Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot: Teachers Union ‘Akin to a Political Party’
15 Feb 2021
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) criticized the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) for putting up obstacles to reopening schools for in-person learning, stating the union has “aspirations” that are “akin to a political party.”
“When you have unions that have other aspirations beyond being a union, and maybe being something akin to a political party, then there’s always going to be conflict,” Lightfoot said during an interview published Sunday in the
New York Times.
Lightfoot responded to a question about how she would describe the union.
“I think, ultimately, they’d like to take over not only Chicago Public Schools, but take over running the city government,” she stated. “That’ll play itself out over time. I don’t really spend time, and certainly not in the middle of a pandemic, worrying about the politics. But politics intrudes, always.”
Carron Johnson, an instructional care aide in St Louis, Missouri, knows exactly how important her job is in an American school. She is currently working in a hybrid model of remote and in-person learning along with other teachers in the St Louis public schools district despite ongoing fears posed by the coronavirus pandemic that has shuttered many schools across the US and thrown the entire education system into chaos. “Our community depends on.
Teachers Are the Most At-Risk to COVID-19 in These States and to COVID-19.
The beginning of the school year is already in full swing in some states, and it’s just around the corner in many others. Despite the variation in opening dates among states, one factor remains constant: teachers across the country are concerned, not only for the wellbeing of their students but also for their own safety.
The White House has put pressure on schools to reopen this fall for in-person instruction, and teachers have been striking. Nationwide, from New York to Texas, teachers have not only pushed for proper safety measures as schools reopen during the pandemic, but others have even called for remote-only learning this fall. Teacher unions, including the American Federation of Teachers one of the nation’s largest, representing nearly 2 million school employees have provided their support. Other teachers, fearing for their safety, have begun resigning en masse. In Utah, for example, 7
Some Republicans, who have made reopening schools a priority during the legislative session and on the campaign trail in the governor’s race, said the measure did not go far enough to get kids back to mostly in-person instruction.