at least for a time, with the Lansing Education Association, the local branch of the National Education Association. She was waist high in contract negotiations and therefore was not always the favorite of administrators. But, because she had a whole lot of loyal parents who together formed a formidable support base.

While Esther was growing up in coal mining company town in southwestern Pennsylvania, my grandfather—immigrant Paul Latini—risked life and limb helping to unionize miners. The effort succeeded, and the union eventually made an enormous positive difference in his and his family’s lives.

So, I’m a big supporter of teachers. And more generally, unions. I think they play an important role.

Which is why I’ve found myself a little surprised at feeling conflicted about the current Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) strike, now in its third day. It has felt, to me, that the CTU was set on striking, no matter what. I can’t know, of course.

But it has also felt like CTU is shadow boxing with a mayor who’s no longer in office (Rahm Emanuel), and a political machine that has actually been rendered pretty impotent. (See indictments of Ed Burke, et al.)

On the other hand, I completely understand pent up frustration with the pent up needs that have, very sadly, gone unfilled for decades. Particularly schools in low-income neighborhoods. While palaces like Jones College Prep, Walter Payton, Whitney Young and other Chicago high schools have enough draw to motivate parents and kids to go through grueling selective enrollment processes, they also tend to hollow out neighborhood schools—the best and brightest leave.

I grew up where the neighborhood schools were part of the neighborhood fabric. When these places are shabby and ignored, it sort of feeds in the broken windows idea. Fix things, and people inherently begin to take more pride in their neighborhoods and themselves.

So I get why the teachers are pushing beyond paychecks to things like staffing, physical plant, and affordable housing—I just personally think, at this juncture in Chicago’s fiscal mess, they may be over-reaching.

I also think that they may be mucking up a chance to turn the corner on union-city relations. We have a new sheriff in town, and in my view, the new boss—Mayor Lori Lightfoot—is not the same as the old boss.

But, a column in today’s Chicago Tribune by Heidi Stevens—the mother of kids that go to Chicago Public Schools—has me thinking the city administration and the CTU may still turn that corner. An excerpt:

I’m not blind to the rhetoric. I see some of the signs on picket lines that demonize the mayor. I see the comments on social media that reduce teachers to caricatures and the issues to one thing: pay.

But that’s not all I see. That’s not even mostly what I see. Mostly I see the people with the most invested in this fight — CPS families — reluctant to fall for answers that sell either side short. Mostly I see parents tired of being pitted against their kids’ teachers, tired of being pitted against their elected officials, tired of being told they’re fools for believing in public education, for believing in Chicago, for believing there’s a better way.

I hope you’ll read the whole column—even if you’re not a Chicagoan, I think she points out a better way for us to address honest conflict.

And mostly, I hope she’s right about CPS and the city turning that corner.