Educators and other workers across US express support for Chicago teachers
The courageous stand taken by Chicago teachers against Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s threats of retaliation for defying her back-to-work order has won widespread support among educators and other sections of workers across the United States and internationally.
Last weekend, teachers voted overwhelmingly to continue remote-only teaching as the pandemic continues and to strike if the mayor attempted to lock teachers out of their computer accounts. Lightfoot, who is in constant contact with the Biden administration, was forced to retreat and announce a 48-hour “cooling off” period, which allows teachers to work from home without any retaliation until the end of today.
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Pressure Grows to Reopen Schools, But Fears Persist
A preschool student gets his temperature checked as he walks into a Chicago elementary school. Nationwide, cities and states where most schools have remained closed throughout the pandemic are struggling to decide when and how to reopen.
Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times
Sun-Times via The Associated Press
Margery Smelkinson, a mother with four kids in an elementary school in Montgomery County, Maryland, suspects that the parent group she joined had something to do with Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s recent announcement that all schools must reopen by March 1.
“Out of desperation,” she said, representatives of her group and others in the state met with Hogan days before his Jan. 21 announcement and asked him to intervene in deadlocked local negotiations over when and how to open schools.
Chicago Families Debate School Reopening
The ugly fight between the city and its teachers’ union has frustrated parents, even those who want to keep their children home.
Feb. 3, 2021
Voices from Chicago
After days of rising tension between Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago Teachers Union, we are now in the midst of what local officials are calling a 48-hour “cooling off” period. Students are continuing to learn remotely as the two sides try to avoid a strike or lockout.
The battle in the country’s third-largest school system has become one of the nation’s most contentious over school reopening, with both sides claiming to fight on behalf of the most vulnerable families.
But the real muscle in the Biden DOJ is going to be exercised by Vanita Gupta, the nominee for associate attorney general whose large portfolio includes the Civil Rights Division, the Environmental and Natural Resources Division, the Civil Division, and the Office of Justice Programs.
As head of the Civil Rights Division under President Obama, Ms. Gupta sued police departments with a vengeance, and one can expect that to resume along with the likelihood that DOJ law enforcement grants will be conditioned on police departments accepting top-down reforms from Main Justice likely in conjunction with the same outside groups that sued the Trump DOJ at every turn, including Ms. Gupta’s now former left-wing group artfully titled “The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.”