Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel knows the makeup of the City Council now, and he’ll find a fair number of allies there, including a few he helped to victory. But the action for the new mayor won’t all be in the council chambers. It’s going to be very interesting to watch what kind of welcome he gets in Springfield.
Here’s one to watch. Emanuel is challenging Chicago teachers, union leaders and the politicians who support them to guarantee that kids will spend more time in the classroom. He’s going to need the legislature and Gov. Pat Quinn to do this.
Chicago greatly cheats its students by having one of the shortest school days (about five hours) and years (170 days) of any major school system in the nation. That’s by virtue of the teachers contract and a waiver for Chicago from state law.
Over the course of 12 years, from first grade through high school, kids in Houston get almost three years more instructional time than Chicago students do.
That has to change.
Emanuel wants Chicago students and teachers to spend another hour each day and two more weeks each year in school. That would translate into a huge expansion of instructional time and would boost students’ performance. “Everybody knows that more time in the classroom on instruction will get you better results,” he told us.
He wants state law to require this longer school day and year in Chicago. This would not be part of contract talks. This would be the law.
He also wants changes in tenure rules, and he wants to greatly restrict the power of Chicago teachers to go on strike.
You can hear the gasps in Springfield. But these measures are essential to improving school performance, putting Chicago closer to par with other big school systems.
This could be a big year for school reform in Illinois. This page has strongly encouraged the efforts building around a reform package known as Performance Counts. That bill’s aim is to keep the best teachers in the classroom, more quickly remove the worst teachers, and make teacher performance — not seniority — the driving factor in layoff decisions. It would provide tenure only for the best-performing teachers, and it would limit the right to strike.
It’s time to pass Performance Counts. And to pass the companion measures that Emanuel envisions to guarantee that Chicago children spend more time in the classroom.
Many Chicago teachers tell us they would welcome more time in the classroom. They know they can’t teach kids when they’re not in school. There are no shortcuts. That’s one reason why many charter schools are successful: They build in far longer school days and years than Chicago’s traditional schools do.
Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis told us she is “very open” to a longer day and year “if we’re talking about bringing a rich curriculum back to the public schools. We want art, music, PE, history, science, everything.”
Emanuel’s offer to the teachers union: If you agree to this bid to extend the day and year, you’ll get a leading role in deciding how the extra time will be spent.
This could be resolved quickly if political leaders remember what we’re talking about here: Putting Chicago’s 415,000 public school students first.
Performance Counts. More time in class.
Lawmakers, your move.
