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CTU to hold rally on Tuesday, September 21, at Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago

Jim Vail - September 20, 2010

The Chicago Teachers Union is sponsoring an education rally at the Daley Plaza at 4pm on Tuesday, September 21, 2010, to protest the massive teacher layoffs this school year and other attacks on public education that continue under the Daley and Huberman administrations. The protest which will take place across from City Hall (in the Daley Plaza) at Washington and Dearborn is expected to attract teachers, parents and students from all over the city. Some schools will be sending buses to the event.

A CTU flyer listed four reasons for the protest:

1) Mayor Daley give $350 million in TIF funds back to the schools.

2) Chicago Public Schools end overcrowding and reduce class size now.

3) Rehire 1,000 veteran teachers with the $106 million sent by Congress.

4) Stop turnarounds and closings, promote neighborhood stability and school safety.

The Chicago Board of Education has refused to listen to demands to rehire almost 1,200 teachers who were terminated due to the alleged budget deficit. The Board is also refusing to use the federal teacher jobs bill (called the Educator Jobs Act) money to rehire the teachers who lost their jobs over the summer and recently. Sources say they are refusing to spend a good portion of the teacher jobs bill money to hire back teachers, despite the fact that the law clearly specifies that the money is supposed to be used to hire teachers. CPS officials have been on a hiring spree since early September, hiring "Instructional Managers" for the school system's expanding area offices. Personnel bulletins issued by CPS have listed dozens of jobs for "managers" working out of the area offices, while CPS officials have refused to hire back the majority of the teachers the board dumped in July (from the Track E schools) and August (from the regular school year schools).

At a press conference about a month ago at Robeson High School, Board president Mary Richardson-Lowry said they would use some of the money for "programs," even though the money is earmarked for teachers. The federal government has not intervened to force CPS to hire back the fired teachers, despite the fact that most other school districts that have received the money automatically used it to hire teachers who had been laid off due to budget cut.

The Board president has also said they would not dip into their reserves to save teacher jobs and keep class sizes at a respectable level. 

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