Union: Chicago teachers stage 1st US charter school strike

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

17 minutes ago

CHICAGO (AP) — Teachers employed by a Chicago charter school network took to the picket lines Tuesday to fight for more public funding, in what their union described as the first strike at any of the privately run, taxpayer-funded schools in the U.S.

The strike at Acero’s 15 charter schools in Chicago following months of failed contract negotiations comes amid an increase in educator activism nationwide. Teachers in Kentucky , Arizona , Oklahoma , West Virginia and elsewhere converged on state capitols this year to fight for more pay and other funding issues.

Classes were canceled for Acero’s 7,500 predominantly Latino students, and Chicago Teachers Union president Jesse Sharkey said the strike would last “until they come back with an offer that respects our students and the people who educate them.”

CTU said the network’s 500 teachers are demanding smaller classes, more special education staff, salary increases and guaranteed protections for students and families living in the country without legal permission.

-snip-


Read more: https://apnews.com/b62f4bea955340cb9806136033481460

[pecosbob]

1. Charter School staff striking for more federal funding?

'Teachers employed by a Chicago charter school network took to the picket lines Tuesday to fight for more public funding'...something's amiss here.

1. Screw charter schools
2. Screw the people that own them
3. Screw the people that want to give them more federal funding.

I'm as pro-union as the next Dem, but screw these guys...and the corrections officers' unions and the police officers' unions. Strike against your owners, not for more public funding. Taking taxpayer $ from poor people's kids and giving it to affluent people's kids is messed up.

[charliea]

4. Was going to post similar sentiments...

but you got it first. Yeah, these teachers can strike against their sh*tty employers all they want, but tax dollars should go to public education.

I've hated charter 'schools' since they were first proposed. When Obama's Education secretary promoted them I was gob-smacked...

[rpannier]

8. Yep x 10000000000000

[A Morpheus Felinae]

2. Good! Let them strike.

The more time they spend on the picket line the less time they'll have to indoctrinate children with their biased concept of education. I want to see children get an education that will prepare them for the real world, not an imagined world of religious fiction.

[tiptonic]

3. Sounds Fishy

More like the big corporations r behind this one. They will keep the money and cut staff and services. Then go to church on Sunday.

[frazzled]

6. It has to do with the recent gubernatorial and upcoming mayoral elections

Governor elect Jay Pritzger is not going to be friendly to charter funding, and an early shot across the bow is being aimed at the slew of mayoral candidates who are running for election in February. Most of the leading candidates are presumed to be not so charter friendly either.

However, some segments of the black and Latino communities may push back at charter cuts, which are beginning already.

Hope that explains a part of it.

[pecosbob]

10. Absolutely explains...the Repubs do love to astroturf.

[frazzled]

11. There are effectively no Republicans running for the office

More than 20 candidates have submitted petitions, but a good number have been or will be eliminated for failing to reach the required number of legitimate signatures (12,500 are required, but top candidates submit 50,000 to 60,000 to ensure compliance and show strength of support.)

The race is officially nonpartisan, but I don’t think there’s a Republican among them, except possibly former disgraced police commissioner Garry McCarthy and maybe one other guy nobody’s heard of. Certainly the top 5 or 6 candidates are Democratic stalwarts or activists. Many are black or Latino. Women abound.

This isn’t a Republican effort, in the traditional sense at least. Chicago is overwhelmingly Democratic.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

5. Betsy DeVos should swoop right in to help charters.

She can pull money from public schools - they have too much money anyway, and they don't teach enough about jesus.

[rpannier]

9. They also don't do enough to protect students from Grizzly Bears

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

12. I am fortunate to be in DeVos' home state of Michigan.

As long as the DeVos and Prince families have been here, there have been no confirmed attacks by Grizzly Bears.

Betsy is doing such a fine job.

[lindysalsagal]

7. Charter schools give shareholders protection. But no one else.

Too bad for them.