CPS budget raises questions, concerns
Allocation decisions could cut funding to hundreds of schools, while CPS, Mayor refuse to enshrine public promises in enforceable contract. CHICAGO—Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey issued the following statement today in response to CPS’ formal FY...
Put TIF windfall where it belongs: in public school communities
The mayor should do what’s right—and what can help make up for the billions of dollars that TIF abuse has robbed from our students and our schools: invest every penny of this windfall in public education.
Pres. Sharkey to CTU Members: Time for mayor to put promises into action in enforceable contract
Dear CTU Members: By now you may have heard—or even received an email from CPS—about Mayor Lightfoot’s promise to improve staffing in our public schools. Let’s be clear. Chicagoans voted for a candidate that said she would transform our public education...
CTU to mayor: Put promises into action in enforceable contract
We’ve been down this path of unfulfilled promises before with the previous mayor, who promised to expand early childhood education and improve special education—when today parents struggle even more to access these services for their children.
Bargaining update: Our fight for a fair contract for CPS students and educators
Bargaining Update: CPS contract fight These past few weeks have been busy. On July 18 and 19, the CTU and Mayor Lightfoot’s team presented arguments to the fact-finding panel—required under Section 4.5 of the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act (IELRA)—as we try...
Beginning Tuesday: CTU ramps up organizing as contract fight heats up
3:30 p.m. Tues., July 23: officer/rank and file doorknocking. South Side, Chicago. Contact Chris Geovanis for location/to connect. 9:30 a.m. Wed., July 24: CTU joins SEIU Local 73 at Board of Education, 42 W. Madison, Chicago 3:30 p.m. Thurs., July 25: B-roll...
CPS rejects educational justice for students at bargaining table
Another fruitless negotiating session undercuts Lightfoot promise of real equity for CPS students, as Mayor and bargaining team refuse to invest $1 billion in new state funds in classrooms. CHICAGO—Over a thousand CPS classrooms are overcrowded, with students learning...
CTU President Jesse Sharkey responds to long-awaited district contract proposals
The Board’s submission to the fact-finder with proposed salary increases was its first economic proposal. The Union takes this as an opening offer, and also to show that CPS and the mayor know they can afford educators’ demands for fairness. CHICAGO, July 3,...
Our immigrant students and families are at risk—and we must support them.
Immigrant students in Chicago public schools hail from dozens of different countries and regions — and every child and their family deserves sanctuary in Chicago. CHICAGO—The CTU is unapologetically standing by its immigrant students and their families, who make...General CTU Announcement
Chicago Teachers Union’s Community Board to Host Teach-In on School Closings Set on Saturday, December 3rd
Organizers prepare to save under-resourced neighborhood schools
CHICAGO – Labor leaders, educators and activists will conduct a free, teach-in on Chicago Public School (CPS) closings and work to train parents and community groups on how to save endangered neighborhood schools from closure or privatization. A Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) Teach-In, to be held at King College Prep High School, 4445 S. Drexel, on Saturday, December 3rd at 10 a.m., will also present a history of CPS school closings, consolidations and turnarounds and illustrate its impact on impoverished communities.
The workshop is co-sponsored by Teachers For Social Justice, Action Now, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, Grassroots Collaborative and Albany Park Neighborhood Council, members of CTU’s Community Board.
The teach-in will provide training in various areas including non-violent direct action; developing community models for school improvement; creating action plans to protect neighborhood schools; utilizing Board of Education action research and power analysis; and, strengthening and creating community-based school governance in under-resourced schools. Hundreds of people are expected to attend.
CPS must announce its list of “school actions” by December 1st, having earlier said that 42 percent of its schools are on academic probation. Chicago Teachers Union President Karen GJ Lewis said that fact sets the stage for an unprecedented number of school actions. CTU has criticized the Board’s School Action Guidelines for school closings and consolidations finding that the new policy does not help improve student achievement and will not help the District reach its goal of providing “quality” schools in every community. Lewis said it will only widen the achievement gap among poor students of color.
Despite more 20 years of autonomous mayoral control, little has been done to improve the structural inequality in Chicago schools, which disproportionately harm children of color and the poor. CTU and its Community Board proposes a better, District-wide reform model that makes all schools function more, not less, like the best schools in our nation and world.
Since 2004 and with no basis in research, CPS has closed nearly 100 schools, most of them in African American and Latino communities. The destruction of so many neighborhood schools was a result of Renaissance 2010, a plan that sought to close public schools with elected local school councils and unionized staff and replace them with 100 new schools, two-thirds of which are non-union and without independent, community governance.
