Chicago Teachers Take Stand Against Corporate Education Reform
- Common Dreams staff
For the first time in a quarter century, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU)—which represents educators, school clinicians, and support staff in the nation's third-largest school district—is on strike today after weekend negotiations with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) ended on Sunday without agreement on contract disputes that have been ongoing since June.
Karen Lewis, president of the CTU, speaking at a press conference late Sunday night, said: "We are committed to staying at the table until a contract is place. However, in the morning no CTU member will be inside our schools. We will walk the picket lines. We will talk to parents. We will talk to clergy. We will talk to the community. We will talk to anyone who will listen—we demand a fair contract today, we demand a fair contract now. And, until there is one in place that our members accept, we will be on the [picket] line."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/10-1
"If anyone thinks this strike is just another union “ploy” for higher pay or less “working time” they are sorely mistaken," she added. "And while workers should be entitled to protect their rights, the CPS strike is about the heart and soul of public schooling, the deprofessionalization of teachers, and the ways that the education 'crisis' nation wide has been co-opted as a means of pushing privatization as the be-all-and-end-all solution to the 'achievement gap'. Schools are not businesses, children are not widgets, and teachers are not robots or machines. Let’s start there."
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