Teachers Union Calls $100 Million In Public Schools Cuts 'Act Of War'
By aaroncynic in News on Feb 3, 2016 5:24PM
Just as Gov. Bruce Rauner pushes his plan for the state to takeover the Chicago Public Schools, the district announced a plan to make $100 million in cuts. In a letter to Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis on Tuesday, CPS CEO Forrest Claypool said the cuts, which include layoffs, slashing of school budgets, and a discontinuation of pension contributions after 30 days, would happen “as quickly as practicable.”
“These actions are necessary for the financial health of the district and are being implemented because we no longer have a choice,” wrote Claypool.
The announcement comes just after the CTU rejected a contract offer from the Board of Education, for what the CTU saw as a failure to address conditions in schools, a lack of services to students in need, and a disregard for the long-term fiscal health of the public school system.
“Simply signing a contract with CPS will not bring them a windfall of resources from the state,” said Lewis in a statement on Monday.
The district has been threatening to make layoffs and cuts to help alleviate a $480 million budget shortfall, and the CTU and CPS have been in tense contract negotiations for months.
"Due to [CPS'] attack, we have no choice but to express our outrage at this latest act of war by rallying against CPS and the bankers who are siphoning off millions from our schools,” said Lewis, in a press conference.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the union will file charges with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board over CPS’s discontinuation of its pension pickup.
Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey said, of the pension situation:
The pension pickup has been paid to Chicago educators for more than 30 years since it first entered our contract. We consider it a legal obligation, and we consider eliminating it unilaterally to be breaking the law — and we will act accordingly if they do that.
Meanwhile, Rauner said Tuesday that he’s directed the Board of Education to begin a financial review of CPS and to search for a new Superintendent.
“The state’s going to be ready to step in and take action,” Rauner said Tuesday. “I asked our administration. I believe it’s coming. I believe a state takeover is appropriate.”
Reactions to both Rauner’s statement and the district’s announcement were harsh.
“I thought we'd already addressed this," said Senate President John Cullerton of Rauner’s plan, according to the Tribune. "The law doesn't allow him to do that. So it's not going to happen."
Claypool called Rauner’s plan a “sideshow.”
Alderman Susan Sadlowski Garza of the 10th ward, a former CPS employee, said in a press release that schools can’t afford more cuts and called for an elected school board.
“We cannot continue to appoint administrators who are out of touch and disconnected from the lives of the working families who attend Chicago Public Schools,” said Garza. “This again highlights the need for an elected school board accountable to students and parents. Our students are the ones that lose when unelected bureaucrats make decisions on behalf of educators.”
Though state law won't allow a CTU strike until May, the union is planning a rally against the layoffs Thursday morning downtown, where it will call for new revenue options to shore up the budget hole.
"CPS has shot down the flag of truce and peace talks are over," the union writes. "It is time for Chicago’s educators and public school supporters to take off the gloves and head out to the streets."