When EAGtv‘s reporting team got back from covering a school choice rally in Chicago, they mentioned how impressed they were by one of the event’s speakers – a Father Michael Somethingorother. They appreciated Father Michael’s no-holds-barred support for school choice, but being journalists, they were especially grateful for his colorful sound bites that could be used to spruce up their story.
Intrigued by reports of the crusader’s fiery performance, the EAG staff gathered around to watch the video. It only took a couple of seconds for the most politically aware members to recognize the speaker as Father Michael. . . . Pfleger!
You remember him, right? It was Father Pfleger (Barack Obama’s other nutty “pastor”) who said this about Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential campaign:
“I believe she always thought, ‘[The Democratic presidential nomination] is mine. I’m Bill’s wife, I’m white, and this is mine. I just gotta get up, and step into the plate.’ And then out of nowhere came, ‘Hey, I’m Barack Obama,” and she said, ‘Oh damn! Where did you come from? I’m white! I’m entitled! There’s a black man stealing my show!‘”
It’s all coming back now, isn’t it? Well, imagine our surprise when we heard Pfleger say this about school choice at last week’s rally:
“It’s time for you and I to demand excellent education for every child, no matter their race, their creed, or their zip code! Whether it is public or charter or parochial or private or home schooling, excellent education must be the norm, not the exception! . . . .We always talk about how we expect to have our children value education. Well, the real question is, do adults value education?”
It’s hard-hitting stuff (thus the use of all the exclamation points), and it certainly should disabuse anyone of the notion that school choice is the sole property of conservative Republicans. That’s the first point that needs to be made.
The second point of highlighting Pfleger’s involvement in the school choice cause is to compare it with the thinking of another Chicago radical, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis.
In her inaugural address to CTU members, Lewis cited an elaborate 20-year conspiracy being waged by corporate America as the reason Chicago’s public schools are so bad. Apparently, Big Business has been secretly campaigning for horrible public schools so that one day, the public will be so desperate for decent schools that they will allow Big Business to swoop in with fancy for-profit schools that -eek!–educate students better.
Here’s how Lewis explained it in her July 1, 2010 address:
“You see, corporate America realized they didn’t have a big enough piece of the money in K-12 public education. . . . So this so-called school reform – charters, turnarounds, testing, canned curricula, all of it – this so-called reform is not an education plan. It doesn’t help children. Quite the opposite. It’s a business plan.”
So there you have it: two Chicago radicals with two radically different views on school choice. But what to make of all this? Who is being true to their radicalism?
Maybe the old political adage of “Follow the money” works in this situation. As a Catholic priest, we know (hope?) that Father Pfleger does not stand to gain financially from school choice. He’s supporting it because morally, it’s the right thing to do.
On the other hand, Karen Lewis’ livelihood is directly tied to fate of school choice. If parents have a choice of where their children attend school, a large number of them are prepared to flee from failing CPS. In turn, that would erode the union’s power and deplete its war chest. So even though Lewis regularly invokes doing right by “the children” (almost as often she pledges “to fight” the Chicago school board), we know that her prescriptions for fixing CPS (more money, more services, more everything!) ultimately serve her personal financial interests.
As odd as it feels to champion Father Pfleger, his willingness to speak out for children and oppose Big Education makes him the true Chicago radical. And that makes him our new political ally – on school choice, anyway. This thought will take some getting used to. But that brings to mind another old political adage: “Politics makes strange bedfellows.” (That makes us grateful that priests take a vow of celibacy.)