ELL students targeted in CPS teacher firings. Teacher layoff deniers, take note.
CTU head Karen Lewis. She sits at the table, but doesn't give away the store.
Chicago school officials announced the first round of teacher firings yesterday. Bi-lingual teachers will take a big hit. Officials also predicted another round by the time schools open after Labor Day. By the second week of school 2,000 employees will have lost their jobs.
(CPS boss Ron) Huberman has maintained that teacher layoffs could be avoided if CTU and other bargaining units agree to concessions, as is happening in other school districts, saying $135 million could be shaved if unions forgo promised 4 percent pay raises.
(Union Prez Karen )Lewis, however, told the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board Wednesday that her 26,000-member union already conceded by taking pension hits, and she said looking to the unions takes the onus off Mayor Daley and lawmakers to solve the state and city education funding problem.
“Everyone should give their fair share,” Lewis said.
“But if we agree to this, then Springfield won’t have to close the gap. If we give — and we’ve already given from our pensions — what is the impetus for Springfield to do their part in this?”
Gosh. A union leader who knows that sitting at the table is different from giving away the store.
What about the job-loss deniers? Y’know. The bloggers, pundits and thinkers (who shall not be named or linked to on this site) who have said all summer that the claims of education job losses have been manufactured by unions as a ploy to get more funding?
