Ift Speech

SPEECH BY JOEL POLLAK CANDIDATE FOR CONGRESS NINTH DISTRICT, ILLINOIS ILLINOIS FEDERATION OF TEACHERS – SKOKIE, IL MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009 – 5:15 P.M. I support choice in education, because it works. I support school vouchers and charter schools, because I believe that poor children should have the same opportunities that rich children do. I know that these are policies to which many teachers’ unions are opposed. Regardless, I must be up front and honest with my beliefs. They are rooted in my own experience—as a public school graduate, as a volunteer tutor in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the world, and as a teaching assistant at one of the most renowned universities in America. I believe that choice and opportunity are good for students—and good for teachers in the long run as well. I ask for your endorsement not because we agree on everything, but because I know that we agree on the main thing: that the goal of education policy must be to provide all of our children the best education. I know that the teachers of my district share that goal, because they were my teachers. I was privileged to attend Niles North High School, just down the road. I savored my experience there, and I treasure it today. My sister, who also attended Niles North, is a public school teacher in New York, and a member of a teachers’ union. She teaches science to children in both English and Spanish, in a community of new immigrants from the Dominican Republic. I know the challenges that she faces every day. They are the same challenges facing our teachers here today, who are doing their best to give the children of this community the brightest future possible. I have visited with teachers and students in my old alma mater. I know how frustrated they are with a system of standardized testing that does not take local conditions into account. I know that the schools of Niles Township and neighboring areas are not failing schools. That is why I support reforms to the way we evaluate schools. We should not punish schools for teaching the neediest children. Beyond explaining my own views, I am here to listen to yours. My door will always be open to teachers, parents and especially students. I want to hear your ideas and your objections, as part of building a constructive relationship. Education reform works best when community leaders and teachers’ unions work together. That is my commitment to you—to make children the focus, and to reach for common goals.