On September 10, 2012 the Chicago Teacher’s Union pulled out their picket signs and donned red clothes to begin Chicago’s first teachers’ strike in 25 years. Issues in the Chicago Public School system have led to teachers fighting against injustices and past wrongs, hoping to gain more than just higher pay in the end. According to Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, the union is using the city’s students as “pawns in an internal dispute.” He said the strike was illegal because it endangers the health and safety of students and concerned issues that state law says cannot be grounds for a work stoppage. Parents of Chicago public school students have voiced their concerns as well as their support. Parents scrambled to find babysitters, daycares, or safe places for their kids since schools were closed and students had nowhere to go, but they do understand why the teachers strike; parents understand the difficult work that teachers do and acknowledge that teachers are frequently underappreciated.
The Teachers’ Union remained hush-hush when asked about most of the terms that they are unwilling to let up on. One hotly contested item that’s the teachers are fighting against is the amount that student standardized test scores make up a teacher’s evaluation. Mayor Rahm Emanuel is calling for 40% of a teacher’s evaluation to come from student standardized test scores, but teachers argue that that figure is unrealistic when one accounts social and environmental factors such as poverty, hunger, and violence that could affect a student’s test scores. Other areas of debate are pay increases, length of the school day, and how teachers are rehired.
When asked about what she personally hopes to gain from the teachers’ strike, Bridget Stack, a kindergarten teacher at Mark Twain Elementary School, responded “I think we’re looking for respect and what’s best for our students.”
Christine Cius, an 8th grade teacher at Mark Twain, adds “the hardest part about striking is being away from the classrooms, being away from our students because everyday that we’re out is another day that the kids are not in school.”
Teachers and students alike face difficult challenges upon schools reopening once a new teachers’ contract is negotiated. Routines in the classroom must be reestablished and enforced. Teachers must some how make up for the material, coursework, and time lost in the days away from school. Students may experience setbacks, such as loss of focus and poorer test scores, due to the weeks away from learning.
Elaborating on her perspective as a Catholic school teacher and administrator, Ms. Therese Hawkins feels like “it’s the kids who are caught in the middle, high schoolers especially since now is the time for athletes to be scouted by colleges and students to fill out college and scholarship applications. They can’t perform or do any of these things because the schools are closed, and that’s really unfortunate.”
The effects of the Chicago teachers’ strike aren’t only felt in the city; in the long term, the strike could affect private institutions like Nazareth Academy. Parents may be considering private schools as an alternative to the public school system, since teacher walkouts aren’t something that they have to worry about. “If it’s a short strike there might not be an impact,” says Ms. Hawkins, “but if the strike continues, parents may explore their options.” The Chicago’s Teachers’ strike will definitely lead to reform and change in the public school system, but just how profound of an impact it may have we won’t know until years from now.
On Tuesday September 18th, the Chicago Teacher’s Union members voted to end the strike after a week of closed schools and empty classrooms. A breakthrough occurred last Friday when the Chicago Public School system and the Teachers’ Union agreed on a tentative framework for a new deal. The CTU and CPS will hammer out the details and terms of the new teachers’ contract while students and teachers resume classes. The new contract offers, on average, a 17.6 percent pay increase over the next four years, while also allocating for salary bumps for experience and further pursuit of higher education. It also includes tougher job evaluations with part of the evaluation dependent on student standardized test scores and the newly introduced rehire pool for teachers whose former schools were closed down.