The billionaire backers of charter schools must be furious. The teachers at one of Chicago’s biggest charter chains organized a union and negotiated successfully for higher pay, smaller classes, and protection of their students from ICE. The main reason the billionaires support charter schools is to snuff out unions and their demands. “How outrageous!,” they are surely thinking, as the butler pours their morning coffee.
Chicago Teachers Union
NEWS RELEASE:
For Immediate Release| ctulocal1.org
CONTACT: Chris Geovanis, 312-329-6250, 312-446-4939 (m), ChrisGeovanis@ctulocal1.org
CTU members overwhelmingly ratify UNO/Acero tentative agreement
CTU rank and file at 15 charter schools vote overwhelmingly to approve contract in wake of first strike of charter operator in U.S. history.
CHICAGO—CTU teachers and paraprofessionals in the Acero/Uno charter network have voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new contract that will dramatically improve teaching and learning conditions in the charter network’s 15 campuses across Chicago. The wins were achieved after a historic five-day strike that saw hundreds of union educators and para-professionals take to the streets to demand a fair contract, joined by parents, students and allies calling for change at schools run by Acero. Growing numbers of elected officials joined in the call for a fair contract and accountability from charter executives.
CTU members employed by Acero approved the agreement Friday, with 98 percent voting in favor. Of 485 votes cast, 474 union members voted yes. Voting took place by secret ballot in Acero’s 15 schools. The new contract mandates equal pay for equal work by matching CPS teacher salaries, class size reductions, new special education safeguards and sanctuary school protections for the charter’s majority Latinx student population.
As the first strike of a charter operator in the nation, the walkout is a warning call to other charter companies in Chicago and across the country: teachers will take to the streets to stop the shortchanging of their students and ensure that public dollars are directed to classrooms, not board rooms.
“We said from day one that this strike was about educational justice for our students and their families, and the contract our members overwhelmingly approved advances that cause,” said CTU President Jesse Sharkey. “But we’ve also shown Chicago and the nation that the collective power of teachers, paraprofessionals, students and communities can transform not just our classrooms but an entire industry.”
The contract ratified by Acero/CTU educators and paraprofessionals includes:
Enforceable class size reductions and management penalties for class size violations.
Management commitments to comply with special ed laws and staffing levels, which have been a chronic problem in both CPS charter and district schools, protecting resources for the schools’ most vulnerable students.
Equal pay for equal work with CPS educators, who teach the same students but whose compensation has been significantly higher than those working for private charter operators.
Sanctuary school protections, including language enshrined in the contract that bars schools from asking students about their family’s immigration status, and that bans ICE from school property or access to student records without a legal mandate.
“I’m so proud of our teachers and paraprofessionals and all the parents and students who walked the picket lines with us in the cold each morning,” said Martha Baumgarten, a 5th grade teacher and member of the bargaining team. “This is what democracy and community looks like. This is what a movement looks like. ”
The strike drew national attention from educators and labor leaders who recognized the historic significance of challenging the influential business interests and corporate elites who promote charters as a cornerstone of their school privatization agenda. It also comes as Chicago’s charter industry is losing one of its biggest backers, outgoing Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel.
“This is a victory for every educator who sees children getting short-changed by privatization and charter operators putting their business models over the needs of our students,” said Chris Baehrend, Chair of the CTU Charter Division. “With this strike, CTU members have demonstrated their resolve to do what it takes to hold the charter industry accountable and put public dollars where they belong—into the classrooms and educations of our students.”
Acero’s board of directors is expected to ratify the contract in the coming days. CTU members are currently bargaining for new contracts with ten other charter operators, and educators at four CICS charter schools have voted to authorize a strike. CTU members at CPS district schools expect to begin bargaining a new contract in January.
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The Chicago Teachers Union represents nearly 25,000 teachers and educational support personnel working in schools funded by City of Chicago School District 299, and by extension, the nearly 400,000 students and families they serve. The CTU is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Federation of Teachers and is the third-largest teachers local in the United States. For more information please visit the CTU website at http://www.ctunet.com.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Steve Singer’s recently wrote a piece about how no org or person in the corporate ed. reform world — Peter Cunningham, Michelle Rhee, Jeanne Allen, etc. — dared to comment on the Acero strike, figuring that the best course of action was to ignore it, and pretend it wasn’t really happening (as they did during last Spring’s state-wide strikes in Kentucky, Arizona, Colorado, and West Virginia):
Well, Singer’s article above may have shamed The 74 into finally commenting on the Acero Charter School teachers’ strike, and the new piece, from virulent union-hater
Mike Antonucci, is predictably bogus.
https://www.the74million.org/article/the-unwritten-story-of-chicagos-charter-school-teacher-strike-unions-see-walkouts-as-survival-tool/
In this misleading screed, you will find …
Nothing about low-income minority teachers fighting for a live-able wage for classroom aides
Nothing about the zero-cost demand for sanctuary schools
Nothing about lower class size
Nothing about a live-able wage for teachers
Nothing about improved job conditions, and the elimination of sweatshop hours
Nothing about teachers voices being included in governance
Nothing about the overwhelming community and parent support for the striking teachers, and for their demands
Oh no, no, no, no, … none of that. Antonucci insists that the rest of the media was duped into high-lighting all of that in their coverage, when, in fact, that’s all either lies, or highly exaggerated.
In Antonucci’s warped world, the Acero strike is, at bottom, all a conspiracy of nefarious outsiders (READ: union bosses) secretly manipulating the situation for ignoble ends.
Here’s but one idiotic claim of his:
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Mike Antonucci:
“Not that CTU was performing that much better financially. The union lost 20 percent of its membership in the last eight years — yes, during the presidency of teacher union icon Karen Lewis.
*”Don’t just take my word for it: A cached page from the CTU website described Lewis as ‘president of the 30,000-member Chicago Teachers Union.’ That same page today describes Jesse Sharkey as “president of the 24,000-member Chicago Teachers Union.’ ”
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Hmmm …. And exactly how did that drop in membership happen, Mike?
Oh that’s right. You’re implying that that drop in membership was all Karen’s fault and the fault of the rest of CTU’s leadership. They’re so incompetent and inept that 6,000 former CTU teachers, got fed up, then tore up their CTU membership cards and said,
“Karen and the rest suck, so I’m outta here! I quitting CTU!”
(I defy Mike or anyone else to find even one such instance of this happening.)
So Mike, you’re claiming that the drop had nothing to do with the fact that …
CTU’s anti-union, privatizing School Board closed 50 schools against overwhelming opposition from the community, then —in a union-busting, membership-depleting move — opened up new privately-managed, and unaccountable charter schools in their place that were/are non-union …
or
… that the remaining traditional public schools were so grossly under-funded and sabotaged, and CPS management refused to renovate the buildings so that parents might be inclined to send their kids to shiny new buildings housing privately-managed, and unaccountable charter schools charter schools …
or
that some traditional public schools were deliberately “wound down” — where they were ordered not to accept any new 9th graders one year, then no new 8th and 10th graders the next year.
Parents didn’t so much “choose” to send their kids to privately-managed, non-union charters, as they were driven to do so, and that caused the number of unionized teachers to drop. The schools chose the students, as parents … with no neighborhood school … had to settle for their 4th, 5th, 6th choice of a privately-managed charter, with those privately-managed, and unaccountable charter schools charters rejecting those students for any reason they saw fit (i.e. Special Ed.)
https://www.the74million.org/article/the-unwritten-story-of-chicagos-charter-school-teacher-strike-unions-see-walkouts-as-survival-tool/
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If you want more proof that the drop in membership was most certainly NOT due to incompetence on the part of Karen Lewis or CTU leadership, check out this expose from Jennifer “Have You Heard” Berkshire (formerly Edushyster):
https://haveyouheardblog.com/is-tfa-undermining-the-chicago-public-schools/
Jennifer uncovers a document right about the time of the closing of 50 public schools — a document that indicates that non-union TFA temp teachers — who are programmed, trained and required to be anti-union — will staff 50 new privately-managed that are soon to be opened in or near the neighborhoods of the 50 traditional public schools that were just closed.
The article and the comments section are quite funny, as people have fun ridiculing the TFA cult jargon “Thanks for reaching out” that Jennifer got in response to an email to the then-head of TFA’s Chicago branch about this hidden document.
It turns out that the father of Chicago’s then TFA head works as an advisor to then pro-privatization Sec. or Ed. Arne Duncan (Duncan rapidly expanded charters when Duncan ran Chicago’s schools as its “CEO”)
Jennifer discovered all this in the … get this … a NY Times wedding announcement, which she duly includes:
This also shows that the wife of then-head of Chicago’s TFA branch just happens to be the chief of staff for the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. (NACSA)
The wife then joins the Comments section and denies that NACSA has anything to do with charter expansion in Chicago., angrily telling Jennifer to check her facts.
Jennifer’s response starts with …. yes … “Thanks for reaching out!”
Oooh snap!
Jennifer then provides a link to a NACSA web page saying just the opposite, whereupon the wife quickly deletes it (or has someone else delete it).
Weird, wild, stuff.
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I am assuming that Acero had been approached to give up undocumented students, which is why the teachers put it in their demands. Kudos to the teachers for trying to protect students from an uncertain future. It is unlikely ICE would get most public systems to surrender suspected undocumented students as there have already been court decisions that state that public schools are not to function a immigration gate keepers. They are supposed to educate students that can prove they live in the district’s catchment area, although I know of some districts that have refused to accept enrollment of undocumented students.
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Once again, Chicago teachers prove they have the right stuff–a national example.
(Dare we call it “grit?”)
Ha,ha–love the “let’s ignore this.” Indeed–has been going on forever. Do you remember the massive msm coverage of the first Save Our Schools March?
Oh, wait…that’s right, there wasn’t any.
On the contrary, the Acero/CTU strike made national news.
So, back atcha, all you deformer low-lifes & the (I will NOT write “the” in caps, just as I won’t say IQ45’s name) 74.
Matter of fact, the “the” should be stricken, & we can call them IQ74.
All of them morons!* (Hey, great book title–who will write it? Swacker? Berkshire?
Dienne?)
Also, puts me in mind of “Rosemary’s Baby”– remember Hutch’s final warning to Rosie,
“All of Them Witches?”
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Ed reform lobby writes op ed promoting new DC schools chief, neglects to mention traditional public schools:
ttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/who-is-lewis-ferebee-dcs-new-chancellor/2018/12/14/f6c2d882-fe2a-11e8-83c0-b06139e540e5_story.html?utm_term=.c709ed7d9d2b
This is the mindset- the only schools that are permitted to be celebrated or even mentioned are the charter schools they prefer.
This is why traditional public schools fare so poorly under ed reform political leadership- they are treated as if they don’t exist.
If you’re in a DC public school, best to transfer to a charter immediately. The unfashionable public schools won’t be receiving any support or investment.
Heck, I’d transfer to a charter school if these folks were running my district- it’s obvious public schools are disfavored and who wants to send their child to a school that the best and brightest have deemed unworthy of support?
This is PERVASIVE in ed reform. It is rare to find mention of a public school, let alone any kind of support or work put into them. They have absolutely captured DC, too. You can’t get hired unless you recite the dogma.
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