Above Photo: Chicago teachers strike in 2012. (Flickr on Shutter Stutter)
Chicago teachers’ decision to strike Oct. 11 unless a fair agreement is reached should be a wakeup call for Mayor Rahm Emanuel. It shows that teachers are, once again, ready to fight to protect their profession and their classrooms. This is good news, not bad, for CPS parents.
While no one wants a strike—not teachers, not parents—the union and its threat to strike give it leverage against the mayor and his rubberstamp school board few other groups have. The CTU is using that leverage to win important classroom improvements for students, as well as fair compensation and benefits for teachers. Those two things go hand in hand, because the working conditions for teachers are the learning conditions for Chicago children.
Ultimately, teachers will decide what a fair contract is and whether a strike is necessary to obtain one. Right now, though, it’s more important than ever to show the mayor that parents and the greater community support the teachers and will stand with them if they strike.
Years of budget cuts, crony contracts, unfunded mandates, booming class sizes, and lack of city leadership for progressive revenue have left our schools struggling just to get by. A world class city needs to make funding its schools a priority, not an afterthought.
If it takes another teachers’ strike to send that message home to Rahm Emanuel, parents will be on the streets with teachers this year, just like they were in 2012.