Too High a Price
November 22, 2009
Video General Counsel Bob Chanin
We watched
an interesting YouTube video the other day. It
was brought to our attention by state Sen. James Meeks, the Chicago Democrat who is also
pastor of
Meeks, who chairs the Illinois Senate Education Committee, has been in a war
with the Chicago Teachers Union
since he had some tough things to say about public education in a Tribune essay
and in a speech at Rainbow Push.
The CTU responded with a vow not to give him another dime in campaign money
until he apologized. Meeks promptly wrote a check for $4,000, giving back every
dime the union had already given him.
No apology.
You have to love this guy. He's genuinely looking out for kids and doesn't back
down to pressure.
Back to the video. It shows the top lawyer of the
National Education Association, Bob Chanin, speaking at the NEA's annual
meeting in July. Chanin was retiring. This was his swan song.
Chanin makes unmistakably clear what the highest priority is for the union.
Hint: It's not the education of your kids.
Chanin closed his nearly 25-minute speech by explaining the influence of the
NEA:
Despite what some among us would like to believe it is not because of our
creative ideas. It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not
because we care about children and it is not because we have a vision of a
great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective
advocates because we have power.
And we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are
willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year, because
they believe that we are the unions that can most effectively represent them,
the unions that can protect their rights and advance their interests as
education employees.
Oh, it gets more interesting.
This is not to say that the concern of NEA and its affiliates with closing
achievement gaps, reducing dropout rates, improving teacher quality and the
like are unimportant or inappropriate. To the contrary.
These are the goals that guide the work we do. But they need not and must not
be achieved at the expense of due process, employee rights and collective
bargaining. That simply is too high a price to pay.
Too high a price to pay for educated children. Chanin got wild applause from
thousands of NEA members at the San Diego Convention Centerfor his remarks.
We tried for several days to get NEA officials to explain those remarks. We
wanted to ask if the rest of the union leadership believed that kids ranked
behind collective bargaining on the teacher priority list. We're still waiting
to hear from them.
We know the answer the Chicago Teachers Union gave the Rev. Meeks: Cross us and
we'll choke off your money.
Meeks plans to introduce a bill in January that would give the kids at
He plans to push to remove the cap on the number of charter schools in
Meeks met on Thursday with Sen. Dan Cronin, the Republican leader
on the Education Committee, to see if they can work out a bipartisan agenda.
Good for both of them.
The teachers unions in
If that's the case, they shouldn't be asking Meeks for an apology. They should
be asking for an apology from everyone who cheered Chanin.
Too high a price, eh?