LETTER: Substance reporter (and Chicago teacher) takes on Washington Post editorial
I wrote on the subject of a longer school day in a letter-to-the-editor at the Washington Post.
Below is the Post's editorial, and my response (which is apparently not going to be published). Feel free to use any of my talking (writing) points.
WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 23, 2011 BELOW HERE:
The wrong lesson on a longer school day in Chicago, By Editorial, Published: September 23
LENGTHENING CHICAGO’S notoriously short school day is a linchpin of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s agenda to improve the city’s public schools. Lining up behind the idea are parents, the city’s political and civic leadership, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and — significantly — many teachers, who think it will help them and their students. The only opponent of this sensible plan is the teachers union.
Upset that teachers at a growing number of schools are taking Mr. Emanuel (D) up on his offer of a bit of extra money for more instructional time, the Chicago Teachers Union is seeking to stop a longer school day from going into effect this year. Claiming it’s unfair to get teachers to waive their labor rights, it has filed a lawsuit with Illinois’s labor relations board, accusing the school system of coercing and bribing schools into a longer day.
The school day in Chicago is among the shortest in the nation (15 percent fewer hours of instruction each year than the country’s average); Mr. Duncan, who unsuccessfully fought to lengthen the day when he headed the Chicago system, called the current hours “not a badge of honor, but a disgrace.” Mr. Emanuel helped push a law through the state legislature that will allow the change in September 2012 , but he didn’t want to wait.
“People ask me, why the rush?” the mayor told us. “Because kids only get this year in school once. They get one shot at fifth grade or sixth grade or seventh grade. We should make it right. We can’t wait.” So when the union rebuffed last month a proposal for a longer school day, officials presented the deal directly to the schools: a lump-sum payment equivalent to a 2 percent salary increase for an extra 90 minutes of instruction per day plus bonuses to the schools. Teachers at 13 schools (out of 482) have so far agreed to the terms, with more votes scheduled.
“We did this with the best interest of kids in mind,” one teacher said, explaining why teachers were willing to buck their union leadership for what amounts to relatively modest financial compensation. While not a cure-all, additional instructional time, academic studies and experience show, is a factor in student success. Chicago schools graduated only 57 percent of students last year, and school officials say that only 7.9 percent of the system’s 11th-graders are college- and career-ready.
Unyielding, though, are union leaders, who, while professing not to oppose longer school days, nonetheless questioned their value. Their main beef seems to be that Mr. Emanuel is doing an end run around them. “This is an attempt to take down and make irrelevant the Chicago Teachers Union,” union president Karen Lewis told the Chicago Sun-Times, complaining about the “out-and-out disrespect.” Never mind what’s best for the students.
CHICAGO TEACHER DAVID STONE'S RESPONSE TO THE WASHINGTON POST (NOT PUBLISHED)
To the editor:
As a journalism teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, I have as at least as much insight into how to improve the Washington Post as the Post has into how to improve schools (Editorial, September 23).
If the best way to improve Chicago school is to add 90 minutes to the school day (approximately a 20 percent increase, in trade for a 2 percent increase in teacher pay), then the best way to improve the Post is to add 20 pages of news coverage each day, paid for with 2 additional pages of advertising.
After all, there are few more important functions in society than keeping the public informed, but the Post has among the smallest news holes of any big city newspaper (15 percent less than the national average, according to statistics as reliable as the Post’s unsourced data on instructional time).
So what if the Post must cut reporters and eliminate coverage of sports and the arts to pay for the extra news coverage. Chicago Public Schools have made similar sacrifices, laying off some 2,000 teachers in the past two years and eliminating gym and art classes at many schools.
We must add the extra pages now, without taking time to plan how to fill them, because (to paraphrase the Mayor of Chicago) readers get only one chance to read each day’s newspaper. I am sure the editors will agree that we can’t wait.
David R. Stone, Chicago (The writer is a Chicago Public School teacher who has taught history, English and journalism).
Comments:
By: Barry Rapoport
David Stone's Parody of the Post Editorial
It was cowardly of the Post Editors to not publish this critical piece. How we respond to our most severe critics is a measure of our ability to fully engage in fair and public dialogue. Shame on the Washinton Post!
By: Theresa D. Daniels
David Stone's Parody of the Post Editorial
David, this lampoon is worthy of a Jonathan Swift or a Mike Royko. Congrats. I wish I had written it. Substance for sure is never short on satire.