Meanwhile, In Chicago, Democrats Fight Among Themselves
By Robert Klein Engler (11/05/04)
The strike at the City Colleges of Chicago continues. Democrats did not fare well nationally this election season, so they are taking out their disappointment on one another locally. In doing this, they are exposing even more their failed educational policies.
The City Colleges of Chicago and Local 1600 are out for each other's blood. The irony here is that administrators at the city colleges are mostly Democrats, put in power by a Democratic mayor, supported by a Democratic governor who has the support of both a state Democratic senate and house of representatives.
On the other side of this fight between Democrats is local 1600, the Cook County College Teachers Union, whose members vote mostly Democratic, give large sums of money to Democratic Party politicians and are affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, a national union that could be called the educational arm of the Democratic Party.
The night before a City Colleges board meeting earlier this week, the striking teachers were on edge. The faculty union held a rally around Chicago's now infamous "Kidney Bean," in Grant Park. There they sang songs and lit candles, but they failed to dispel the liberal darkness.
The Daley College union webpage reported, "The rally tonight at the bean in Millennium Park was huge and enthusiastic. (union president) Perry spoke on Ch. 5 camera for the throng, but it was primarily a student and antiwar rally. With the re-election of Warrin' George as president, the draft is upon our young people as well as the coming invasion of Iran and a general religious war globally. So we can get ready for more action in the street...."
The web page goes on to report, "James has had it with our strike. He's going to teach us a lesson. No more Mr. Nice Guy. He and Wayne have made some plans for us. Some unpleasant surprises. Tomorrow he's going to deliver a thousand-megaton blast on us."
The next day, the craziness continued. At a meeting of the city colleges board, the raw nerves of political power in Chicago were exposed. Outside the building where the city colleges board was to meet, NBC5.com reported that faculty carried picket signs as they marched in the morning drizzle. The striking teachers chanted against board chairman James Tyree: "'We're not weary. We're not tired. We won't rest until you're fired.'"
Inside the building, a scuffle broke out between protesting students and security guards. After order was restored, speakers began to address the college board. When confronted by union president Buckley as to why the board chairman was not present at negotiations to end the strike, Chicago Sun-Times reporter Dave Newbart writes that James Tyree responded: "I am too busy. I have a full-time job and a company to run." After Chancellor Watson was asked the same question, Tyree responded: "He has an institution to run."
In a 45 minute presentation, Tyree then threatened to cancel all classes taught by full-time faculty in the CCC. Reporter Dave Newbart adds that Tyree "said the district is dangerously close to having to cancel the semester, rather than postpone it, citing accrediting bodies that object to a long gap in coursework."
Eventually, Peggy Shapiro, Distinguished Professor from Harold Washington College, was invited to speak. The CCCTU webpage reports she stated that "When I started at the City Colleges, the central administration was housed on one floor of what is now Harold Washington College. Now, you occupy 14 floors of prime real estate at 226 W. Jackson...and employ 286 people. Most of your central administration departments are duplicated by the same departments at the local colleges."
One has to wonder what Professor Shapiro was doing over the past 25 years while this transformation she now criticizes was taking place before her eyes? Furthermore, what was she doing when ethnic cleansing happened at Daley College or protests against the chaos she now laments occurred there? The union she supports did nothing then, when they could have done much.
Caught in the middle of this mess are 60,000 students, who are as confused as their faculty and the city colleges board. The tragedy here is that educating the students at the city colleges never was the aim of the board or the faculty union.
Appointed by Mayor Daley, the board's primary interest is keeping the mayor in power. If the board members had any other interest they would never serve with Chancellor Wayne Watson. A long time associate of the mayor, Watson allegedly ran Kennedy-King College into the ground. His reward for doing that was to be made chancellor of the entire Chicago community college system.
The faculty union is not interested in students, either. If they were, they would never have left the system deteriorate to where 70 percent of the classes are taught now by adjuncts. Nor would they have stood by when the City Colleges of Chicago became one of the most segregated community college systems in the nation. Over the years, local 1600 has been the prime cause of why "community" was removed from the community colleges in Chicago.
Keep your eye on what happens in Chicago during this strike. Urban, political schizophrenia is on display here and may soon be on display in your city, too. A look at the recent national election map shows that most of the urban areas of the nation are "blue" counties where failed Democratic policies still hold sway. You will learn a lot about how urban Democrats will continue to self-destruct by watching what happens to these strikers in Chicago.
Even if this strike is settled over the weekend, the struggle in Chicago between the left-wing Democrats and the no-wing Democrats will continue. Maybe the students at the City Colleges of Chicago will learn a lesson from this struggle. Public education in Chicago is never about students. It is about preserving a failed ideology, holding on to political power and bilking more and more money from the taxpayers.
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