Legislators said Tuesday that they have reached tentative agreement on all but one thorny school reform issue, paving the way for a sweeping bill to reshape the Chicago public schools.
”We`re prepared to move,” said Sen. Robert Kustra (R., Des Plaines).
”As far as I can tell a bill can be drafted.”
With two days left in the fall veto session, legislators said they expect to pass a school reform bill before Thursday`s adjournment.
But lawmakers said they have not yet agreed on language to provide some teachers job guarantees if they lose classes because of declining enrollment. Gov. James Thompson stripped seniority away from that small pool of teachers in changes he made to the bill in September.
The governor also revamped the composition of an oversight authority, which would ensure that reforms are properly implemented. Both changes, which were opposed by members of the Chicago Teachers Union and the legislature`s black caucus, threatened to scuttle the bill.
Lawmakers said after meeting less than two hours Tuesday that they support a compromise that calls for placing teachers who are not selected for new jobs into non-teaching positions. About 200 teachers are bumped each year. The teachers are now guaranteed that they will be placed at other schools.
”Some legislators and caucuses feel very strongly that principals should have the ultimate right to select new staff,” said Sen. Arthur Berman (D., Chicago). ”The union feels that teacher seniority should be protected. Our problem is now to accommodate both of those demands.”
The union said Monday that it would not support the compromise because it ”created jobs for the sake of creating jobs,” according to CTU spokesman Chuck Burdeen.
The union could not be reached Tuesday for comment. However, Kustra said if the union did not accept the compromise, the agreement could be
jeopardized. He said since most of the teachers bumped from their classrooms would be hired at other schools, only up to 20 teachers would have to be placed elsewhere.
”We feel that we have made some concessions,” Kustra said. ”The whole summit has worked together as a team. Now it`s in the hands of the CTU. I only hope they realize this is the last chance.”
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Members of the black caucus said that they remained ready to support the bill. The governor had changed the composition of the oversight authority so that Thompson and the mayor each would select three members and jointly name a chairman. The bill originally called for the mayor to select four members and the governor three.
Black and city legislators had opposed the change because they feared it gave the Republican governor too much control of the city school system.
The issue was resolved, though, by expanding the duties of the Chicago School Finance Authority, which is jointly appointed by the mayor and governor.
Rev. Jesse Jackson sent telegrams to several legislators and urged them not to pass the bill because ”the problems of (the) district did not occur overnight and therefore, cannot be resolved via hastily drafted legislation.” Jackson said that the system needed continuity and stability, both of which he said are not present in the current bill.
Most lawmakers, though, said they disagreed with Jackson and planned to move ahead with the bill.
Lawmakers also agreed to change the length of contracts for principals and phase in the performance-based contracts. Initially, the bill called for 3-year contracts for all principals. The principals would be hired and fired by local school councils at each of the system`s 595 schools. The change lengthens the contracts to four years and calls for half of the principals to move to contracts in 1990 and the remaining half in 1991.
”I`m glad that there is some movement and some recognition that principals are humans and professionals,” said Bruce Berndt, president of the Chicago Principals Association. ”But principals are still ultimately held accountable with no more authority.”
The principals had pushed for five-year contracts and restoration of some tenure rights.
Compromises have also been reached on language to change the allocation of funds earmarked to meet educational needs of children from low-income families. The money is now used systemwide, but under the new bill the dollars will follow children to their individual schools.
About 50 Chicago students came to Springfield to lobby legislators for reform. The youngsters met with Madigan and presented hand-written letters to the governor`s staff urging that the school system be changed.
”I want all schools to be good like my school,” one youngster wrote.
Meanwhile in Chicago Tuesday, Ald. Lawrence Bloom (5th), a mayoral candidate, urged the General Assembly to give the mayor and Chicago City Council the power to appoint a special emergency board to oversee Chicago`s schools.
Under Bloom`s proposal, the mayor and the council could declare an
”educational emergency” and name a board of paid professionals to take over the duties of the Chicago Board of Education for as long as five years.