CAT Tracks for July 20, 2010
DEAR JOHN LETTER

...from IEA President Ken Swanson to the Chicago Tribune.

Dang...

And I thought I was big and bad when I ended my association with Time Magazine.

Ken Swanson kicks it up a notch...


Colleagues:

I wanted you to be aware of something that has been happening on the IEA website and the IEA facebook page over the last few days.

It seems many IEA members and other supporters of public education were outraged by Thursday's front page story in the Chicago Tribune on teacher salaries in some Chicago area districts. From the first sentence of the article, it was apparent that this was another education-bashing Tribune editorial, thinly disguised as a news story. I was interviewed at length for the article, yet my comments were mostly ignored. The article can be found here.

In reaction to that outrage, a satirical "Dear John" letter to the Chicago Tribune was posted on the IEA website Newswatch Blog early Friday.

The reaction to that letter, which you can read here, was overwhelming and unprecedented. Traffic and comments dramatically increased on both the IEA website and the IEA facebook page almost immediately.

Clearly, I am not the only one who has been seething over the repeated unfair attacks on public schools and public education employees on the pages of the Tribune over the last couple of years.

It is clear that IEA members and other supporters of public education have had enough. The Tribune is pursuing its editorial board's agenda on the news pages of the paper. That's just wrong.

I have posted a letter to the website/facebook page containing my subscription cancellation letter to the Tribune. You can see that post and letter here.

You also can see letters some members are sending to the Tribune, whether they are subscribers or not.

I hope you will help me get the word out that we are fighting for education by standing up to the Chicago Tribune.

Thank you,

Ken Swanson, President, Illinois Education Association