Kindergarten through 8th grade students are set to return to in-person learning in a week-and-a-half, but teachers say COVID is still a threat. Rodriguez joined a handful of elected city, county, and state officials at Corkery Elementary School on Wednesday to support CTU in its push for more protections for teachers, staff, and students under the CPS reopening plan. Instead, they would rather reach a deal to get back to school safely. The goal is to push CPS to land a deal with the union about a safe return for all teachers to the classroom.
In , CTU leadership pushed through a vote to merge with the union that represented charter school teachers at the time, the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff. Since the merger, conditions for educators in charter schools and traditional public schools have only declined further, reaching their nadir during the pandemic.
In February, despite overwhelming opposition from teachers to returning to classrooms in deadly conditions, the CTU negotiated a deal with CPS that sent unvaccinated teachers and students into classrooms with no protection from the virus. This is an expression of the fact that union leaders like Jesse Sharkey have fully committed to the propaganda efforts of the Democratic Biden and Lightfoot administrations to claim that the pandemic is over and completely lift all remaining safety measures.
The unanimous strike vote by the Urban Prep teachers is a clear indication of the growing militancy and determination of educators, which the CTU leadership will do everything in its power to stifle and betray, above all by isolating the 34 teachers from the rest of their roughly 25, members. The Urban prep schools have recently come under fire for poor student performance and misuse of funds. During the state commission, it was reported that 87 percent of students at Urban Prep were not meeting college readiness standards.
Charter schools are notorious for their poor management and misappropriation of resources. Then, the leftover funds are used to pay executive salaries to the charter school administrators. Thank God for that. Demands for remote learning have grown more intense over the summer, as teachers say that school districts are woefully unprepared to prevent the rapid spread of COVID to students and school staff.
On July 28, the School District of Philadelphia announced it would conduct fall classes remotely, after months of worker and parent pressure organized in large part by the Caucus of Working Educators, a rank-and-file caucus of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. And on Monday, teachers across the country rallied to demand safe schools in a coordinated day of action organized by a coalition of teachers unions and joined by the Democratic Socialists of America.
Teachers tied the demand for remote learning during the pandemic to demands to better fund schools and to remove police officers from school buildings. LAUSD had already agreed in principle to keep school buildings closed in mid-July, following union demands. Quite literally, the lives of enormous numbers of children, teachers, school staff, and parents have been saved thanks to teachers threatening to strike.
0コメント