Chicago: It's About Due Process and It's Important

While it pains me to know that the education system in one of the world’s great cities has come to a standstill, I am observing the CPS strike with rapt attention. The conflict of course involves pay, but there is really a Pandora’s box of other issues seething beneath the surface that impact all of those in public education. At the core is the removal of long standing due process rights from the profession. Those rights in recent years have been scapegoated and villainized as the dreaded “tenure” system that is supposedly responsible for keeping horrid educators in the classroom with union protection. The truth though is that there is already a system for giving non-performers the boot (I’ve seen more than a few shown the door). Removing due process rights and replacing them with things like unfunded merit pay programs actually harms the amazing educators that we want to keep.  

The coverage today had the obligatory comments about educators not caring about the kids and if they really did care they would forego the money for raises and use it to repair schools or buy books. Given the timing of the strike, the discourse threatens to become more absurd and poisonous in the coming weeks but it distracts from the real issue which is the removal of due process rights from working class Americans. Nobody cares more about high quality education in this country than those who have devoted their lives to it and have made many sacrifices to do so. At the end of the day though, those educators are human beings with dependants, bills, and lives who deserve the basic protections that were fought for and won in the brutal battles to secure them against the unchecked greed of industry.

The unintended outcome of the federal meddling by both parties is that the nation’s educators are increasingly connected and galvanized with a reason to stand together. This is equally beneficial in terms of both performing the daily task of educating our nation’s youngsters and also in standing up against the continued assault upon those who do it. What happens in Chicago is important because it promises to set precedent for what will follow in other districts.