Quinn signs education overhaul legislation

It will be harder for Illinois teachers to strike and easier for districts to fire them under a new education law signed Monday that also clears the way for Chicago to lengthen its school day and year.

Gov. Pat Quinn signed the education overhaul at an elementary school in suburban Maywood after speeches by education officials and legislators praising the bill. One U.S. Department of Education official called it a collaborative model for other states to follow.

The bill, which took effect immediately, largely had the support of unions and advocacy groups, putting it in stark contrast to Republican-led efforts in other states, including Wisconsin and Ohio, to strip teachers and other public employees of collective bargaining rights and weaken the teachers unions, which typically support the Democrats.

"We didn't do it the way some other states, even in our region have sought to do, where they exclude people or demonize groups of people," said Quinn, who is a Democrat.

Under Illinois' new law, mediators would be brought in earlier during contract negotiations between teachers unions and school districts in the event of an impasse, and teachers couldn't strike until both sides' last, best offers were made public.

Layoffs will now be based on ability and credentials instead of seniority, and it will be easier for districts to fire tenured teachers.

"This is not a bill to attack the teachers," said state Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, who sponsored the bill. "Education is a basic civil right."

The Chicago Teachers Union, which is by far the state's largest and most powerful, backed the overhaul, but with reservations.

While teachers unions elsewhere in the state need only a simple majority of votes before they can strike, Chicago's union, because of its size, will need 75 percent of its members to authorize a walkout.

Liz Brown, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Teachers Union, said the union objected to some of the language in drafts of the bill, but that the wording was amended to its satisfaction. She praised the collaborative approach to negotiating the bill, but said it's too early to tell whether it will have a positive impact on students.

Under the plan, the Chicago public school district was given new powers to impose a longer school day and school year. Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who campaigned on the promise to lengthen the school day, attended Monday's signing ceremony.

Gene Mobley, a 59-year-old retired Maywood elementary school teacher, said he had mixed feelings on the law. He didn't like that layoffs could be based on ability and credentials instead of seniority, but was happy to see the potential for a longer school day in Chicago.

"We need to keep the kids more than we used to," he said. "Times have changed."