By Ben Joravsky
The contrasts between Reece and Walsh go well beyond rhetoric. A former high school science teacher, Reece worked his way up the union ranks by cultivating close relationships with his presidential predecessors, Jacqui Vaughn and Robert Healey. “I’ve spent 36 years in this union,” he says. “It’s been my life.”
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In 1987 he became vice president; when Vaughn died in 1994, he replaced her as president. Two years ago he handily defeated union activist George Schmidt by emphasizing his close ties with Vaughn, who is still widely admired by many teachers. “I’ve known Jacqui for years–we stood in line at teachers college together way back in ’61,” he says. “Jacqui and I were on the same wavelength. When you vote for me, you know you’re voting for someone who can carry on Jacqui’s legacy.”
“For too long the message to teachers has been that you’re on your own if you try to do something innovative,” says Walsh. “That’s got to change.”
The argument is that union contracts only block much-needed change. If principals want to improve low-scoring schools, they should be able to hire or fire teachers at will, a prerogative once denied by union seniority rules.
And what about the fact that principals now have the right to suspend teachers without a hearing?
In the last few weeks the campaign has heated up, as Reece has sent letters likening Walsh to that “well-known master of negativism and deceit, Pat Buchanan,” for “attempting to distort all the good news about our union into things sinister.” Another campaign letter accuses Walsh of stating on public television that “providing Chicago schools with more money is throwing money down a sewer.”
