School reform and school choice

The 2012 teachers’ strike in Chicago brought into sharp relief the contentious nature of school reform and public education policy in the United States. The media rarely reported the range and scope of the issues that the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) raised that had a significant impact on their decision to strike, despite a change to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act that prohibited teachers from striking for issues other than compensation and benefits. The educational reforms implemented in Philadelphia, Chicago, and New Orleans, though distinct, share elements that reflect part of the current larger apparatus of educational reform initiatives that reformers like former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, Wendy Kopp, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the Walton Family, and a host of others, all endorse. Urban schools are notoriously difficult for students and their faculties; they are severely underfunded, understaffed, and struggling.