If I’m reading the cards right, 2018 will go down in history as the year the myth of the bad teacher finally, mercifully, and hopefully was consigned to the dustbin of history.
Last week Cook County Board president Toni Preckwinkle launched her mayoral campaign to replace Rahm by emphasizing how proud she is of the time she spent, years ago, as a CPS history teacher.
I will never understand the lure of this myth, which was largely propagated by billionaires like the Walmart clan—and Betsy DeVos, and Bruce Rauner, for that matter—as well as various high-tech chieftains.
Half the time the reformers and their political allies made it up as they went along. As did former senator Mark Kirk when he erroneously insisted that “nine out of the top ten high schools in Chicago are charter schools.” Or when Emanuel, then a mayoral candidate, claimed that “when you take out North Side [and] Walter Payton, the seven best-performing high schools are all charters.” Or when the Tribune editorialized that local charter schools outscored their neighborhood counterparts even though they didn’t.
No, their cause was all about politics, or, specifically, busting the teachers’ union. The less power the teachers’ union had, the less money and support it could give Democrats, meaning more political power for Republicans like Rauner.
That might be what it takes to get Bruce Rauner to finally endorse a union.
