CHICAGO—The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and the Chicago chapter of the American Federation of Teachers’ Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff (ACTS) stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters at North Lawndale College Prep and Urban Prep who are organizing to form unions in two of the largest charter school networks in the state of Illinois. The efforts of these educators to unite to fight the burdens of class size and paperwork, inadequate professional preparation time and lack of appropriate staffing levels mirror the needs of many of Chicago’s teachers and education support personnel working daily for the city and schools that our students deserve, and the CTU and ACTS are extremely proud of them for taking a stand for their rights.

“The teachers at these privately held, publicly funded charter schools are just as fed up as teachers at our non-charter public schools, and they’re saying they’ve had enough of the top-down bureaucracy,” said CTU President Karen GJ Lewis. “It’s not educators making the decisions that affect their classrooms, and that’s where these problems begin, so we strongly support the North Lawndale College Prep and Urban Prep teachers in their efforts to unionize to ensure that both they and their students have the resources and environment they need to succeed.”

Last spring, the CTU led a coalition of education advocates, parents and unions in the creation of new state laws to offset charter school operations that have lacked accountability for decades and have failed to demonstrate innovation in pedagogy and curriculum. As the CTU continues to push for reform in Illinois charter school law and increased responsibility to the public from charter networks, it welcomes the commitment of teachers at North Lawndale College Prep, Urban Prep and other charter institutions who are intent on ensuring transparency and accountability in their schools.