Comparison of the contracts of CTU, and Locals 1708 and 1600

The following analysis was submitted by Craig and coworkers. We reproduce it below in its entirety in a spirit of solidarity and with the hope that it will help clarify the state of affairs at the CCC and within the organizations that represent most of its employees. May this spark another round of discussion that will help us chart a way forward to rescue the CCC from the mouth of sharks.

PEARL

IS THE NEW LOCAL 1600 CONTRACT A GOOD DEAL?

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

As a concerned group of loyal union members, over the past few months we have learned a great deal about the recently signed CCC contracts. After the vote, we realized that we had cast our ballots (some in favor; some against the contract) based upon very limited and contradictory information. For that reason we decided to find out what the truth was. 

We learned from Dr. Bruno’s contract meeting at Morton College that good contract negotiation results are a reflection of fact-finding and tough collective bargaining. Our research unearthed many concerning issues that sadly we were unaware of. Our research concluded that Local 1600 union president Perry Buckley was either unaware of the issues below, or unconcerned by them, or both. 

President Buckley signed agreements for both the Faculty and Professional City Colleges contracts nearly one year in advance of their expiration.  (Both contracts expire in July of 2013).

Just weeks before signing the contracts, Mr. Buckley retired and secured his own benefits from CCC: an impressive annual retirement salary (Pension + Union Salary combined of more than $300,000.00 annually) and a generous sick day payout (sick days amounting to more than $200,000.00).

Below we will compare three contractual results, and where applicable, include administrators.  These contractual agreements were all completed around the same time as follows:

Local 1708                                    June 7, 2012

Local 1600                                    August 23, 2012        

Local 1 CTU                                October 2, 2012

Much appreciation to all those who assisted in helping us gather and interpret the information we present below.   

LOCAL 1708 VS.  LOCAL 1600:

Local 1600’s sister union at City Colleges of Chicago is Local 1708, a union of Clerical workers.  Local 1708’s last contract ended in June of 2010.  Their union leaders then held out in firm negotiations against the City Colleges’ district lawyers for 24 months.  In comparison, Mr. Buckley held out for… almost one day.  In the end, Local 1708’s contract had Higher Raises, No Merit Pay, No loss of Earned Sick Days, and No Wellness program.  

CITY COLLEGES                           CITY COLLEGES

Clerical Union 1708                           Faculty & Professional Union 1600

RAISES COMPARED:

RAISES FOR 1708 MEMBERS   VS.         RAISES FOR 1600 MEMBERS
2011     3.5%                                                                      2014    2.5 %
2012     3.0                                                                         2015    2.5
2013     3.5                                                                         2016    2.5
2014     3.5                                                                         2017    2.5
2015     3.5                                                                         2018    2.5

LOCAL 1600 RAISES: 2.5%— These raises are just above the rate of inflation.  The US inflation rate for 2012 stands at an average of 2.12%.   The 2.5% “raise” is, for all intents and purposes, a wage freeze.  When you add in the loss of sick day payouts and step increases, all members have now experienced a tremendous and career-long wage cut. 

US Inflation Calculator:
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/

MERIT/SUCCESS PAY:

Merit pay is an effort by educational reformers to pay teachers based on student performance.  Teachers would be paid according to factors such as student grades, test scores, graduation rates and related outcomes. Cheating and social promotion are rife in K-12 systems where this is the standard of compensation.

CTU Local 1:                    REJECTED MERIT / SUCCESS PAY

Local 1708:                    REJECTED MERIT / SUCCESS PAY

CCC Administrators:           DO NOT HAVE MERIT / SUCCESS PAY

Local 1600:                    ACCEPTED MERIT / SUCCESS PAY

The Chicago Tribune celebrated Mr. Buckley’s acceptance of Merit Pay in:

“Revealed:  The Chicago Teachers’ Pact”, September 5, 2012

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-09-05/news/ct-edit-colleges-20120905_1_ctu-president-karen-lewis-ctu-members-chicago-teachers-union

Chicago Tribune:  “Perhaps best of all: Under the new contract, merit pay will reward educators for improvements in student performance. No, no, it's not the teachers in Chicago Public Schools (CTU  Local 1) who have this new contract. We're describing the pact covering 1,483 union faculty, training staff and other professionals at the City Colleges of Chicago. The announcement came Saturday from system Chancellor Cheryl Hyman and Perry Buckley, president of Cook County Teachers Union Local 1600.”

The Merit Pay he accepted was semantically transformed into “Student Success Pay”.  This means we might be paid a few extra dollars if we inflate our grades substantially enough so that some of the District’s “student success” standards are met.  Such student success standards are highly unattainable. Among them are:

* Students who transfer within 3 years (must reach 25% from current 14%)

* Students employed in the occupational area of their training (must reach 90%)

*Median earnings of CCC grads in the area of their training must reach a minimum of $43,398  (Note: Full- time working U.S. COLLEGE graduates ages 21-24 with a B.A. degree earned an average of $34,965 in 2011)

See figure J:  Economic Policy Institute: “The Class of 2012”

http://www.epi.org/publication/bp340-labor-market-young-graduates/

Mr. Buckley also agreed to “Draft an MOU for a Joint CCC-union committee to address all issues related to Student Success Pay, including ‘Discuss additional ways to measure individual merit, such as assessments that go across the departments.’” 

LOSS OF STEPS AND COMPRESSION OF LANES:

We at Local 1600 have always had a contract with lanes and steps that reward greater education and experience with higher pay.  We advance in lanes by achieving more education.  We advance in steps by gaining additional years of service. Our salaries rise with each step or lane increase.  Local 1708’s contract has grades and steps that operate in a similar fashion.  CTU Local 1 has a contract with lanes and steps that resemble our own soon to expire contract.  

CTU Local 1:           RETAINED LANE AND STEP INCREASES FOR ALL EMPLOYEES

Local 1708:           RETAINED GRADE AND STEP INCREASES FOR CURRENT  EMPLOYEES 

(New hires will no longer move through the steps).

Local 1600:           LANES REDUCED. LOSS OF STEP INCREASES

FOR ALL EMPLOYEES

The eradication of our steps and reduction of lanes was included in the contract for no reason other than to reduce our salaries substantially over our careers. The end result was to cut CCC’s payroll expenses dramatically. 

WELLNESS PROGRAM:

The danger of employer-required wellness programs is that employees can be penalized for not meeting the employer’s ideal of “wellness”.  This could mean being required to “quit smoking” or “lose weight” as examples.  CTU, in agreeing to a wellness program, demanded that there be no penalty for smoking, or for failing to meet any “health outcomes” the city might come up with.  CTU agreed only that their members would submit to an annual physical, and that this information would be kept confidential.  Local 1708 rejected a wellness program entirely.  In contrast, Mr. Buckley accepted a wellness program, but without limitations.  We are now essentially subject to the whims of the District Office in this matter. 

CTU Local 1:           ACCEPTED WELLNESS PROGRAM BUT WITH SPECIFIC MEMBER-FRIENDLY GUIDELINES AND LIMITATIONS     

SEE CTU Contract Article 32  (page 8) http://www.ctunet.com/blog/text/Contract_Highlights_2012_09_18.pdf

Local 1708:           REJECTED WELLNESS PROGRAM

SEE Local 1708 Contract Article IX (M) http://apps.ccc.edu/brpublic/2012/june/31456.pdf

“In the event a Wellness Program is created for another bargaining unit, said Wellness program will become available to Local 1708.”

(This now means any Local 1708 member can use the Wellness program Local 1600 has agreed to if a member freely chooses to participate in it)

Local 1600:           ACCEPTED WELLNESS PROGRAM WITH NO GUIDELINES OR LIMITATIONS WHATSOEVER

SICK DAY PAYOUTS:

City Colleges Administrators can keep the sick days that they have already earned and cash them out when they retire. Local 1708 can keep the sick days that they have earned and cash them out when they retire.  CTU Local 1 can keep the sick days that they have earned and cash them out when they retire.  Only Local 1600 members must give up all earned sick day cash payouts.   

CTU Local 1:              KEPT SICK DAY PAYOUTS

Local 1708:             KEPT SICK DAY PAYOUTS

CCC Administrators:           KEPT SICK DAY PAYOUTS

Local 1600:           GAVE AWAY SICK DAY PAYOUTS

Mr. Buckley gave away ALL Local 1600 Sick Day Payouts for ALL Professionals and Faculty who cannot retire by July 2014.    (We earned this money from decades of hard work. Upon retirement, each of us cashes out an average of $100,000.00). CCC has about 1,500 Local 1600 members.  The sick day payouts that we lost are conservatively valued at over $100,000,000.00--One Hundred Million--dollars. 

CTU LOCAL 1 MEMBERS KEEP THEIR SICK DAY PAYOUTS:

CTU LOCAL 1 MEMBERS CAN CASH OUT ALL Sick Days earned as of October 2012 into perpetuity.

CTU Local 1 Tentative Agreement (see page 10 Article 37)

http://www.ctunet.com/blog/text/Contract_Highlights_2012_09_18.pdf

Article 37—New CTU Contract Agreement October 2, 2012:

“Old sick day banks are protected and can be used as they have always been used.  They can be cashed out upon retirement.”

LOCAL 1708 MEMBERS KEEP THEIR SICK DAY PAYOUTS:

LOCAL 1708 MEMBERS CAN CASH OUT ALL Sick Days earned as of July 2014 into perpetuity.

Local 1708 Agreement:  http://apps.ccc.edu/brpublic/2012/june/31456.pdf

Article 9 (I) New Local 1708 Contract Agreement June 7, 2012:
“Local 1708 Employees hired before June 7, 2012 may accrue unlimited sick leave, but the payout is capped at the amount accrued as of July 1, 2014”

CCC ADMINISTRATORS KEEP THEIR SICK DAY PAYOUTS:  

CCC ADMINISTRATORS CAN CASH OUT UP TO 200 Sick Days earned as of July 2012 into perpetuity.

CCC New Board of Trustees Ruling May 3, 2012:

“The number of sick days that can be paid to employees upon retirement will be capped at the number of days accumulated by July 1, 2012, or upon the date of retirement, whichever number is less, not to exceed 200 days.”

CCC Board Report page 3 http://apps.ccc.edu/brpublic/2012/may/31415.pdf

LOCAL 1600 MEMBERS LOSE ALL SICK DAY PAYOUTS AS OF JULY 2014:

WE LOCAL 1600 MEMBERS NOW HAVE A ZERO $(0) SICK DAY PAYOUT FOR ALL OF US WHO DO NOT RETIRE BY JULY 2014.

Note:  We Local 1600 members went on Strike in 1971 for nearly 30 days to gain the sick day payouts that we have maintained in our contracts for 31 years.

MR. BUCKLEY GAVE AWAY ALL OF OUR SICK DAY PAYOUTS IN ONE DAY FOR NOTHING IN RETURN.  

PROCESS:

About a week before this offer was put to us for a vote, Mr. Buckley came to our colleges for the opening union meetings of Fall semester. At our meetings, he stated emphatically that he would absolutely support a strike rather than accept the contractual changes listed above. 

Days later, Mr. Buckley mailed a letter to us dictating that a vote on a proposed contract must take place immediately.  In this letter he forced upon us an unreasonable and arbitrary timeline of a few days—at the start of the semester—to vote on this critical contract that would impact the rest of our careers.  We were neither afforded adequate time to assess the impacts of the proposal, nor to confirm the statements made by Mr. Buckley in support of the proposal.

Mr. Buckley then came to our colleges campaigning “THIS IS THE BEST POSSIBLE DEAL THAT YOU WILL EVER GET.”  He told us that if we did not agree to it—the ONLY other alternative would be to lose absolutely everything in our contracts.

He told us “faculty will lose tenure* if we reject these contracts” and that “CCC Administrators and Local 1708 had already given up all of their sick day payouts” and that “all CCC employees now have to participate in the Wellness program.”  

* Our Tenure is Guaranteed by Illinois State Law in the Community college Tenure Act of 1980:

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs4.asp?DocName=011008050HArt.+IIIB&ActID=1150&ChapterID=18&SeqStart=18100000&SeqEnd=18800000

As a result of these and other misrepresentations, we were led to believe we didn’t have any other choice but to agree to the contracts.  We now know that this was not the case.  

  

We now also know that the forced timeline was designed exclusively to compel our submission. We were not told the truth about these contracts. We were deceived and we voted under threat and out of fear.

EXCLUSION OF OUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES:

Mr. Buckley completely and deliberately excluded all of our elected representatives from these contract “negotiations”.  He shut out City Colleges Vice President Rochelle Dukes, and all seven elected Chapter Chairs.

What was the motivation behind removing all of our elected union leaders from the process? Why was Mr. Buckley the only Local 1600 representative present when this “deal” was cut?

CO-OPTATION:

Who did Mr. Buckley strike this deal with? He admitted to us freely that he struck this deal with the Mayor. This deal was supposedly an attempt to compel CTU President Karen Lewis to concede just as Mr. Buckley did. 

Mr. Buckley told us “this great deal was being offered to stop CTU from striking.” He said we must decide within 3 days of receiving the proposal so that the vote would occur before the CTU strike date. CTU leaders have since stated that the Local 1600 contract was a travesty and played no role at all in their decision to strike.

In retrospect, we now know the 3-day window was simply designed to deny us the opportunity to make an informed decision. We could not make an informed decision on this critical and complicated matter in 3 days.  It was even more impossible when we could not rely on the information presented to us. 

The Local 1600 contract offer was handled by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s brother-in-law Laurent Pernot “Vice Chancellor of Institutional Advancement”at 226 W. Jackson. 

http://www.ccc.edu/departments/Pages/Institutional-Advancement.aspx   (One Chapter Chair who did support the contract was Daley College’s Todd Lakin whose wife Tania Brewster is on Laurent Pernot’s staff).

The Mayor’s brother-in-law, Laurent Pernot, presented the offer to Cheryl Hyman who then gave it to Mr. Buckley who signed it immediately. He did not negotiate for a single change. He did not seek the consent or agreement of a single elected leader of CCC’s membership.  

Why did Mr. Buckley agree to all of this? Why did he work so hard to sell it to us?  We do not know all of the reasons. What we do know is that he had already secured his financial future, and would not need to adapt to any of the aftermath including: the open-ended wellness program, merit/ success pay, eradication of raises, loss of sick day payouts, and the removal of steps and lanes.

Labor Peace at the CCC, CFL-Style

The union leadership of Local 1600 is making the rounds around the seven City Colleges of Chicago with the rallying cry of labor peace. They know that the tentative agreement that they are asking their members to ratify in the blink of an eye gives away a significant chunk of hard-won union rights and guarantees. Important things that have been in place for many, many years. They know that. They know that the membership will have to live with the consequences of such a surrender for many years and that no one in their right mind would spontaneously make these concessions. So what’s left? Fear.

The only thing the campaign for a yes vote has to offer is fear. Fear that catastrophe will ensue if this miserable offer is not taken now. That the administration will come for everything else that remains in the contract. That mysteriously people won’t be able to say NO to an even worse offer and fight together against it. In a twisted logic, the things that are not being sacrificed yet in the tentative agreement are being highlighted as if they were fresh gains. And the recompense will be labor peace.

But what does labor peace on these terms mean? In whose interest is this type of labor peace? Who is maneuvering behind the scenes for this labor peace?

There is a sad prequel to this story. As readers of this blog may remember, back in March we described how the union that represents the clerical and technical workers of the CCC, Local 1708, was ambushed into signing a terrible contract. Unfortunately, this defeat was facilitated by the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL). As we wrote in this March post:

As 1708 grappled with the possibility of going on strike in a few days, the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL) intervened. They told 1708 to sit tight, while they approached the Mayor. Their conditions: that 1708 did not polarize things and that it did not criticize the Reinvention.

Thus rather than getting ready to gather forces to support 1708’s fight as a portent of things to come, the CFL pressured 1708 into accepting a rotten deal.

It is a tragedy that things ended up this way. The other unions currently negotiating with the CCC bosses have now a more uphill battle: AFSCME, SEIU and IBEW. Soon enough they will be joined by CCCLOC, representing the adjunct faculty. They need to become aware that the script is not written in stone, that the CFL is supposed to be there to represent us, not to suffocate us. That it still is up to us to fight a full fight because if we don’t we are screwed. And because every time we get screwed, everyone else gets screwed too.

It is tragic, how unfortunately correct our assessment of the logical consequences has turned out to be. And it gets uglier, for it is a fact that, yet on another errand for the Mayor, the CFL brought together last week CCC Chancellor Hyman and Local 1600 president Buckley, over and over. Until this grand Tentative Agreement was hashed out. This is the epicenter of the virtuous quest for labor peace.

A labor peace that provides peace only to the bosses’ side (and to the union bureaucrats who get to duck yet another struggle). A peace that guarantees that our side won’t resist. A peace that that doesn’t provide peace of mind to the teachers, professionals and their families, who will have to feel on their flesh everyday for five years the violence of the consequences of this despicable contract. Some kind of peace.

One doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand that anything that is given away in this contract won’t be in the way to impede the unending demands for more that will come in the next one. When is it that you are supposed to draw a line on the sand if labor peace is the most important principle?

Labor peace is a euphemism for let’s not fight. But the origins of Local 1600 back in the 1960s stand out as an example of the willingness to fight. If labor peace had been the guiding principle, Local 1600 would have never been born.

CCC Teachers Mowed Down as Pawns in Emanuel’s War Against CTU

Out of the blue, the full-time teachers and professionals of the City Colleges of Chicago began receiving in the mail on Saturday, August 25 notification about a tentative contract they did not know was being negotiated and which they were being asked to ratify in less than a week. Their current contract does not expire until July 12, 2013. Why the rush?

Represented by AFT Local 1600, these educators were suddenly brought into the vortex of the struggle between Mayor Rahm Emanuel and their sister union, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), which represents 30,000 teachers and educational support staff at the Chicago Public Schools (CPS).

The Machiavellian strategy of the Mayor was on display for anyone who can see. He commanded CCC Chancellor Cheryl Hyman to extract from Local 1600’s leadership a signed promise to deliver a yes vote by September 3, the day before classes are scheduled to start at CPS:

“Local 1600 will recommend a “Yes” vote to all voting Local 1600 members to ratify this agreement. Local 1600 will conduct the contract ratification vote before Monday, September, 3, 2012.” [CCC-1600 tentative 2013-2018 collective bargaining agreement]

And to make sure that he could extract maximum advantage from these developments, Emanuel wanted to schedule a press conference for Friday, August 24 to inform Chicago about the tentative agreement. To show how he had managed to obtain a swift contract with a group of “reasonable” Chicago teachers who could then be diametrically opposed to the recalcitrant and unreasonable CTU. When Emanuel’s minions communicated to Local 1600’s president, Perry Buckley, that he wanted to hold the press conference on the 24^th, Buckley responded in embarrassment that he needed the Mayor to wait longer because he needed more time to notify his union members. He did not want his members to first find out about the agreement from the press.

A tentative contract full of harmful concessions

As revolting as this is, it is not the whole story. The “reasonable” CCC teachers and professionals are being asked to ratify a contract that is extremely damaging to them and their families. And that is the second important reason for shoving this contract down their throats at rocket speed. They don’t want to give people enough time to analyze, discuss and propose alternatives to this miserable contract, and most importantly to prevent them from organizing to reject it. The chickens always come home to roost, and they are doing it with a vengeance. The logic of Reinvention has overtly come to exact its price from the flesh of these teachers and professionals who are the frontline of the education efforts at the CCC.

First, the contract surrenders the decades-old pay scale established in the form of a “steps” table. Every contract until now had a table that clearly specified the pay rate according to the degree of academic preparation (Masters, Ph.D.) acknowledging every year of experience (in steps). In the second year of the contract the steps will disappear. And with them any recognition of years of teaching experience. It is also path for completely doing away with seniority. This is precisely what CPS is demanding from the CTU, except that CTU’s leadership is standing firm in opposing it.

Instead the CCC got away with replacing the steps with a cost of living allowance (COLA), language that had never existed in previous 1600 contracts. The product of hard-won years of teaching experience replaced with the malleable notion of COLA. And what is the teacher’s COLA worth to the Cahncellor who makes over $275,000 per year? 2.50 percent per year. Because the step system will be removed in the same contract, this 2.5 percent will actually amount to about a 0.5 percent pay increase in relation to prior contracts. It’s a very poor deal for union members taking away not only seniority but their only real guarantee of a base pay raise over time.

Teachers asked to consent to performance pay

But this is not yet the whole story. The harmful practice of merit pay is also inserted into this collective slap in the face. The administration has inserted into the contract a potential 1% bonus which they have called “student success pay.” So instead of offering a 3.5% COLA, they are holding back 1% as a carrot that if granted will not become part of the base pay of the employees, it is merely a “commission”. But not every 1600 employee would partake in the “bonus.” Only teachers and the professionals charged with face-to-face contact with the students (e.g., the advisors) would be eligible for this 1%. The other professionals will be held to the 2.5% COLA. Initially, the 1% bonus will be granted on a District-wide basis, if the whole college system surpasses still unspecified criteria. This is abominable. Acceptance of this scheme amounts to acknowledgement by the union that the students are not successful enough because the teachers are not working hard/smart enough and therefore need the market-based corrective of an economic incentive to work harder/smarter. Contrast this surrender to merit pay with CTU’s firm opposition to it. Yet, the worst of merit/performance pay is still in the works.

The tentative agreement establishes as a legitimate procedure, that would be sanctioned by a yes vote, the post-contract-ratification development of individual merit pay schemes that would be legitimized through mechanisms such as a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that would be put together between the union leaders who are recommending this deplorable contract and the administration that is imposing it:

“Draft an MOU to form joint CCC-union committee to address…additional ways to measure individual merit, such as assessments that go across the departments.”

The formation of joint committees between the union and the administration is not a rare event. They do not need to be ratified in a contract. The specification of a MOU protocol for the formation of a joint committee to discuss any issue does not require a contract vote either. Why then insert and highlight such language in the very skimpy body of the tentative agreement? We are afraid that it is to establish facts on the ground, to have inscribed on the ribs of an approved contract that the CCC teachers have agreed in principle to let themselves be caught in the poisoned broth of individual performance pay. The CCC already extracted this concession earlier this year from their adult educators, who appear to us to have been sacrificed by their AFSCME local.

The CCC wants to introduce individual merit pay and they want it bad. Acceptance of the principle of performance pay is very damaging to educators and to students. It is like pregnancy; you are either pregnant or you are not. There are no degrees of pregnancy. Either you stand firm in rejecting any kind of performance pay or you succumb to it.

Surrendering pension benefits without a fight

Another set of very damaging concessions relate to the retirement benefits. The pensions of public employees in the state of Illinois have been under severe attack for years by a coalition of politicians (Gov. Quinn, House Speaker Madigan) and the billionaires of Illinois represented by the Commercial Club Of Chicago. The public employee unions have been fighting to oppose these unconstitutional changes ever since. However, the contract that Local 1600’s leadership recommends gives up these benefits without a fight:

“CCC pays premiums only for current retirees.”

“Sick days cannot be used for retirement enhancement if pension cost are shifted to CCC.”

It is absurd that just when the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) announced that it has filed a lawsuit against the legislation signed by Gov. Quinn last May allowing the government to renege on the constitutionally guaranteed contract provisions of our pensions, specifically the health care premiums, the tentative contract surrenders them in a particularly treacherous way. Only the premiums of the current retirees are preserved, reinforcing the unfortunate longstanding practice of Local 1600 of privileging their veterans and retired members at the expense of the rest of the union membership.

The second item is as insulting. Any sick days remaining in an employee’s sick days bank will be lost (or more properly stolen, even the cash out allowance has been thrown overboard) when he/she files for retirement. Again, those lucky enough to retire or have retired before July 12, 2013 will not have to pay the price, for there is very little doubt that the pension costs will be shifted to the CCC and all other individual state agencies as promised by Gov. Quinn and his partners in crime. Disgustingly enough, 1600’s leadership didn’t even secure a match to the agreement reached for District Office potentates who were allowed to grandfather in their sick days accumulated until this year. Sadly, the battle was over before it started.

Finally, there are additional concessions meant to further squeeze the income of the union’s membership under the perennial excuse that money is scarce. The hypocrisy of this statement is unbelievable. There are over 50 top-level administrators at District Office making well over $100,000 per year according to Carol Marin’s News 5 recent exposé. There are over $250 million allocated for Emanuel’s pet project, College to Careers, to build a new Malcolm X College building. There are millions of dollars spent in frivolous offices at District Office. But there is not enough money for the teachers and professionals healthcare insurance, increasing their premium contributions from 13 to 16 percent over the life of what will turn out to be a very long, 5-year contract. (Chipping away at the 2.5% COLA!)

Add to this the fact that the tentative agreement commits Local 1600 “to participate” in the Mayor’s Wellness Program (WP). This is extortion. The WP is a Trojan horse. Under the guise of looking after the health of city employees, the WP forces an employee to surrender to the “monitors” enough personal medical information to certify that the employee is having satisfactory progress (i.e., losing weight, cease smoking). Many have such hectic lives that finding time and energy to participate in such programs will be impossible. The end result is that those unable to participate in these programs will have their premiums jacked up $50 per month. But this is precisely the goal of the Mayor, to have workers pay an additional $600 per year in healthcare premiums. This is why the CTU is also rejecting this alleged “Wellness” Program. Tell you what Mayor, want to help workers improve their health? Stop overwhelming them with work, stress and pay and benefit reductions. Then they’ll have plenty of time to join a gym.

Future of education in Chicago at stake

And there are many other things wrong with this tentative contract that we don’t have time to go into. Such a lousy contract offered in exchange for betraying their union brothers and sisters at CTU is unconscionable. This is inexplicable. We could understand (but not condone) if the leadership of Local 1600 would have come to its membership with a juicy bribe to have them ignore CTU’s current fight, but not with this pathetic collection of concessions that damage the working conditions, standard of living and self-respect of the teachers and professionals of the CCC.

This is very unfortunate and ironic. When Local 1600 went on strike back in 2004, a significant factor propelling the strike was that the old, corrupt leadership of the CTU refused to fight back, rolled over and sacrificed their members in their contract negotiations the year before. The onus was placed then on 1600 to hold the line, which they did then despite numerous shortcomings. Roll the film forward to 2012. Now CTU has a leadership and a membership ready to fight. The same types of disgusting concessions are being demanded from both unions. The best chance they stand to win this fight is by joining together, shoulder to shoulder. There is no good reason why Local 1600 should be voting on a new contract ahead of the outcome of the CTU contract fight. Particularly because its current contract doesn’t expire for another 10 months. A victory by CTU, will only make it harder for Emanuel to impose onerous concessions on1600.

The lives of CCC teachers and professionals and those of their CTU brothers and sisters, as well as the future of education in Chicago are on the line. We urge you to vote NO on this disgraceful contract and get your comfortable sneakers out of the closet to join the CTU on the picket line!

PEARL

The Arrogance of Power

Word on the street is that the Chancellor's community relations minions are on the verge of alienating a large number of community groups who have been trying to help the CCC succeed. This is very bad... stay tuned.

PEARL

CCC Inc.

The corridors of 226 W. Jackson, the headquarters of the City Colleges of Chicago (CCC), have become increasingly surreal. While the full-time clerical workers represented by Local 1708 spent 20 months without a contract and the part-timers still have no contract (since the summer of 2011), the upper level administrators have been busy filling their ranks and sprucing up their so called District Office (DO). As we reported in our post of March 23, 2011, DO had managed to hire over a nine-month period, beginning in July, 2010, $5.1 worth of personnel (for only some 50 positions at an average of $95,000 per position) to work at their base of operations. As it was noted by many critics, none of these folks were going to be engaged in offering any education (i.e., teaching classes, staffing computer or science labs, tutoring, or providing necessary student services).

Politically embarrassed by this criticism, the administration did a tactical shift, engaged in a campaign of hiring more full-time faculty and advisors, and laid low for a while regarding their spending at DO. However, soon enough, the self-lavish switch was turned on again and the inflow resumed. Just in three months, during the period between July and December, the number of high-level, high-pay DO positions increased in pace, as if torrential rains were pouring down the CCC coffers. Particularly in November and December the number of Vice-Chancellors multiplied at the speed with which the Chancellor’s inner crew could come up with imaginative titles for their positions.

Education Leaders or Corporate Bosses?

Just in July, November and December of 2011, the CCC Board approved $2.5 million worth of DO positions. (You can see it yourself at the Board’s website http://apps.ccc.edu/brpublic.) Out of these $2.5 million, just under $1 million went to cover the salaries of eight high-level officers, including the new provost, Kojo Quartey, at $170,000 per year. It is important to note that for more than 100 years of existence, the CCC system did fine without a Provost. But the Gods must be crazy, or perhaps insatiably thirsty. Throughout their 20-month contract-seeking ordeal, 1708 kept on asking: what is Chancellor Hyman’s salary? Curiously enough her salary details have never been posted by the CCC Board of Trustees, which is required by law. In order to get an idea of her base salary (without those zany perks that allow her the perpetual renovation of her bullet proof, 14^th floor office) one has to go to the website of the Illinois Higher Education Board: $275,000.  Soon enough her title will be changed to CEO, to be in line with the complete corporatization of the CCC.

1708 was offered for nearly 20 months zero percent raises for five years. Yet out of the blue Emanuel found $240 million to build a new Malcolm X building for Obama’s, “College to Careers” vocationalization of the CCC crusade. WTF? Sorry we got confused, we meant, Emanuel’s “Collage to Careers” crusade. According to the CCC’s publicity rag  named The 411, Obama’s vocationalization scheme is named “Community College to Career,” and has an $8 billion tag. See it for yourselves:

        

A Conversation with Michael Blake

Tonight at Kennedy-King College, join former Associate Director of the White House’s Office of Public Engagement for a discussion of the role of community colleges and the communities they serve (6pm-8pm, Main Theater, U-building). Blake will also speak about his road to the White House, the direction of education in the United States, and the announcement of the president’s proposed $8 billion “Community College to Career” program. (from The 411, Issue 10, March 21, 2012)

See the difference? Seriously, though, now the evidence is out in the open that “Collage to Careers” and the Reinvention were conceived at Arne Duncan’s office in DC, and that the CCC is the laboratory of the Obama administration. And guess who are the lab rats.

The corporate hacks that now soak the halls of 226 W. Jackson made their way there through the CPS Central Office and the Commercial Club of Chicago’s Civic Committee. Back then when Arne Duncan was in charge of CPS, he and the Civic Committee worked hand in hand to bring the plague of charter schools to Chicago’s neighborhoods. (If you have any questions about who the Commercial Club of Chicago is and its omnipresent power in the land of Al Capone, please read our post The Biggest Shark in the Reinvention Pond: The Commercial Club of Chicago.) Then Civic Committee fellows began showing up working for CPS. And then Abracadabra, once the Reinvention was invented, these same business operatives mushroomed at CCC headquarters and the various colleges. Vice Chancellor in Charge of Reinvention Alvin Bisarya and Harold Washington College President Donald Laackman are two prominent examples. Bisarya comes from the consulting firm McKinsey and Co. while Laackman spent 23 years at Andersen Consulting, nowadays known as Accenture. They both went to CPS through the Commercial Club of Chicago’s Civic Committee, and are now ruling over us at the CCC.

We haven’t seen yet the full extent of the transubstantiation of the CCC from a bridge for the working class and immigrants to a bachelor’s degree to the free, scouting farm for the corporations. We must not wait until this nightmare, like Freddy Krueger’s, fully overtakes our real world. There is a time to fight back, and the time is now.

PEARL

CCC Bosses Force Local 1708 into a Straightjacket and the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor Goes to the Chicago Federation of Labor

At the beginning of March, the members of Local 1708, which represents the clerical and technical workers at all City Colleges, voted to accept a contract for full-time employees that severely erodes the pay, benefits and job security of these workers. It didn’t need to be this way. They had fought a valiant fight since June 30, 2010 when their contract expired. For those 20 months they worked without a contract, their wages frozen. On June 30, 2011, their part-time brothers and sisters also saw their contract expire, and their wages frozen too. Yet, they held steady, refusing to accept what was an unbelievable offer by the CCC administration: a five-year contract with no pay raises and hefty increases in their healthcare premiums.

Then things came to a head by the end of February. 1708 had had it. Federal mediation was going nowhere, and the administration continued its stubborn stance. 1708 attempted to declare an impasse and their intention to strike. Then came in a new player, from within the realm of smoke and mirrors.

Fade in: the Chicago Federation of Labor

As 1708 grappled with the possibility of going on strike in a few days, the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL) intervened. They told 1708 to sit tight, while they approached the Mayor. Their conditions: that 1708 did not polarize things and that it did not criticize the Reinvention. What planet do these folks live in? Polarize things? Things were polarized already by a recalcitrant administration intent on imposing a five-year wage freeze on 1708. All 1708 was doing was calling things the way they were, defending themselves. And to have the gall to demand that the Reinvention not be criticized clearly exposes where the idea originally came from. From an administration that has openly espoused a practice in which the only message allowed about the Reinvention is the message of the administration. A 100 percent control—nothing less. Wouldn’t Stalinist Russia be proud? What are they so afraid of?

It is despicable for the CFL to demand that 1708 did not criticize the Reinvention when everything that was being inflicted on the union’s membership was done in the name of Reinvention.

Thus rather than getting ready to gather forces to support 1708’s fight as a portent of things to come, the CFL pressured 1708 into accepting a rotten deal. A six-year contract in which the first two years still remain as a frozen wage period (going back to July, 2010), with annual raises of between 3 and 3.5 percent for the remainder of the contract; increases in the healthcare premiums as high as 15 percent for family coverage; the introduction of a union buster: two-tier wage scales, so new hires will make less than their counterparts.

Even worse, with such an exacting contract, the part-timers are now sitting ducks. This became painfully true once the full-timers approved their contract, for a no strike clause keeps them from striking in support of the part-timers. One thing would have been to have won a successful contract; the benefits of which would have spilled onto the part-timers. But as things stand now the part-timers lost most of their leverage. Not only will the terms of any potential contract look gloomy, but these will come back to haunt the full-timers. Why? Because the wonders of Reinvention have made it possible to vanish many 1708 full-time positions or to turn them into part-time positions. And more of this is yet to come. The corporate hacks at 226 West Jackson are not finished yet restructuring the colleges.

The consequences of this rotten deal for the rest of the CCC unions are ominous. Thanks, but no thanks CFL. With friends like these who needs enemies. This should serve as a warning to the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) in their struggle against another recalcitrant, corporate-drunk administration, that of CPS.

Another script was possible

It is important to emphasize that the 3 to 3.5 percent that 1708 indeed got for part of their contract did not come out of thin air. What was on the cards was not higher than 1 to 1.5 percent per year. It was the determination of 1708, and their willingness to go on strike if necessary, that made the CCC bosses aware that they could not get away with an absolute rout. It was this determination what the CFL came in to deflate in the name of pragmatism. Pragmatists never lose battles because they never fight them. They just sit down sipping piña coladas, earning humongous salaries from their members’ dues, even while losing many of these members to things like Reinvention.

We cannot predict what would have happened, had a strike by 1708 taken place. But we know what steps were being taken to offer 1708 the best solidarity that could be organized from the bottom up. Solidarity that would have put the CCC bosses on notice that 1708 was not alone in this battle. Things like having the union members working within Occupy Chicago ready to go to the leadership and rank and file of their unions and demand real, physical support for 1708. Things like having the General Assembly of Occupy Chicago approve full support for a 1708 strike and engage in all sorts of solidarity actions. They were ready. On day one of the strike droves of Occupy Chicago men and women were going to show up at the City Colleges and City Hall, and you name it. The kind of stuff that has allowed the Occupy movement to electrify and reenergize all sorts of struggles.

Of course, this was no guarantee that a strike would have been won. It was more of a guarantee that it would have been fought vigorously, without a hand tied behind our backs. Compared to the resources that the CFL could have wielded in a real fight in support of 1708, what we described above is modest. Yet its promise is powerful.

It is a tragedy that things ended up this way. The other unions currently negotiating with the CCC bosses have now a more uphill battle: AFSCME, SEIU and IBEW. Soon enough they will be joined by CCCLOC, representing the adjunct faculty. They need to become aware that the script is not written in stone, that the CFL is supposed to be there to represent us, not to suffocate us. That it still is up to us to fight a full fight because if we don’t we are screwed. And because every time we get screwed, everyone else gets screwed too.

It is the same way if we win. Now, think about that.

PEARL

This post reproduces the 12/12/11 speech at The Economic Club of Chicago, as prepared by the Mayor and reported by his office. As with the previous post, we reproduce it to preserve it as a public record in case that it is later edited or removed from the Mayor's Office webpage. The original document can be found at 

http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/mayor/Press%20Room/Press%20Releases/2011/December/12.12.11College2CareersSpeech.pdf. 

Notice a discrepancy between this version of the speech and that offered by The Economic Club of Chicago that we reproduced in the previous post. This is the phrase where the mayor states that the City Colleges will become vocational schools:

"We are going to remake our community college system into a skills-based, vocational-based educational system."

This is omitted in the ECC's version.

PEARL

EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY 

December 12, 2011 

CONTACT: 

Mayor’s Press Office 

312.744.3334 

press@cityofchicago.org

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Speech to the Economic Club of Chicago

Remarks As Prepared 

John, thank you for the introduction. Congratulations on your victory tonight. Now you have two organizations to lead: the Economic Club and Republicans for Rahm. 

John, don’t get your priorities out of order. I’m counting on you. 

John has become the leader of an organization that has helped Chicago make the most of its challenges for more than 80 years. 

But tonight is unique in the Economic Club’s history. Yes, we have executives from all types of industry. Many of you have helped turn Chicago into the global city it has become. 

But I also want to single out the young leaders of Chicago’s future who are sitting beside you. In this room is a sample of the teachers, doctors, lawyers, ministers, and executives, who will shape Chicago in the years to come. Believe me, that future is not too far away. 

It seems like five minutes ago I was a kid working for Congressman Paul Simon when he was running for Senate, and later had the honor of working for Mayor Daley. Back then I was brash, profane, competitive, and very young. Now I’m just brash, profane, and competitive. 

But I don’t want the young people here to get the wrong idea. Those are not the qualities you need to be Mayor, just the qualities I needed to compete with my two brothers. 

When I was growing up, my brothers never would have imagined I would be here tonight, addressing the Economic Club of Chicago. And when I started out in politics, I don’t think the members of the Economic Club thought I would be addressing them as Mayor. 

The Economic Club has hosted Prime Minister Tony Blair, GE CEO Jack Welch and President Jimmy Carter. 

After World War Two, you invited General Omar Bradley. What made his speech remarkable was how little he spoke of his victories on the battlefield. Instead, he warned that what led to his success would not work for America in the future. He was right. The battlefield was about to change. 

In the 1950s, you hosted a young Senator and future president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Then Senator Kennedy told the Economic Club that our country’s ties with new nations and emerging markets would determine its future. He was right. Think about that: in the 1950s he saw over the horizon and into the 21st century and the global economy that we know today. 

Both General Bradley and President Kennedy made the most of their time here by discussing the dangers and opportunities ahead. 

We too have an opportunity tonight, not to dwell on our city’s past, but to look to our future and to build a stronger Chicago. 

Nobody respects the leaders in this room more than I do. So I am going to pay you the ultimate compliment: the compliment of candor and honesty. 

I’m here to talk about what we must do to rebuild and re-imagine our educational system. 

We have the best kids in the world, but when they emerge from the system, whether from our high schools or community colleges, they lag far behind their peers, both in this country and around the world. We are not providing them an education that allows them to live up to their full potential. 

That should matter to all of us because these are Chicago’s children. And whether we are from the Northside, Westside, Southside, or downtown, we are one Chicago. We have one future. 

The task is enormous but the equation is simple: the future of Chicago hinges on the future of our school system. That is the equation that drives me every day. 

We all know this: education is the great equalizer. If you provide people an education, a city and a country will succeed. 

I know I’m not the first politician to point that out, or say that changes in education are urgently needed. Some elected officials have said that early childhood is the key – and they are right. Others have stressed strong high schools, and math and science -- and they are right. 

But when it comes to investing in education, it can’t be multiple-choice. It must be all of the above. 

From the cradle to the career, from kindergarten to college—that is where we must invest our resources and our time. 

When you look at the educational debate of the past 30 years, there has been a great deal of focus on the early years, the high school years, and our four-year institutions. 

What has not been a focus since the creation of the GI Bill is our community colleges, despite the fact that community colleges are where a majority of America’s students go for post-secondary education or training. By overlooking these critical centers of learning, we are missing an important opportunity. And our economy is now showing the strains of these years of neglect. 

When employers can’t find skilled workers during one of the deepest recessions in American history, that should tell us something: we have a tool in our arsenal that is not doing all it can for our students. It must be modernized for the new economy. 

Our community colleges were a linchpin of America’s post war boom and they are just as critical today. 

They are as important to our economic growth and potential as a city as any other part of our educational system. Modernizing them is how we will continue to attract industries and make the most of our strengths. Think about this: there are more students in our City Colleges, 127,000, than in all of Chicago’s four-year institutions combined. 

Now don’t get me wrong, Chicago and the state of Illinois have great institutions of higher learning. We know them: Northwestern, University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Depaul, Columbia College, Loyola, Roosevelt, UIC. 

We have two of the top five business schools in the country in Booth and Kellogg. We have great law schools. In technology we have IIT, Fermi, Argonne labs, and U of I. 

Chicago is also the destination of choice for graduates from the Big Ten States, be they from Madison, Columbus, Ann Arbor, Iowa City, East Lansing, Minneapolis / Saint Paul, Indianapolis, or South Bend. 

What we have overlooked in the development of our workforce is the preparation of our own children. We have not developed the educational system that helps our economy grow. 

We can no longer allow the practices of the past to sabotage our hopes for the future. 

When I talk to CEO’s I hear a regular message from them about their workforce and the skills they need. Whether that’s Pat Woertz at ADM, Glenn Tilton at United, Glen Tullman at Allscripts, Randall Stephenson at AT&T, Jamie Dimon at at JP Morgan, Vikram Pandit at Citibank, or some of you in this room. You all tell me the same thing: from welders, to code-writers, to workers in healthcare and IT services, you need more skilled employees. 

We need skilled workers to rebuild our infrastructure, we need them to care for the sick; we need them to welcome the millions who visit Chicago each year in our hospitality industry; we need them to make the products people want to buy; and to write the code that powers new technologies. 

But employers can’t find skilled workers and workers can’t find jobs. Like the rest of the country, Chicago has a skills gap. 

And we can’t say we haven’t been warned. I want to give you a set of headlines, literally, from just the last four weeks: 

From The Wall Street Journal, November 16th: quote -- Study finds US workers under pressure to improve skills, but need more support. -- unquote 

In The Wall Street Journal on November 25th : quote – In an unexpected twist some skilled jobs go begging – unquote 

From Crain’s on December 2nd in an article, Closing the tech-skills gap -- quote -- More than 60% of small businesses are struggling to find skilled applicants. – unquote 

From the Chicago Tribune, a week ago, on December 6th: quote - Jobs go unfilled as skills fall flat. – unquote 

But I don’t need to read about the skills gap in The Wall Street Journal or the Tribune or Crain’s. I see it and hear about it everyday. 

Riding the El six weeks ago, I met a young man who was commuting from Harold Washington Community College where he studies business and computers to his job at a Target warehouse. 

That young man is doing everything right. He’s studying, he’s holding down a job. He is doing everything we can ask of him to give himself a better shot at a future. 

So when he puts Harold Washington on his resume, that should mean something to his employer. It should have economic value to him. 

The basic agreement is you take responsibility, and we’ll provide you opportunity. That young man is taking responsibility but we are not living up to our side of the bargain. 

Can we honestly say to ourselves that we are doing everything we can for him, that he is getting the best from us? 

When he walks into a job interview, and it says Harold Washington or Malcolm X College on his resume, his hard work should pay-off. If we work together, starting tonight, it will. 

Because the young man looking for opportunity and the CEO in the corporate suite, looking for skilled workers, are looking for the same thing. 

The community college is the link our employees and employers need, but it has been missing in action. 

Companies need workers who make the products, design the products, wire the products, move the products and sell the products – and community colleges can provide them. 

As Mayor, I cannot read the headlines about a skills gap, I can’t see it everyday in our city, and say that it’s not my problem. 

It is my problem -- because it’s unconscionable to me that we can have more than 100,000 job openings, and close to a 10% unemployment rate. 

It is because I know that we have exactly what we need to answer the challenge, both for employees and employers, and it is right here under our nose: our community college system. 

Let’s be candid: most community colleges offer students what they should have learned in high school. Too often, they provide remedial learning to compensate for gaps in their education. That is not why our community college system was established. 

Community colleges were the catapult for the World War II generation coming home from the battlefield, the generation of Americans who became the most productive and economically expansive in American history. They can serve that same function in the 21st century. 

At the beginning of the 20th century, a high school education was a necessity for the industrial economy. At the beginning of the 21st century, two years of quality post-secondary education are equally essential. 

That’s especially true here in Chicago when you look at our engines of growth: transportation and logistics, healthcare sciences, IT, conventions and tourism, professional services, and high-end manufacturing. 

We need our community colleges linked up to those growth sectors. And to do that, we need our industry leaders linked up to those schools. 

Because of our central location, we are a transportation and logistics juggernaut, but we cannot rest on our location alone. 

The question is: will we train the skilled workers we need to capitalize on the advantages we have? 

Because of our private sector leadership with Abbott Labs, Walgreens, Baxter, and Allscripts, and our hospitals, like Rush, Stroger, Northwestern and University of Chicago, we are becoming a global healthcare sciences hub. 

The question is: Will we train for it? 

Because of McCormick Place and O’Hare, we continue to be a world-leader in tourism and conventions. 

The question is: Will we train for it? 

Because of Navistar, Ford, and ArcelorMittal steel, we can serve as a national center for high-end manufacturing. 

The question is: Will we train for it? 

Because of Motorola Solutions, Molex, and GroupOn, we can be the nation’s next hot spot for technology and innovation. 

The question is: Will we train for it? 

Because we are home to great global businesses like Aon, Boeing and United, and we are home to great law firms, and great consulting firms like Accenture, and great accounting firms like Ernst and Young, we are the professional services center of the Midwest. 

The question is: Will we train for it? 

Because we are about to launch the largest infrastructure investment for a city, not just for our water but for our roads, and soon for our mass transit, we will need a strong partnership with labor. We will need workers in skilled trades. 

The question is: will we train for it? 

And tonight, here in this room, we answer that fundamental question. 

Tonight, we charge our community colleges with a new mission: to train the workforce of today for the jobs of tomorrow; to give our students the ability to achieve a middle class standard of living; to provide our companies with the skilled workers they need. 

Cities like Miami and Louisville have tried something similar -- but in a single industry, with a single school. Miami matched a community college to train students in the healthcare sciences. Louisville has linked a community college with UPS to be a leader in logistics. 

But this is Chicago. We need something bigger, more ambitious, and more comprehensive, something to match the diversity and depth of our economy, which is one of our strengths. 

So tonight, I am announcing that we will tailor six of our community colleges to train students in a specific sector, where we know we can dominate the future. 

We are announcing our first two schools and their partners tonight. 

Malcolm X College will be the school that drives Chicago’s leadership in the healthcare sciences. 

Rush Medical Center, Stroger and Northwestern Hospitals, Advocate Healthcare, Baxter, Walgreens and Allscripts have agreed to partner with Malcolm X College, to develop their curriculum and train the faculty. 

Olive Harvey College will be our center for excellence in transportation, distribution, and logistics. They will work with UPS, Canadian National Railway, AAR, and BNSF, among others. They will be Olive Harvey’s partners in modernizing their programs and providing the training students need to compete in the transportation and logistics field. 

As Mayor of Chicago, I can’t protect our city from a global or national recession. But I can address a skills gap – so that no employer, in the middle of a deep recession, is without the employees they must have – so that no worker is without the skills they need to find a job. 

We have a dynamic Chancellor of our community college system, Cheryl Hyman, and I’ve appointed each of the six new City College presidents to oversee this modernization. 

But this reinvention, and the investments required to make our school-system world class, is something that all of us must be a part of. 

Reinvention is nothing new to our city. Chicago went from a remote trading post to a center of global industry. From the cinders of the great fire, our city became a showcase for the world in its architecture. 

Chicago did not reinvent itself by itself. Our growth was forged by those who were willing to make the tough choices and the right investments, by people who were not afraid to see the future, with all its challenges, as an opportunity. 

Today, we must be those people. 

And tonight, I ask you, to be a partner in the transformation of our community colleges. 

Every year we will modernize two new schools and match them with partners in the private sector, to train the workers for our factories, for our offices, for our hospitals, for our hotel industry and for our infrastructure. 

We are going to remake our community college system into a skills-based, vocational-based educational system. 

In the same way that you help Booth and Kellogg prepare their graduates for careers in management and finance, we need you to partner with our community colleges -- so that their curriculums meet the needs of the sectors that power the Chicago economy. 

I’m not talking about hiring one person or even a partnership. It’s more than that. This is about ensuring that the curriculum taught at community colleges provides the skills you need at your place of employment. 

By making a diploma from our community colleges into a ticket to the workforce, we will make them a first option for job training and not a last resort. 

I do not expect you to do this alone. Our community college leaders will be right there with you. And whatever you invest in our schools, you will get back many times over in the skills of your employees and your ability to grow. 

There is no greater investment we can make in the life of our city, than the one we make in the lives of our students. 

And I can also tell you, there is no greater reward. 

Meeting young people on the campaign trail or in my visits to schools as Mayor, that’s something I’ve learned over and over again. 

Every day our students wake up optimistic about their future. They believe they can achieve great things and so many of them do, sometimes against great odds. 

If our students have the strength to turn obstacles into opportunities, surely, the adults do as well. 

Some say that a comprehensive investment in all levels of education, in all our communities, is impossible. Today’s fiscal challenges make it more difficult. 

Yes we have to set priorities. Yes, we have to make tough choices. And that’s what we’re doing tonight. 

But to those who say that we can’t afford to confront these challenges, I say, we can’t afford not to. 

And let me tell you something: we’re already doing it in K through 12. 

Four new charter-schools opened this year, serving 2,000 more students. Five more will come on line next year. 2,300 more kids attend magnet schools of excellence this year. 6,000 more children have full-day kindergarten. 

And this year, at my urging 13 Chicago public schools are offering a full school day. An additional 36 charter schools serving 17,000 students citywide will join them and transition to a full school day next month. 

We’ve begun the largest turnaround of our neighborhood schools. Next year ten schools will be staffed by new principals and new teachers, many trained by AUSL, which has a proven record of success. 

Beginning next year, every public school student in Chicago will have an additional 250 hours of time on task learning the fundamentals. 

At Howe School in Chicago, that means 55 more hours on task for more Math. That’s 55 more hours in reading and writing. That’s 55 more hours on task for our students to study science. 

But a full day won’t matter unless we’re willing and able to make the most of it. We need to strengthen the three pillars behind every student’s success: a principle who is accountable, a teacher who is motivated, and a parent who is engaged. 

That is the combination that can unlock achievement for all our students, in all our communities. 

And if we make those investments in accountability and opportunity, we can ensure that when students arrive at a four-year institution or community college, that they are ready for the next level, to compete and win. 

When it comes to modernizing our public education system and community colleges, I will not take no for an answer. 

Any business that stands pat as the world changes is a business that’s doomed to failure. And our city has no more important business than educating our students. 

Change is always difficult. The status quo is more comfortable. 

In seven months in this job, I have come to the conclusion that people hate the status quo … and they are not too excited about change either. 

But when the status quo is failing, then change is inevitable. We can resolve to help shape the future or allow ourselves to be shaped by it. 

The people in this room tonight are leaders and not followers. And I’m not just talking about the members of the Economic Club. I’m talking about the young people who have joined us. 

This is the future of Chicago. For the kids in this room, and the students throughout Chicago, we must resolve to do everything we can to make sure they are successful. 

I firmly believe that we can overcome any obstacle if we are willing to confront our challenges with vision and determination. That’s why I ran for the job of Mayor and I believe that’s why the people of Chicago elected me. In the past months we have started the fight for change and, with your help, we will continue it. We can ensure that the future of our city and every student will be unlimited. 

We can be sure that our children and grandchildren can be as proud to call Chicago their home as we are today. 

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless Chicago.

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