Priorities in public education on both sides of the fence, teachers and administration, need to shift away from financials and focus on what is most important: the education of students.
Lately Southeastern faculty has been on edge due to budget cuts, furloughs and layoffs; a situation echoed across the United States on many different academic levels from pre-schools to universities.
In Chicago, this tension finally snapped and resulted in a teachers’ union strike that began on Monday, August 10, 2012. Both teachers and parents have been picketing in protest of a new teacher evaluation system, healthcare, salary and another system that will determine how laid-off teachers can be rehired.
Negotiations are being made between the teachers’ union and the school boards to find middle ground, but so far none has been found. Meanwhile, some 350,000 students are not in the classroom. These students will become further and further behind as the strike goes on while the teachers’ Union and school boards square off over logistics. However, what happens in the end will drastically alter the way education is handled, but balance between the needs of students and bank accounts is desperately needed; no matter what is decided.
Educators deserve respect and job security but at the same time, they must also be, unfortunately, affordable. A reality that everyone faces daily is that money is important and not much can be accomplished without it.  That being said, when a country like ours is built on the perception that it’s the greatest one out there and it’s in reality the 21st most literate country in the world, it might be time to stop pouring money and time into inefficient prisons, defense contracts and curing erectile dysfunction and instead focus on education. And while the strike in Chicago could be perceived as selfish, how can we expect someone to teach for free? Or while also living in fear of losing their job because some students just don’t apply themselves?
Another thing to consider is how this will affect the presidential election.  Obama has proven to be a friend of higher education and has pushed on several fronts to make a college education more affordable to students by tweaking federal financial aid policies. However, being from Chicago, Obama will likely turn his attention to secondary and low level education, an entirely different animal.
His opponent, Republican candidate Mitt Romney, colored by his party’s dislike of unions, has predictably slammed the teachers’ union protest, stating that this only proves that the union’s interests do not align with those of the students.
Because of this protest, and heaping piles of budget cuts, education reform is now a hot topic among voters. No matter what happens, Chicago has only proven that something in American education is not working. However, every problem is an opportunity in disguise.  It may be naïve to say that we’re on the cusp of an educational revolution where students, teachers, administrators and government can equally benefit from the system, but in light of the impending presidential election, anything could happen.