 State Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, has been spearheading
discussions on education reform since January. The talks are
expected to end Thursday, but major disputes over collective
bargaining remain unresolved."For me, (it's about) what's best
for the student and the classroom. If we're all focused on getting
the best results for the students, I'm pretty sure we can come up as
education stakeholders and adults and professionals in the room with
the process in which to get there," Lightford said.
But Lightford is not saying anything about an outcome of
Thursday's meeting, which could come down to a fight over teacher
strikes.
Audrey Soglin, executive director of the Illinois Education
Association, has been fighting against collective bargaining reforms
from the beginning.
"We have a strong stance that the collective bargaining in our
state works. We do not believe they need to be changed. We do not
offer any compromises or any other solutions to any of the issues
that they raised," Soglin said.
The Illinois Education Association has been working with a
coalition of teachers to advance ideas they've dubbed
"Accountability for All," a proposal that calls for increased
professional development and outlines procedures for obtaining
tenure and filling of vacant positions.
Jonah Edelman, head of Stand for Children Illinois, worried more
about the threat of a strike that teachers may use to block
negotiations for longer school days.
"We can't continue to afford to kick the can down the road for
kids in Chicago who are going to school for less than six hours a
day, 170 days a year, getting four years less schooling over their
K-12 career than students in other districts -- that's just not
right," Edelman said.
Stand for Children is a relatively new education reformer in
Illinois. The group came to Illinois last year but has had a
presence in other states for years. In Illinois, Stand for Children
is lining up with business groups and some conservative-leaning
groups to back performance-based education reforms but has also
received support from churches and community groups in Chicago.
Supporters of collective bargaining rights, however, say that
strikes aren't likely.
Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union and
executive vice president of Illinois Federation of Teachers, said
the original plan stripped all collective bargaining rights except
for salary negotiations.
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"I wanted the bill dead, to be honest with you. ... We didn't want
to see any of this mess," Lewis said. "There was a mean-spiritedness
to this bill that had nothing to do with reform."
Lewis said the reforms targeted teachers, instead of focusing on
improving student programs.
Edelman, however, believes children are already being
shortchanged.
"Because of the imbalance in the current way contracts are
negotiated, the threat of a strike has been unfortunately used as a
trump card to prevent key educational issues from being discussed
and progress being made, and the most prominent case in point is
student learning time," Edelman said.
Discussions on education reform were spurred by "Race to the Top"
legislation last fall, where Illinois failed to secure millions of
dollars in federal funds. The Performance Evaluation Reform Act of
2010 placed student performance indicators on teacher evaluations
for the first time.
Lightford expects the group's recommendations to be amended to
Senate Bill 7, which she hopes will be signed into law by the
end of the year.
"We thought there would be a lot of pushback and debate. There
really hasn't been a lot of pushback -- pretty much everyone is
working together -- (but) we still have the hurdle to climb on
strikes," Lightford said.
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By MELISSA LEU]
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