Dear Senator Kirk,
I heard on the news this morning that you were pleased to hear Rahm Emanuel’s choice Jean-Claude Brizard to head up Chicago Public Schools. You made what I would take to be an off-handed comment to the effect that a vote of “no confidence” from the Rochester teachers’ union, with whom Mr. Brizard currently works, must mean he’s doing something right. I was disappointed in this comment. To be sure the problems plaguing our public schools are complex and nuanced. While I don’t always agree with the tact taken by teachers’ unions, neither do I believe that they the villains popular opinion would make them out to be.
I was pleased to see that the Illinois teachers unions have recently been in talks with the Illinois State legislature and these factions were able to arrive at some mutually agreeable terms for school reform. Such deliberate processes should be part of the method by which school reform should occur. To be sure teachers’ unions need to be taken to task for the manner in which they have conducted themselves with respect to education. But there are many players within education policy meriting such scrutiny who currently receive almost none (e.g. philanthropic organizations). Simply demonizing teachers’ unions, on the other hand, will solve nothing.
Thank you for your service to the people of Illinois,
-HW
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