Latest report from Chicago.
Settlement talks break off.
Strike appears imminent.
First in 25 years.
Rahm quiet.
Wear red for Ed.
Chicago is first district in nation Where teachers have stood up to DFER, Stand for Children, other anti-union, pro-privatization, anti-teacher groups.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Not likely. It’s happening. “In the morning, no CTU members will be inside our schools. We will walk the picket line.”-Lewis #CTU #FairContractNow
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My heart is sad for the kids and teachers in Chicago. Still, I’m hoping that something good comes of the strike – not just for teachers and kids but in our national conversation about education (or lack thereof). We need people, lots of them, to start talking about, voting for, and demanding that, as a nation, we commit ourselves (in word and deed) to a system of free, just, and forward minded public education – not testing, privatization schemes, or crazy accountability schemes that take the focus off of what really matters. We need real education – context specific, developmentally appropriate, child focused, forward thinking teaching and learning in every corner of this country that is full of professional educators, rich curriculum, and even richer experiences, community engagement, and family participation. If anyone thinks this strike is just another union “ploy” for higher pay or less “working time” they are sorely mistaken. 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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I am wearing my red shirt…and yes, I am aware that what happens here will happen everywhere. Except in NY where Mulgrew/Weingarten are already in the tank for the city. Once can dream, though.
FIRE DUNCAN! Hire Ravitch!
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In Michigan, it is illegal for teachers to go on strike. It is actually in our Consitution. WIth that said…What are all the parents who made the “right” choice (according to the people on this blog anyway) to keep their kids in the public school system going to do now? If the teachers go on strike, it’s a good chance that substitutes are NOT going to cross the picket lines. Union solidarity and all that you know. Then what? Who’s going to teach? Will the kids stay home? will the kids get a babysitter in school? The parents take time off work for the duration of the strike? WIth the poverty level as bad as it is EVERYWHERE, not just Chicago, parents are not going to able to take time off work. ANd as big as the CPS is, I don’t think there are enough adminstrators to go around to teach.
So…way to go CPS teachers. Nice way to put yourselves before the kids. Everybody on this blogs cheers for the public schools. They think that public schools are the light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. They think that choice, vouchers, charters, cyber, etc are all bad and leading us to hell in a handbasket. And then you pull something like this? If you teachers are so much for the kids as you profess, then put your money where your mouth is. Let your negotiators do what they need to do. That’s why they’re called negotiators. If negotiation doesn’t work, just keep teaching. Eventually something will be hammered out, it always is.
Note to CPS…for the sake of the children that you say you are so worried about…I’ll come down to teach and I WON’T worry about crossing a picket line as it wouldn’t be the first time.
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In democracies, the right to strike is observed, and it is even recognized by the United Nations. It’s pretty sad that there are states in a so-called democratic country that cannot go on strike.
Furthermore, it’s astonishing that there haven’t been more strikes, considering how awful the school reform movement has become! It’s about time! How ridiculous does it have to get, before we say, “We’re not going to take it anymore?” How many more standardized tests will Chicago kids have to take, wasting precious time on assessments that are too often proven badly designed and punitive?
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CPS, I’m so proud of your stance on behalf of children. I’m wearing red!!!
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