From <http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?article_id=16318&arc= n> Teacher union's leadership fight Record of schools chief Paul Vallas will be central issue in May election Challenger: Deborah Walsh says her opponent is "passive" and has not produced, either for the union's members or for students. Photo: Steve Leonard April 30, 2001 By Greg Hinz The names on the ballot will be Thomas Reece and Deborah Walsh; no mention of Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas. But listen to Ms. Walsh talk about "the Vallas myth," and Mr. Reece defend the virtues of cooperation between labor and management, and you get an idea what will be at stake when more than 30,000 members of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) elect a new president in mid-May. After years of unusual stability in school operations, the race for union chief between incumbent Mr. Reece and challenger Ms. Walsh is the latest and potentially strongest sign of rising turmoil for Mayor Richard Daley's school reform effort, headed by Mr. Vallas. In recent weeks, outside researchers have suggested that nearly half of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students still drop out (Crain's, March 19) � a claim Mr. Vallas disputes � and Mr. Daley has ordered new steps to boost scores on student reading tests. CPS' chief educational officer, Cozette Buckney, is about to be reassigned, and public squabbling has increased between Mr. Vallas and CPS board Chairman Gery Chico. Now, the powerful teachers union could elect a leader who advocates assertive efforts to boost pay and teacher clout and to cut class size, as opposed to someone who favors productive coexistence with management. "The union can make lots of trouble for a school administration," says Linda Lenz, a longtime school watchdog who edits and publishes Catalyst, a news-letter covering Chicago education issues. "Just raising the specter of labor trouble is damaging to the mayor's vision of luring the middle class back to the city." Divergent approaches Ms. Walsh, a 49-year-old eighth-grade teacher who garnered about 42% of the vote in a 1998 race against Mr. Reece, describes herself as a realist with high goals, not a bomb thrower. A teachers strike, she says, ought to be called only as "the last resort." But at the same time, Ms. Walsh, who formerly headed the Quest Center, the CTU's internal educational research unit, makes clear her view that the "passive" Mr. Reece has not produced either for his members or for students. She believes that only cosmetic changes have resulted from the "partnership" between school administrators and the union, which has signed unprecedented back-to-back four-year contracts. "The real change that's needed to turn around the system hasn't occurred," she says. Mr. Reece, a 61-year-old former grade school science teacher who has held a series of union posts for 19 years, says he's been able to restore respect for local teachers and bargain for solid financial packages for them, despite a difficult political environment in which state lawmakers have limited union rights. "A union's responsibility is not just to negotiate a good contract with good benefits, but to look out for the professional side of teachers' needs," says Mr. Reece, who sees "great progress" in improving Chicago schools. Election of Ms. Walsh would create "a train wreck," he asserts. One important area of difference between the candidates concerns ways to get the money to hire more teachers and pay them better. Chicago teachers won average annual raises of about 3% in their current contract, bringing the salary of those with bachelor's degrees to $53,210 a year. But many suburban districts offer tens of thousands of dollars a year more. Ms. Walsh's proposal is to junk many of the preschool, summer school, alternate school and related programs introduced during the Vallas era and instead focus on improved traditional daytime education � thereby freeing up funds. "Teachers want to teach. They just want to do the job right," she says. "Help us do it right the first time." Mr. Reece notes that each 1% raise costs the schools $12 million a year, money that's tough to find in an age of tax caps. "(Ms. Walsh) would say, 'They should give us more money,' " he says. "But that's not the way it is." His solution: Keep up efforts in Springfield to get the state to pay most school costs, rather than relying on local property taxes. The two also clash over experience, with Mr. Reece citing his record as a negotiator and handler of grievances, and over pay: Mr. Reece holds a second post as president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, and makes $234,000 a year combined from the two posts and a related retirement annuity. Ms. Walsh says she wouldn't hold the second job; he says he voluntarily has limited his raises to the amount negotiated for top-scale teachers. Snaps Mr. Reece: "Everybody here earns everything they make." The shadow candidate on the ballot, Mr. Vallas, terms Mr. Reece "an excellent president" who "took union relations out of the Middle Ages." Mr. Chico declined comment. 'A destabilizing force' Outside observers such as John Ayers, executive director of Leadership for Quality Education, a business-backed reform group, say that despite the relatively close race last time, Mr. Reece remains the strong favorite for another three-year term. Electing the challenger would be "a destabilizing force," he says, but adds that both sides would learn to work together. Still, Mr. Ayers notes, any suggestion that teacher salaries can be raised, class size cut and increased resources put into reform efforts � simultaneously � is "campaign talk. I don't think anyone can make that happen." �2001 by Crain Communications Inc. -- This is the CPS Science Teacher List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/science%40lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>
