In my role as the education guy at the Reader, I’ve dutifully read Mitt Romney’s position paper on public education—a feat I doubt even Romney has accomplished.
Along with teachers’ unions, of course.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
“Charter schools are public schools of choice that are run independently and freed from many of the rules and regulations governing traditional school districts,” says the Romney missive. “Thanks to a strong and growing bipartisan base of support, the charter movement is over 5,600 schools strong . . . . While the performance of individual charter schools in improving student achievement varies, the most successful among them are having dramatically positive effects while working with some of the nation’s most disadvantaged students . . . . Under a Romney Administration, more funds will be allocated to grow the number of high-quality charter schools and create the conditions under which they can flourish.”
And, of course, they’re generally nonunion shops. In Chicago, state law prohibits charters from being represented by the Chicago Teachers Union.
My main question is this: why is Mayor Emanuel—a lifelong Democrat—joining in?
Moreover, John Kupper, the political consultant Emanuel often hires to write his speeches, helped lead the charge against the union’s recent strike-authorization vote by producing commercials for an antiunion group called Democrats for Education Reform. The purpose was to fire up parents against the union in order to force teachers to vote against a strike authorization.
But other Democratic strategists tell me there’s a larger strategy at play here. Let’s follow their logic: Obama is sensitive to Romney’s charge that he’s too beholden to unions because he fears the accusation will alienate voters in key swing states such as Virginia. So he’s giving Emanuel the green light to beat the crap out of Chicago teachers in order to convince these swing voters that the president is fed up with unions too.
