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Letters
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Bush in a bar
March 1, 2002
Dear Substance,
 President Bush and Education
Secretary Rod Paige are sitting at a bar.
A guy walks in, notices them and asks the bartender, “Aren’t
those two George W. Bush and Rod Paige sitting over there?”
The bartender says,
“Yep, that’s them.”
So the guy walks over
and says, “Wow, this is a real honor. What are you guys doing in
here?”
Bush says, “We’re
planning our new Education plan, but you can’t tell the General Accounting
Office.”
The guy replies, “Really!
What’s going to happen?”
Bush says, “Well,
we’re going to test 24 million teachers and one accountant.”
The guy exclaims, “An accountant, why test an accountant?”
Bush turns to Paige,
punches him and says, “See, I told you so! No one cares about the
24 million teachers! The public just wants to make sure that we test someone
who doesn’t work for Arthur Andersen, and hit Kenneth Lay really
hard. Let me call my brother in Florida and get his Enron suit going and
his A+ polling started.”
Sincerely,
Cao Quan, Boca Raton, FL
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Dealing with issues, not images
February 8, 2002
Dear Substance,
Someone who is not
homophobic recently remarked, “Bedfellows make strange politics.”
I was reminded of this when I saw the February Substance photo of Ted
Dallas, the UPC stalwart and fiercest critic of the new union leadership,
and myself engaged in conversation. I am not vain enough to worry about
the unflattering picture of myself, which drove my wife into temporary
hysterics when she saw it. But after all I am not as photogenic as Sharon,
Sue Carroll or Baby Samuel, and no sarcasm intended.
But I do wish to
use the photo to tell your readers what I have told Ted Dallas in some
recent conversations and in a long, 40-minute phone call initiated by
me. This is a paraphrase of what I have said.
Ted, if you want
to be effective as a Loyal Opposition, forget the patronage issues and
intramural politicking of PACT. Stick to matters of principles. There
is legitimate criticism of PACT for not hitting the ground running with
a program to repeal 4.5 and win our bargaining rights back. True, you
never made 4.5 an issue when Reece was in charge, and it may smack of
hypocrisy, but so be it.
The issue of “no
more multi-year contracts” has been around since October 2000 when
I submitted that proposal for a special order of business by petition
signed by 82 House members. That petition was thrown out unilaterally,
arbitrarily and capriciously by then Recording Secretary Pam Massarsky.
That petition was rejected on the ground that I had no right to circulate
it as a retiree delegate, who does not vote on contracts. No legal opinion
nor citation was ever made. Even worse, not a single signer of that
petition, including then opposition leader, Deborah Lynch Walsh, raised
the issue of the petition. Deborah told me, in effect, “Jerry,
if you can get an item to the floor, we’ll support you.” Of
course, it never got to the floor, and I was told informally, “Jerry,
wait until we are in power.” Well, a president usually has only
a honeymoon of 100 days, and PACT should hit the ground running on this
issue.
I think Len Kedzior,
a long-time member of the retiree’s silent majority, was correct
in chiding PACT for having no specific action program for repeal of
4.5. But neither PACT nor UPC would support Tony Gudwein of Kelvyn Park
when he demanded a “pro-active assault on all the union-busters
in and out of the legislature.” Given the fact that the issue has
been alive since the CTU October 2000 meeting, PACT had plenty of time
as a “shadow government” to have contingency plans if and
when they won, but their victory probably startled them into temporary
shock.
Then in the February
2002 House meeting I was stunned that Deborah Lynch ruled out-of-order
that the House action supporting 4.5 be amended to notify every candidate
for public office and the legislature including sitting senators, and
regardless of party, of our House action.
How else do we get
it on the table in this campaign, when some allegedly liberal Democrats
in the legislature are already supporting Paul Vallas for governor including
Skokie Senator Lou Lang and Evanston House member, Julie Hamos?
The substitute proposal
on 4.5 did not refer to lobbying to repeal 4.5, so the “friendly
amendment” was quite germane as it merely said you will spread
the message of our action to all the powers-that-be or potential powers-that-be.
The rejected amendment was made by Judy Dever, a member of the Executive
Board itself, and was drafted by me. I expected Judy to be given more
consideration than myself, and maybe the Executive Board should get
its act together.
I also reject totally
that to say no more mult-year contracts unless we win back our rights
is a non-negotiable demand on the board. On the contrary, it is as much
a demand on the legislature. If we put on the table and say “only
a year at a time,” the board might cleverly say, “We’ll
give you more money and throw in a few policy changes if you sign.”
Reject any deal as this.
In the Zion, Illinois
strike, an NEA local which had full bargaining rights, still was fearful
of a long-term contract and held out for a two. As to non-negotiable
demands, the board has always cried poverty publicly and talked about
budget shortfalls in press conferences, even before we got to the bargaining
table and sadly the CTU for years never challenged their budget analysis.
(Was Arthur Andersen involved?)
As I told Ted, attack
from the Left and not the Right. Such an attack is actually valuable
for PACT, because they then could say they are Centrist. But what worried
me is that Deborah Lynch was once an insider, and still has not fully
engaged the rank-and-file.
Ted should demand
that functional vice-presidents who are active teachers on the bargaining
team if nothing else to be part of negotiating caucuses. I advocated
this when UPC held the reins of power and still advocate it.
Finally, as Warren
Harding supposedly said after the Teapot Dome scandal exposed his corrupt
cronies, “God help me from my friends, I can take care of my enemies.”
Hopefully, as part of the Loyal Opposition, I have always tried to deal
with issues and not images. I recommend it to my friends and critics
as well.
Sincerely,
Gerald R. Adler
CTU Retiree Delegate
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How not to solve a teacher shortage
Here’s a letter
I sent to the Tribune and Sun-Times. Even if they don’t use it, I
hope that you can.
There is a critical
teacher shortage in the State of Illinois. Currently, there are 1,100
teaching vacancies in the City of Chicago alone. Paul Vallas, Democratic
candidate for Governor of Illinois, claims he can solve the problem without
spending any money. While cost-free problem solving is every taxpayer’s
dream, a close look at Mr. Vallas’s solution indicates his idea is
more worthy of his professional colleagues at Enron than as a viable alternative
to a very real and pressing problem.
Mr.Vallas, as an accountant
and former CEO of the Chicago Public School system, would have the voting
public believe that teacher shortages throughout the state can be solved
by simply lowering the standard for what constitutes a certified teacher.
Mr. Vallas’s solution is to promote “crash course” alternative
certification programs, which certify people as teachers in a matter of
a few short weeks. “Graduates” of these crash courses attend
seminars or “quickie” summer institutes to become “qualified”
teachers. While this solution does “solve” the teacher shortage
on paper, in reality, such “crash course” graduates are not
adequately trained and as a consequence, the children they attempt to
serve are shortchanged.
More honestly, the
solution to statewide teacher shortages is to provide incentives for people
to enter into the field and make it a lifelong vocation. This includes
not only improved remuneration but also a commitment to providing a safe
and healthy learning environment for all educational stakeholders. The
taxpayers and children of Illinois deserve no less.
Ultimately, the notion
that teacher shortages can be solved, without cost, by simply lowering
the standard for what constitutes a certified teacher, is less of a solution
and more of an accounting sleight of hand. The schools of Illinois do
not need to be “Enronized” and Paul Vallas, as an accountant
and former CEO of the CPS, should know it.
Sincerely,
Jay Rehak
CTU Member
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