Kass: Kids Are “Casualties Of War” In The Chicago Teachers Union’s Power-Play To Keep Schools Closed

Authored by John Kass, op-ed via The Chicago Tribune,

There’s never been a better argument for national school choice – and freeing low-income children trapped in substandard big-city public education systems – than that idiotic tweet by the leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union.

“The push to reopen schools is rooted in sexism, racism and misogyny,” read the CTU tweet, posted Sunday at 1:03 p.m.

It was later deleted. CTU bosses might have realized that those racist, sexist misogynists trying to reopen the Chicago schools during the pandemic – the mayor and the school superintendent – just happen to be Black women. And, that plenty of parents who want their kids back in school happen to be Black and Latino.

There is nothing as delicious as watching those angry hard-left CTU bosses load up their identity politics bazooka only to blow off their own (rhetorical) feet.

Why don’t we make this a “teaching moment” for parents who want real choice?

And for the great public schoolteachers who might be intimidated by those union leaders who are fighting to keep schools closed?

Some of those teachers send their kids to private schools in Chicago where teachers are in the classroom. They would rather stay quiet. I don’t blame them.

The science does not support closed schools. Dr. Anthony Fauci and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield say that kids should be in school with proper precautions.

Most teachers want to teach in person. They’ve dedicated their lives to being educators. And they know, perhaps more than most of us, how closing schools hurts young people emotionally, socially and academically.

And many parents also want their children in school, not falling behind, trying to learn on a laptop. Chicago’s mayor and other Democratic elected officials know this, but they’re intimidated by the power of the CTU leadership.

Before I go any further, please remember I’m not anti-teacher. My wife is a teacher. One of our sons is a teacher. Don’t twist my words to suggest otherwise. Teachers perform the most important job in the country.

Yet many good teachers are, as I said, intimidated by union bosses. And the political actors tremble because teachers union bosses are their political bosses now.

I decided to reach out to a man who knows how this works and invited him to be a guest on “The Chicago Way” podcast: Paul Vallas, the former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools. He has been putting pressure on the union and the politicians to open up the schools.

Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, shown Feb. 18, 2019, in Chicago. (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune)

Paul, what about that stupid yet revealing CTU tweet?

“If they want to talk about racism, there’s nothing more racist than closing schools (for the pandemic) and providing substandard education to the poorest children in the community who are disproportionately Black and Latino,” he said.

“And there’s nothing more sexist than closing schools, and hurting families, the majority of whom are led by single mothers.

“So, you want to talk racism and sexism and misogyny?” Vallas asked.

“The union leadership’s posturing and forcing the schools to be closed is all those things. Because what they’re really doing is committing educational malpractice.”

It’s disastrous for the teenagers who get lost. Some get lost on the streets of Chicago and die. And the little ones, the elementary school students?

“The youngest children are at risk,” Vallas said. “Their brains are developing at an accelerated rate.”

What’s being done to them, he said, is “permanent damage.”

Cops, firefighters and paramedics go to work every day. Cashiers at the supermarkets are at work every day. We thank them all as we sweat out this pandemic lockdown.

But if cashiers aren’t at work, they don’t get paid. Yet teachers don’t have to be in the classroom, and they get paid.

Why aren’t they at work, inside school buildings? If it’s not the science, it’s the politics. It’s a demonstration of control.

Politicians get paid too. But they’ve allowed the teachers unions to dictate education policy to the detriment of the students and their families.

The kids need teachers in schools, especially special-needs kids. A child with autism needs in-person instruction. And all children need their teachers. All kids need to be in school, at least for part of the time.

Most big-city school systems like Chicago serve a majority of low-income families. And as Vallas points out, many of the families are led by single mothers.

They have to work. And by work, I don’t mean working on Zoom, like a news columnist.

But who watches the children to make sure that they’re not playing “Call of Duty” on the Xbox?

Vallas sees those kids — from the city and suburbs in lockdown states across the country — as a lost generation, as casualties of a political war.

“All those children impacted by these school closings, by excessive remote learning, the children who have dropped out because schools have been closed for such an extensive period of time, these children are going to be permanently scarred.

“They’re like casualties of war. And the war is the teachers union maintaining or enhancing their benefits while minimizing their workload and placing their employees where there is no risk at all.”

There’s no risk for the union leaders, who sit in their home office, intimidating Democratic politicians like Lori Lightfoot because they can influence voters to come out when needed.

But what about the forgotten?

The children falling behind. Their parents wondering how they’ll be free of a system that treats them this way.

They’re the ones who should matter. But they don’t.