The tentative deal Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) leaders reached over the weekend with Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) officials is an abject surrender that must be rejected.
Former CTU president Karen Lewis “really challenged the popular understanding about public schools,” said Robert Bruno, a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “She did take on the mayor. She did take on the school board, but Karen was speaking about public education and how public education had been put at risk. . She wasn’t afraid to call out names and identify people in a very unvarnished, sometimes profane, but always profound way.”
Brian Jackson/ Sun-Times file
Karen Lewis was a fighter.
As the president of the Chicago Teachers Union, she battled for the best contracts her members could get, even as she struggled against aggressive brain cancer.
Chicago Teachers Union endorses a bargain with death, agrees to in-person classes
Chicago Public Schools (CPS), Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) came to an agreement Sunday on a deadly plan to reopen schools in the third largest district in the US at the height of the pandemic.
After Lightfoot and CPS CEO Janice Jackson announced the tentative agreement (TA), the CTU held an all-membership meeting at which only top bureaucrats were allowed to speak in an effort to browbeat resistant educators and push through the sellout deal. The union is scheduled to hold a House of Delegates vote on the deal Monday. If approved, it would then send the TA to the full membership for a vote.
Updated
Feb 10, 2021
Amid Tough School Reopening Battles, Americans Continue To Cheer Teachers Unions
Americans remain divided over how schools should handle the coronavirus pandemic, but parents support their local districts and teachers unions.
By Rebecca Klein and Ariel Edwards-Levy
Most Americans continue to support the idea of teachers striking in response to school conditions they feel are unsafe, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll.
Fifty-six percent of respondents said they would strongly or somewhat support the idea, compared with 30% who said they would oppose it. The results largely mirror a September HuffPost/YouGov poll on the same issue, even as teachers unions around the country continue to engage in fraught negotiations with school districts and local governments.