When lightning strikes, typically the surface it strikes is\nthe underdog. Well, the same is to be said when teacher unions\u2019 strike. In\nChicago, the teachers strike and the surface they hit are the children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chicago has the third largest public school system in the\nUnited States and its teachers went on strike for salary increases (15 percent\nto be exact), enforceable caps on class sizes, and a written commitment for\nmore nurses, social workers, and librarians. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They also struck for more affordable housing, which is far\noutside the parameters of collective bargaining on a teacher\u2019s contract. But hey,\nwhy limit yourself to educational issues? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even more of a head scratcher? The mayor, Lori Lightfoot, a progressive\nDemocrat, had put forwards what she rightfully described as a \u201chistoric offer.\u201d\n The district offered a 16 percent\nincrease over five years and a roughly 8 percent increase for paraprofessionals\nfor this school year. They also agreed\nto fund decreasing class sizes and pledged to put a full time nurse in every\nschool by 2024 while adding 200 more social workers over five years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The generous offer did not satisfy the teacher union, and while\nthe strike continued, 300,000 students were not in school, many of whom come\nfrom low income families. The district mentioned that the schools would remain\nopen for the students for a safe place and access to meals, which is all fine\nand dandy. However, all instruction was canceled. Of the 300,000 students, only\n7,500 showed up to school on the first day of the strike. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reported by the Chicago Tribune<\/em>: \u201cThe Illinois High School Association ruled Monday that Chicago Public Schools girls\u2019 volleyball teams will have to forfeit their playoff games, ending their season prematurely, because of the teachers\u2019 strike. The playoffs were scheduled to start Monday. Student-athletes in other sports such as cross-country, tennis and golf previously suffered the same fate.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, the union will argue that, as Mayor Lightfoot\nputs it \u201ctaking your deal is a betrayal of our professional ethics; it would be\na betrayal to our students and to the parents.\u201d But this has never been the\ncase. They are back to playing the classic bait-and-switch game once again \u2013\nprotecting their self-interests while arguing \u201cIt\u2019s for the children!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Don Nielsen, program chair to Discovery Institute\u2019s American\nCenter for Transforming Education and author of Every School<\/em><\/a>, reminds us of a fundamental truth:<\/em>\n\u201cthe mission of [a] union [is] to maximize member compensation, improve member\nworking conditions, [and] to secure and protect member employment.\u201d This isn\u2019t\njust Nielsen\u2019s opinion. It comes from a conversation he had with the WEA\npresident years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the strike went on for almost two weeks, children have\nlost out on valuable education time they won\u2019t get back. The losses include,\nbut are not limited to, social and emotional learning, collaborative thinking,\nand bonding with their peers through sports or other extracurricular\nactivities. \n\nStrikes are sending a thundering message that teacher\nunions are willing to hurt parents and children to achieve their ends. This is\nwrong.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When lightning strikes, typically the surface it strikes is the underdog. Well, the same is to be said when teacher unions\u2019 strike. In Chicago, the teachers strike and the surface they hit are the children. Chicago has the third largest public school system in the United States and its teachers went on strike for salary increases (15 percent to be exact), enforceable caps on class sizes, and a written commitment for more nurses, social workers, and librarians. They also struck for more affordable housing, which is far outside the parameters of collective bargaining on a teacher\u2019s contract. But hey, why limit yourself to educational issues? Even more of a head scratcher? The mayor, Lori Lightfoot, a progressive Democrat, had put Read More ›<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":343,"featured_media":2426,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1062],"class_list":["post-2425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-unions"],"acf":[],"author_names":["Bailey Takacs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/343"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2425"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2425"}],"wp:action-assign-author":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post\/2425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}