Chicago teachers are nine days from voting on whether to strike unless they and the school district can agree on a new contract before then. Here’s what’s at stake.
FILE - This Sept. 10, 2012 file photo shows Chicago teachers walk walking a picket line outside a school in Chicago, after they went on strike for the first time in 25 years. Teachers in Chicago, the nation's third-largest school district, again are inching closer to a strike that could take place as early as next month. AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)
Chicago’s last major teachers strike was seven years ago, but the tone, issues and financial backdrop this time around are totally different. Still, shutting down roughly 600 schools could create major hassles for nearly 400,000 students and their families.The Chicago Teachers Union, which represents about 25,000 educators, argues that the district has repeatedly shortchanged schools over the years by cutting budgets.
CPS officials acknowledge the years of staffing cuts, but they say they are committed to increasing support staff after years of budget reductions and have publicized plans to add 200 social workers and 250 nurses over five years. District officials hoped to reach a deal before the school year began, but the union rejected the district’s last offer, which bumped the total raises over the five years from 14% to 16% and was based on an independent fact-finder’s report.
The district has said it doesn’t have money to lower class sizes further and argues that it has made progress. State data show class sizes remain, on average, below district targets. For example, most elementary grades hover around 20 students per class. Still, there are examples of overcrowding. One kindergarten class temporarily had 40 students this year. The union’s demands on class sizes have fluctuated.
Other school employee unions, including custodians and bus drivers, are also in contract fights that could lead to simultaneous strikes. The unions say the strikes elsewhere in the U.S. this year, in which teachers generally fared well, show the public is on their side.School officials recently approved a $7.7 billion budget and the borrowing of billions more to make critical facility upgrades.
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