Chicago Teachers Union Trying to Delay School Openings…Again
The teachers *have* to speak up now. I do not believe the teachers approve of the actions of this despicable organization.
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) already proved they don’t care about kids because reopening the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is based on “sexism, racism, and misogyny.”
The CTU filed an injunction, asking “the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board to halt the return to in-person learning until terms can be ‘determined by good-faith collective bargaining instead of by executive fiat.'” The CTU also said, “a strike isn’t out of the question.”
Ah, yes. Collective bargaining. (I swear CTU is always striking.)
CPS has a plan to reopen schools for the first time since the pandemic began in March:
On Jan. 11, CPS says they will open school building for pre-K students, and moderate and intensive cluster programs. Feb. 1 will be the date that kindergarten through 8th grade will be able to enter buildings.
High school students who learn in general education settings will stay on remote learning classes, while CPS says they will evaluate options for returning to in-person learning.
CPS has offered parents “in-person, hybrid and remote learning options.” The parents who choose remote learning cannot send their children to school until April.
But sexism, racism, and misogyny, according to the CTU.
That is not good enough for the CTU. From The Chicago Sun-Times:
The union returned to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board with the new charge Monday, less than a month before teachers are expected to start returning to schools for the first time during the pandemic.
The CTU is seeking an injunction that would force the district to negotiate in good faith and reach agreements with the union on several issues before schools reopen, which the union says CPS has not done.
Following that process could delay the anticipated Jan. 4 return for preschool and special education cluster program teachers and staff and could afford the union a closer look at the district’s health protocols during a deadly pandemic before sending its members back to schools.
The CTU’s demands:
- PPE for teachers and staff
- COVID-19 Screening
- Contact Tracing
- Testing and Vaccination
- A nurse in every school
- Smaller class sizes
- Ventilation upgrades
Did anyone in the CTU read anything from CPS? Did any of them listen to what CPS told them in October? Look at this (emphasis mine):
In the notice to families, CPS said schools will be prepared for students. The letter said “the public health in Chicago and across the nation show that schools are rarely a source of COVID-19 transmission. With this new understanding of COVID-19, we must challenge the assumption that school buildings must stay closed and do everything we can to bring students back to school”
CPS leaders say there will be health screenings, face coverings required and distance between desks. Schools will also provide access to COVID-19 tests. Also, classrooms will be outfitted with HEPA air purifiers.
The CTU whined that the CPS “stonewalled” them for months. CTU President Jesse Sharkey claimed the union wants to get back to the classrooms and is only throwing a fit because of concerns for teachers and students.
(REMINDER: sexism, racism, and misogyny)
CPS spokeswoman Emily Bolton gave CTU a truth bomb:
CPS spokeswoman Emily Bolton wrote in a statement that the district has already adjusted its health protocols based on input from the union and that schools are safe and ready to reopen.
“Given the learning loss and missed opportunities for our children, the discussion can no longer be focused on whether or not to reopen but how to do so safely,” Bolton said, adding that CPS “must open our doors in order to counter the dire educational consequences for students who need support the most.”
You got your wish, CTU! I swear, they just want to strike and cause problems because they do not care about the children or education.
The CTU is making excuses and ignoring science, which the left supposedly loves so much. COVID-19 is not spreading like wildfire in elementary schools. Infectious diseases epidemiologist Walter Haas at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin studied the transmission of the virus:
Researchers suspect that one reason schools have not become COVID-19 hot spots is that children — especially those under the age of 12–14 — are less susceptible to infection than adults, according to a meta-analysis4 of prevalence studies. And once they are infected, young children, including those aged 0–5 years, are less likely to pass the virus on to others, says Haas.
—
This gradient in infectiousness is emerging in other data sets, too. In the United States, the rate of infection is twice as high in children aged 12–17 years as it is among 5–11-year-olds6. According to data on 200,000 school students across 47 US states gathered by economist Emily Oster at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, incidence was highest in high-school students, followed by those in middle school and then elementary school.
I blogged about what experts have said about keeping students out of the classroom. It’s bringing together the left and the right. The Center for American Progress released a study in October that found delaying education will harm women in the workforce now and in the future. Delaying schools will have a negative effect on minority students.
The Washington Post editorial board pleaded with schools to open their doors to students.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio recanted and opened schools for elementary kids.
Get the kids back into the classroom. Hey, teachers! Now is the time to speak up and bring down this union. I know you guys became teachers because you want to educate children, be a part of a better future. Mold the minds of tomorrow. The CTU will never allow you to do this because it’s all about power and control to them.
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Comments
When, oh when will public sector unions be banned?!
The day after Never.
Never is coming up real soon…….
Are these teachers being paid for not teaching? If so, their salaries should immediately be stopped and restarted only upon them returning to the classroom.
Yes, they are.
Wouldn’t you like to have a year long paid vacation?
Demonstrating for the Right to be Non-Essential.
What are “moderate and intensive cluster programs.” I assume it’s called a cluster program (CP) rather than a CF because children are involved.
It appears that they are optional school-within-a-school programs for special ed students (excuse me, “Diverse Learners” caps in original…) Actually, seems to me they’re a sensible alternative to mindless mainstreaming.
Everything is racist and sexist. That’s settled.
Now, get back to work. You will be in your classooms, with lesson plans, and ready to teach by Monday morning. If not, pack your belongings and vacate the building. You have 30 minutes.
But, being that we are close to winter break (Christmas Break so Sean Hannity doesn’t snivel about my waging a War on Christmas), you will be in your classooms, with lesson plans, and ready to teach by the morning after the break. If not, pack your belongings and vacate the building. You have 30 minutes.
Supt of Schools T F Grizzly
As I have said before, from the Communist point of view this makes no sense. Public schools – especially in deep blue hellholes – are too often propaganda factories dedicated to churning out budding Red Guards. Closing public schools means cutting off the supply of cannon fodder for the Glorious Revolution.
OTOH – public schools have a lot of unmarried childless Karens. The Joseph Goebbels media has done its best to terrorize the American population by wildly exaggerating the dangers of the Wuflu, and the Karens seem especially susceptible. So maybe it is not surprising that a main target of Communist disinformation (bitter unmarried women wanting Big Daddy Government to take care of them) fall hard for it.
It does not make sense? So why did the Southern slave holders try and keep their slaves ignorant and uneducated? The answer – it was much easier to dominate and control them in that way. An uneducated man who can neither read, nor write, nor do even basic math has little prospects beyond what is provided for by his master, and is transformed from a human to mere brute suitable only for cheap labor at the direction and whim of his master.
If they do not want to educate you, it’s because they want to kept you as a slave.
Does that make any more sense, now?
Actually, that does not fit the Communist MO. In her excellent book “Wild Swans”, Jung Chang relates how schoolchildren and university students in Mao’s China were subjected to endless political harangues disguised as “education”, sometimes lasting for days at a time. Attendance was required, and failing to attend – or show proper enthusiasm – could earn you a savage beating or worse. You can find similar stories in North Korea, Kampuchea, Cuba, and other places where the cancer of Communism had spread.
You and I would not consider what happened in China a real education, but history demonstrates that the Communists will gladly make use of public institutions (such as schools) to deliver their propaganda. Shutting down public schools – and, worse, letting the proles educate themselves! – seems absolutely bizarre from the Communist point of view. Educrats HATE homeschooling and private schools (except for themselves, of course), so why are they forcing people to make decisions that could ultimately break the power of the education establishment?
I think it is incorrect to categorize the opposition as communists. They are are not. They align more towards fascism, bit a different still. The are a self-appointed “elite” that are in all ways superior to everyone else. Therefore, for your own good, you must be ruled by them. It’s a simple as that. There is not much ideology to it at all. All ideas they have are simply self-serving, and they are so corrupt, they actually do think they are serving the interests of all humanity, even the entirety of the planet and things of it. They are demi-gods. You are much more like an ant, worthy of consideration only if it serves my immediate interests.
IMO as a someone not a resident of Illinois, much less Chicago the reporting has been surprising straight on school opening and the minimal danger associated with it.
The CTU is making a huge mistake. Teachers unions benefit due to peoples memories of their favorite teacher who helped them, the generally unified societal view that education is a good.
The CTU has burned down the repository of goodwill. Their intransigent attitude and continuing demands are making enemies not allies. The school board may still be composed of people sympathetic to or beholden to the CTU. Those members should keep in mind that a motivated plebiscite can vote them out.
I think the money quote is “until terms can be ‘determined by good-faith collective bargaining instead of by executive fiat.'” What the CTU is seeking here is *power*-the power to supplant the administration and run the Chicago schools entirely by themselves.
Fortunately, all CPU members are receiving full pay and all benefits including accretion of pension while sitting on their collective fat asses. They’ve figured out how to extend their usual 3 month paid vacation indefinitely.
Oh I think CTU speaks for its members, as they are legally assumed to do. I blame the teachers collectively, because they are the union.
Teachers don’t approve of what the union is doing? That’s akin to Hannity’s “99% of FBI agents” are hard-working and don’t approve of what was done to Trump and his circle. Both statements assume facts not in evidence.
In 2007-8, if I recall correctly, this is the same teachers union which went on strike for increased pay while the financial world was in turmoil.
Drop the mask, which has been demonstrated with controlled studies to have no effect, minor reduction, or increase infection in restricted environments with trained personnel and worse outcomes in the general population. Lockdowns that cannot guarantee isolation (e.g. high-density complexes) produce similar outcomes. Wash your hands with soap and water to control fecal contamination. Limit contact with symptomatic (i.e. coughing, sneezing) individuals. Oh, and if you believe in the efficacy of masks, don’t forget the goggles. The eyes are a window to contagion. That said, early treatment with the HCQ cocktail to reduce hospitalization and death by 80 to 90%, and an Ivermectin protocol that has demonstrated an even greater effectiveness throughout disease progression.
What airborne diseases are HEPA filters supposed to stop? This is disease theater not medicine.