Resolution ends week of confusion for Chicago teachers
BY: Lucas Sweitzer, Opinions Co-Editor
Published: 9.21.12
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) voted to end the strike that has kept 350,000 students out of Chicago Public Schools for the last week.
On Wednesday, teachers across Chicago went back to taking attendance and drafting lesson plans - among them Taylor alumnus Adam Hoover.
"I've never been more happy to return to school than I was (Sept. 19)," Hoover said. "The strike kinda disrupted our flow right at the beginning."
Hoover is a teacher at the Ogden International School, and one of the 26,000 teachers who were striking this past week, before a closed-door meeting among union members brought the strike to an end.
The seven-day break prompted the mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel to seek injunction against the union last Monday, which would have forced Chicago teachers to go back to work. Ultimately, ending the strike this way was preferable, according to Emanuel.
"This settlement is an honest compromise," Emanuel said, according to the Chicago Tribune. "It means returning our schools to their primary purpose, the education of our children . . . . In this contract, we gave our children a seat at the table."
According to Hoover, the strike was multi-faceted, but they were a couple key topics in the debate. Access to textbooks and the teacher evaluation process were both issues Hoover feels strongly about.
"Air conditioning was another one," Hoover said. "I came into my classroom one day and the temperature was about 93 degrees . . . . It's just not a great place to learn."
Other hot topic education issues like merit pay for teachers are not topics Chicago Public School teachers can strike about, which formed the basis for Emanuel's injunction. The judge's verdict on the injunction was suspended indefinitely due to the ending of the strike, but many teachers still point to the injunction as evidence of the pressure state officials often put on educators.
Although there is a proposed contract and the strike is suspended, the issue is not entirely resolved. The members of the CTU will need to review the contract in the coming few weeks, which has significant compromises from both angles.
"We're supposed to vote sometime next week, and the chances it'll get voted down are slim," Hoover said. "It's a fair contract, and it's time to move forward."
The revised contract will include a 16% pay increase for teachers over the next three years, but also lengthens the school day and the school year by about 25%. According to Hoover, this makes the contract less of a pay raise and more of a pay cut.
Other provisions included in the proposed contract received standing ovations from teachers, including a provision that allows teachers to make their own lesson plans in the future. It was those small concessions that most encouraged CTU President Karen Lewis.
"We've been micromanaged into doing things that we know are harmful for children," Lewis said, according to CNN. "So to finally stand up and say this is not a good way of doing school . . . . This has been a real victory."
Now that the strike is over, teachers like Hogan will need to individually review the new contract to determine if it fits in with their own needs. For Hoover, he was happy to put the strike behind him.
"It's time to put our game faces on and really start this school year," Hoover said
