Chicago teachers strike, want more money, better healthcare and job security.. SERIOUSLY???
School's out in Chicago as teachers strike, parents scramble
CHICAGO, Sept 10 |
CHICAGO, Sept 10 (Reuters) - School was out in Chicago on Monday and parents scrambled for child care after public school teachers staged the first strike in a quarter century over reforms sought by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and endorsed by President Barack Obama's administration.
Some 29,000 teachers and support staff in the nation's third largest school district were involved, leaving parents of 350,000 students between kindergarten and high school age to find alternative supervision.
Churches, community centers, some schools and other public facilities prepared early on Monday for thousands of children under a $25 million strike "contingency plan" financed by the school district. The children will be supervised half a day and receive breakfast and lunch, allowing some parents to work.
The union has called the plan to care for children during the strike a "train wreck." It warned that caregivers for the children do not have proper training, and there are fears of an increase in gang-related violence in some high-crime areas.
Emanuel, the tough talking former White House chief of staff for Obama, blamed the union for the strike and said the two sides had been close to agreement.
"The kids of Chicago belong in the classroom," Emanuel said at a late Sunday night press conference after talks broke down.
Chicago offered teachers raises of 3 percent this year and another 2 percent annually for the following three years, amounting to an average raise of 16 percent over the duration of the proposed contract, School Board President David Vitale said.
"This is not a small contribution we're making at a time when our financial situation is very challenging," he said.
The school district, like many cities and states across the country, is facing a financial crisis with a projected budget deficit of $3 billion over the next three years and a crushing burden of pensions promised to retiring teachers.
Emanuel said two main issues remain to be resolved - his proposal that teachers be evaluated based in part on student performance on standardized tests, and more authority for school principals.
But union president Karen Lewis, who has sharply criticized Emanuel, said the standardized tests do not take into account of the poverty in inner city Chicago as well as hunger and violence in the streets.
More than 80 percent of Chicago students qualify for free lunches because they come from low-income households, and Chicago students have performed poorly compared with national averages on most reading, math and science tests.
Union officials said more than a quarter of Chicago public school teachers could lose their jobs if they are evaluated based on the tests.
"Evaluate us on what we do, not the lives of our children we do not control," Lewis said in announcing the strike.
Emanuel is among a number of big city mayors who have championed such school reforms and Obama's Education Secretary Arne Duncan has endorsed them.
The outcome of the strike could have national implications for school reform.
The Chicago confrontation also threatens to sour relations between Obama's Democratic party and labor unions with just weeks to go before the presidential election on Nov. 6.
While Obama is expected to win the vote in Chicago and his home state of Illinois, union anger could spill over into neighboring Midwest states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio, where the election with Republican Mitt Romney is much closer.
I think asking to be evaluated on what they actually can control is reasonable- teachers teach the children at school, but without guidance, support and attention from their HOME a teacher is fighting an uphill battle to get a child engaged in and committed to a test, especially in areas where many childrens daily concerns are about their safety and food-
Chicago teachers to strike after talks fail
by Tammy Webber, Associated Press
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CHICAGO (AP) -- City officials vowed to keep hundreds of thousands of students safe when striking teachers hit the picket lines Monday and school district and teachers union leaders resumed negotiations on a contract that appeared close to being resolved over the weekend before the union announced both sides were too far apart to prevent the district's first strike in 25 years.
The walkout in the nation's third-largest school district posed a tricky test for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his city, as parents and school officials begin the task of trying to ensure nearly 400,000 students are kept safe.
School officials said they will open more than 140 schools between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. so children can eat lunch and breakfast in a district where many students receive free meals. The district asked community organizations to provide additional programs for students, and a number of churches, libraries and other groups plan to offer day camps and other activities. But it's not clear how many families will send their children to the added programs.
Police Chief Garry McCarthy said he was deploying police officers to those sites to ensure kids' safety but also to "deal with any protests that teachers may, in fact, have" while protecting their rights. He also was taking officers off desk duties and redeploying them to the streets to deal with potential protests -- and thousands of students who could be on the streets.
Emanuel said he will work to end the strike quickly.
"We will make sure our kids are safe, we will see our way through these issues and our kids will be back in the classroom where they belong," Emanuel said Sunday night, not long after the union announced it was going on strike. "I would like all the parties to do right by our children. ... Our kids belong in the classroom. The negotiators belong at the negotiating table and finish their job."
The two sides were not far apart on compensation but were on other issues, including health benefits -- teachers want to keep what they have now -- and a new teacher evaluation system based partly on students' standardized test scores, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said.
"This is a difficult decision and one we hoped we could have avoided," she said. "We must do things differently in this city if we are to provide our students with the education they so rightfully deserve."
"This is not a strike I wanted," Emanuel said. "It was a strike of choice ... it's unnecessary, it's avoidable and it's wrong. "
More than 26,000 teachers and support staff were expected to hit the picket lines at 6:30 a.m. Monday.
Both Emanuel and union officials have much at stake. The walkout comes at a time when unions and collective bargaining by public employees have come under criticism in many parts of the country, and all sides are closely monitoring who might emerge with the upper hand in the Chicago dispute.
The timing also may be inopportune for Emanuel, a former White House chief of staff whose city administration is wrestling with a spike in murders and shootings in some city neighborhoods and who just agreed to take a larger role in fundraising for President Obama's re-election campaign.
As the strike deadline approached, parents spent Sunday worrying about how much their children's education might suffer and where their kids will go while they're at work.
"They're going to lose learning time," said Beatriz Fierro, whose daughter is in the fifth grade on the city's Southwest Side. "And if the whole afternoon they're going to be free, it's bad. Of course you're worried."
School board President David Vitale first announced Sunday night that talks had broken off, despite the school board offering what he called a fair and responsible contract that would cover four years and meet most of the union's demands. He said the talks with the union had been "extraordinarily difficult."
Emanuel said the district had offered the teachers a 16 percent pay raise over four years, doubling an earlier offer.
Lewis said she would not prioritize the issues, saying that they all were important to teachers.
That included concern over a new evaluation that she said would be based too heavily on students' standardized test scores, which she said would be unfair to teachers because it could not adequately account for outside factors that affect student performance, including poverty, violence and homelessness.
She said the evaluations could result in 6,000 teachers losing their jobs within two years.
City officials said they did not believe that was true but said the union would not tell them how they came to that conclusion. Emanuel said the evaluation would not count in the first year, as teachers and administrators worked out any kinks. Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard said the evaluation was mandated by state law but "was not developed to be a hammer," but to help teachers get better.
The strike is the latest flashpoint in a very public and often contentious battle between the mayor and the union.
When he took office last year, Emanuel inherited a school district facing a $700 million budget shortfall. Not long after, his administration rescinded 4 percent raises for teachers. He then asked the union to reopen its contract and accept 2 percent pay raises in exchange for lengthening the school day for students by 90 minutes. The union refused.
Emanuel, who promised a longer school day during his campaign, then attempted to go around the union by asking teachers at individual schools to waive the contract and add 90 minutes to the day. He halted the effort after being challenged by the union before the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board.
The district and union agreed in July on how to implement the longer school day, striking a deal to hire back 477 teachers who had been laid off rather than pay regular teachers more to work longer hours. That raised hopes the contract dispute would be settled soon, but bargaining continued on the other issues.
Quoting gotnothinonme:
I think asking to be evaluated on what they actually can control is reasonable- teachers teach the children at school, but without guidance, support and attention from their HOME a teacher is fighting an uphill battle to get a child engaged in and committed to a test, especiallyin areas where many childrens daily concerns are about their safety and food-
How do you think they should be evaluated? The school system there is obviously failing the children. These kids only chance out of poverty is education. If the schools system is broken, and teachers and schools aren't accountable it fails the kids.
Quoting candlegal:
So it really isn't about the children.
No, its not. If they can't teach these kids who have issues, then maybe it is time to get new teachers. It should be about meeting the needs of the students not pandering to teachers.
You will have to get rid of the unions first. Their priority has never been the children.
Quoting tooptimistic:
Quoting candlegal:
So it really isn't about the children.
No, its not. If they can't teach these kids who have issues, then maybe it is time to get new teachers. It should be about meeting the needs of the students not pandering to teachers.
Quoting tooptimistic:
Quoting candlegal:
So it really isn't about the children.
No, its not. If they can't teach these kids who have issues, then maybe it is time to get new teachers. It should be about meeting the needs of the students not pandering to teachers.
So... where are you going to sign up?
I'm not a big fan of teacher unions either.... heck, I'm in one. But standardized tests are useless when it comes to measuring student learning-- unless schools get to decide which tests reflect their educational priorities.
You ever been in a school where the first teaching objective is, "keep them from joining a gang"? I have. Makes passive vs. active voice a lot more challenging.
"I know that something very strange Is happening to my brain.
I'm either feeling very good Or else I am insane.
The seeds of doubt you planted Have started to grow wild
And I feel that I must yield before The wisdom of a child.
And it's love you bring,
No, that I can't deny
With your wings,
I can learn to fly,
Sweet young thing."
--M Nesmith
Quoting tooptimistic:
Quoting candlegal:
So it really isn't about the children.
No, its not. If they can't teach these kids who have issues, then maybe it is time to get new teachers. It should be about meeting the needs of the students not pandering to teachers.
When you have entire schools filled with children who are hungry, don't have a substantial parental influence at home and no discipline, its not about simply teaching. If the teachers are striking over this situation, it must be a significant issue.
If its unladylike, fattening or fun, I'm in!
Yes, because expecting job security and a living wage is just so fucking unreasonable. 
Vocal anti gay marriage, award winning far right historian kills himself inside Notre-Dame Cathedral
- tooptimistic
on Sep. 10, 2012 at 7:51 AM