Illinois

by Cal Skinner

Huntley might become quite the exclamation point for how education issues are handled in Obama’s home state. Sunday, what could have been a big bargaining day to get a deal done for Huntley teachers, turned into a big fizzle.

The Huntley teachers only had time to meet with the school board for three hours yesterday the day before school starts today. Or did they?

Or was it less than two hours because the HEA wouldn’t meet with the board because one of their negotiating team members was an hour late and then had to "confer" with the rest of the team chewing up time for a while longer?

Want to bet the board and Superintendent Burkey were stunned when they were told by the teachers on Sunday,

"We’re starting really late but we’re out of here at noon!"

Did the Huntley teachers decide to call it quits early because the federal mediator couldn’t make it until the afternoon?

Maybe he/she wanted to attend church, a not unreasonable desire.

What the media and the Board has done little to publicize is the underlying reason for why the Board doesn’t have the money to give to the Huntley teachers:

A permanent annual loss of $1.3 million in state aid due to a screw up by the Kane County clerk’s office. Fixing it fell on deaf ears with the State Board of Education.

It is described in the Board’s initial proposal to the union.

The media doesn’t want to point this out, well, because it’s embarrassing to a lot of individuals that it happened, wasn’t caught in time and the teacher unions lobbied against getting this fixed for Huntley because it would potentially take money away from Chicago.

Who in Springfield cares about getting Huntley the money that is rightfully theirs to begin with? 

With teacher strikes in Illinois, so uncommon across the United States, having a ridiculous strike in Obama’s home state because the State Board of Education refused to fix Huntley’s tax rate could become national campaign news.

The original tax rate screw up happened while Obama was in the Illinois Senate.

A future picture of the state of education for the country if Obama gets elected. 

I can see it now:

Huntley teachers strike turning down an average 5.4% raise because the State Board of Education wouldn’t overturn a tax rate screw up that permanently penalized the Huntley District 158 district.

Who cares about Huntley in Springfield when Huntley’s over 8,000 students have the lowest percent of students qualifying for a free lunch program of any large unit school
district in Illinois? 

If the Huntley teachers strike, will the GOP seize upon this opportunity to point to this example of how middle class taxpayers are taken to the cleaners in Illinois and left prey to a teachers’ unions that doesn’t think a 5.4% raise is high enough?

Time will tell, but somehow I doubt it.

In Wisconsin teacher unions can also strike.

But there’s one big difference.

Both the teachers’ union and the Board of Education have to vote for a strike. There hasn’t been a teachers strike in Wisconsin since 1997.

Even in Massachusetts, teacher unions don’t have the right to strike. Maybe because education is more highly valued there than here. Something probably to do with good public policy and protecting parents and taxpayers.

Guess which home state Reg Weaver, the president of the NEA (National Education Association) is from?

Here’s a hint.  He was president of the Illinois Education Association in 1982 when I ran for state comptroller.

You’re right, He’s from Illinois.  He started out in Elgin when I was state representative in the 1970’s, I think.

And, I think he’s still earning credits in the Downstate Teachers Retirement System. I see from his photo that he’s gained a lot of weight, but so have I.

= = = = =
What you see is informational picketing by the Huntley Education Association, which has voted to authorize a strike. The photos were taken last Thursday night.

Posted first on McHenry County Blog.

Labels: Huntley Education Association, Huntley School District 158, National Education Association, NEA, Strike, Teacher Contract, Teacher Negotiations, Teacher Salaries, Teacher Strike

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 31st, 2008 at 7:47 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.