Mass rally from Bank of America to Chicago's City Hall on February 4, 2016...
An earlier CTU rally in warm weather in downtown Chicago. Tribune photo.The Chicago Teachers Union and its allies will do a mass rally, march, and rally from the Bank of America building on Clark St. to Chicago's City Hall after school on February 4, 2016. The rally and marches are in response to the latest lies and threats from the latest "Chief Executive Officer" of Chicago's public schools (the fourth since May 2011), Forrest Claypool.
According to a CTU Facebook posting:
Todayat 4:30 PM, members of the Chicago Teachers Union and supporters will begin their protest at the Bank of America 135 South Lasalle, Chicago, Illinois and then march to City Hall.
"CPS has done it," CTU organizer Marty Ritter wrote. "As expected, they have announced layoffs of 1,000 or more educators in a letter sent today to the CTU. They also said that they would take 7% of our pay through the pension pickup within 30 days and redirect anti-poverty funds to general expenses.
"The union spent fifteen months trying to get a serious offer out of the Board. After only three weeks of negotiations, CPS made an offer that (1) relied on a reduction of more than 2,000 educators from the system, (2) made no provision against ballooning class sizes as a result, and (3) included nothing but the vaguest indicators of where new revenue will be pursued.
"The mayor has had every opportunity to pursue revenue from his wealthy friends and backers. Instead he has targeted educators and students to pay for the Board�s mismanagement. CPS has shot down the flag of truce and peace talks are over. It is time for Chicago�s educators and public school supporters to take off the gloves and head out to the streets.
"We will start the march at Bank of America and finishing at City Hall. Please note: THIS WILL BE A NONVIOLENT AND SAFE RALLY! Attending the rally will not put you at risk of arrest or sanction."
Further information at ... CTUNET.COM
By: Rod Estvan
Claypool on WTTW last night
Forrest Claypool was on WTTW last night and here is a link to the show http://video.wttw.com/video/2365658974/ For a guy who just ordered $100 million in cuts to schools the day before and struggled to float a bond offering to be used to make payments to past bond offerings he was amazingly relaxed, well after all his child does go to Francis W. Parker School that costs about $30,880 a year at the fifth grade level so this problem is somewhat abstract in its nature and he is still getting his check.
Mr. Claypool strongly argued the State of Illinois is significantly underfunding CPS and Governor Rauner yesterday argued exactly the opposite see about the last 12 minutes of this video on the takeover and bankruptcy of CPS http://livestream.com/blueroomstream/events/4775784 Apparently CPS is cooking up a lawsuit against the State over funding discrimination, that should be in the courts for a good while and CPS will have defaulted and missed payroll by the time a decision is rendered.