Chicago Public Schools is toying with parents, students and the entire city by sowing misinformation about the status of negotiations.
This afternoon, CPS sent a robocall to parents and educators saying that the CTU’s House of Delegates might vote at its 6 p.m. meeting to accept a deal and return to schools, even though Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPS know that there’s no tentative agreement that the HoD could approve even if it wanted to.
In fact, the more than 700 elected leaders of the union are meeting to review the current status of bargaining – what’s been landed and what continues to remain unsettled at the table – and discuss the next steps to push the mayor and her CPS bargaining team to reach a just settlement of this strike.
Today’s CPS robocall to parents and our rank-and-file members is, unfortunately, another example of the mayor’s pattern of ultimatums, misinformation and spin to undercut our effort to bargain a fair contract, instead of investing the additional resources necessary to set CPS on a trajectory quality education for all Chicago students.
The Union’s rank-and-file bargaining team will continue to seek a tentative agreement that provides students, their families and our rank-and-file members with the fairness and educational justice we were promised by candidate Lightfoot.
Chicago is one of the wealthiest cities in the world. CPS has the resources to land a deal that puts our district on the path to real equity for students and the educators who serve them. The ball is in Mayor Lightfoot’s court.
