Chicago Teachers Union and allies testify on need for Chicago's public schools for more revenue... And progressive revenue solutions...
Press conference hosted by numerous community groups. Substance photo by David Vance.While the members of the Chicago Board of Education and CPS administrators were preparing for and holding their April 2016 Board meeting, the majority of people of Chicago were represented a few blocks away, testifying, for the second day in a row, on the need for "progressive revenue solutions" to improve CPS finances. Members of the Illinois General Assembly heard from dozens of witnesses who spoke of the need for the State of Illinois to break the budget impasse in Springfield caused by Governor Bruce Rauner. And they demanded that Illinois join the majority of American states with progressive income taxes.
CPS officials were conspicuous by their absence, and at the Board of Education meeting itself, as reported above, CPS officials were talking and acting as if there was no need for them to truly join forces with the union and the union's thousands of allies. Appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the seven members of the Board of Education (six of whom were present at the April 27 meeting) and the "Chief Executive Officer" of CPS (Forrest Claypool) continued to repeat the talking points prepared by the CPS (and City Hall?) "Office of Communications."
The CTU had issued a press release on April 26, 2016, as follows:
CTU testifies on education funding before Illinois House Education Task Force
NEWS RELEASE. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Stephanie Gadlin. April 26, 2016 312/329-6250 (office)
CHICAGO—Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) political and research staff testified today before the Illinois House of Representatives’ Education Task Force today on the financial state of Chicago Public Schools (CPS). The task force, chaired by Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, was created to explore the re-formulation of the school funding formula for the state of Illinois.
Representative Christian Mitchell, above right, one of the co-sponsors of the progressive taxation bill, listened to the testimony. Substance photo by David Vance.In testimony today, the CTU maintained its position that CPS has a revenue problem stemming from 20-year-old school reform law that continues to reverberate throughout the district in the form of pension underfunding, outsourcing and massive debt. CPS’s largest cost drivers—debt service, pensions, charter expansion—have created the current crisis, as debt must be repaid, pensions payments must be met due constitutional obligations, and charter schools are opened and then closed to drive down costs.
Due to the number of low-income families served and the socio-economic makeup of Chicago’s neighborhoods and communities, CPS requires more funding to educate effectively. CPS students need lower class sizes, grief counseling, full curriculum, librarians, counselors and clinicians. Other Illinois school districts have access to these resources in abundance, even when the students have additional resources at home.
Without access to full local revenue through tax increment financing and the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law, CPS—and by extension, CPS teachers and education support staff—cannot educate effectively. Funding for Chicago’s public schools continues to lag behind other districts such as those in New York City and Washington, D.C., which spend nearly $20,000 per student, which much better in-school supports and pre-kindergarten and early childhood education.
The CTU remains committed to tax proposals such as a millionaires tax, graduated income tax, financial transaction tax and the closing of corporate loophole. Only 2 percent of the Illinois economy needs to be shifted to make plans for increased funding work across the state.
“Nearly all income gains that have been made since the recession ended have gone to top 1 percent, which means there’s already been a shift in our economy away from benefitting working families and the middle class,” said CTU President Karen Lewis. “Fully funded schools is one way to help shift it back.”
By: Mishel Demore
Teachers should be given more wages
I really appreciate this wonderful post that you have provided for us. I assure this would be beneficial for most of the people. Looking forward to read more of your post and updates in the future.
https://www.cheap-dissertation-writing.co.uk/