Community is Family

Last night as part of my time with ChicagoACTS (Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff) I attended the meeting of the 22^nd Ward Independent Precinct Organization at the Catedral Café. The back room at the Catedral Café was packed, standing room only, with a diverse group of people. Many of them had come to conduct the business of this 27 year-old progressive organization, others, like myself, came to hear Karen Lewis, the newly elected president of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) IFT/AFT Local 1 – AFL-CIO. Karen Lewis brought down the house, she began her speech by stating that when the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Board of Education closed a school they had never even visited, they weren’t just closing a building, they were destroying a community, and in turn they were destroying a family. “Community is family” she stated, “and that’s something they don’t understand.”

The “they” Karen Lewis was referring to are the “business people” who, through their donations of money and their elevation by elected officials, were rapidly changing our schools to reflect the values and sensibilities of Wall Street. In the process, Karen Lewis spoke, they were de-professionalizing teaching, and creating a system where any individual could come in and teach school for three/four years and then move on to something "better" - leaving their students behind. The cynics among us would state that when Karen Lewis was speaking, she was speaking to defend her and her members jobs, but I can tell you that sitting in that audience I saw a woman who was a life long educator, deeply committed to her students, and enraged by what she saw was being done to her pupils by the recent crop of education reform “gurus” – individuals that have never step foot in a classroom or graded an exam.

I believe, like Karen Lewis and the folks at ChicagoACTS believe, that if you truly want to reform our educational system we need to turn to those with the expertise and the know-how – the professional educators that know how to manage and teach a class. It is they who understand that a school isn't a business - it's a community. Until we listen to their voices, effective educational reform will not take place in the U.S. In the coming months the battle over educational reform is sure to intensify, in that battle I know where I stand - with the educators, students, and parents - the family that, if empowered and given the opportunity, will bring success to our schools.