Chicago Teachers Union leadership begins lengthy admissions about how many loopholes are in the new contract....CPS officials brag about how they tricked the union on the eve of a strike...
Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey was speaking militantly about striking and winning a strong contract during the May 2012 rally in Grant Park while thousands of teacher union members rallied inside the nearby Auditorium Theater. The difference between the militance of 2012 and the sellouts of 2016 became clear to the union's dwindling number of members even before the union's negotiators brought in the limp contract of 2016 on the eve of a strike that the members were willing to do. Substance photo. The announcement had barely been made that the dwindling number of members of the Chicago Teachers Union had voted "Yes" on the proposed contract (which was being referred to as a "TA" in the growing world of Orwellian locutions designed, it appears, to evade explanations of straight forward facts to the members) when Chicago Public Schools officials began gloating about how many ways they had gotten away with things from the union. Worth noting, the union's membership is down to 26,000 in November 2016 -- a drop of nearly 40 percent in less than a decade, and one additional proof that the goals of the ruling class are being achieved. But more about that in future analyses here.
On November 4, 2016, the Chicago Sun-Times published an article in which CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey admits that the union's leadership was misled about the "no new contract schools" paragraph in the proposed contract (which is now the contract that ends on June 30, 2019).
CHICAGO TRIBUNE REPORT
Despite leeway on charter caps, teachers union adds influence over district policy
Rahm Emanuel, Forrest Claypool, by Juan Perez Jr.Chicago Tribune
The city's charter schools would be able to add thousands of students in the coming years despite a cap on enrollment that was included as part of the new Chicago Teachers Union contract.
CTU leaders promoted the charter cap as a significant concession extracted from Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration, given the union's opposition to the privately run schools that compete for a dwindling pool of students and the resources that follow them.
Chicago Public Schools committed to limit the number of students enrolled in CPS charters from increasing much beyond the total capacity for all buildings at the end of last school year. The district also agreed to a "net zero increase" in the number of charter schools it approves.
But there is considerable leeway in the deal on enrollment. According to CPS, charters could enroll up to about 77,000 students through June 2019. As of this year, there were only about 58,000 students enrolled at district-funded charter schools.
In addition, CPS CEO Forrest Claypool said the district could add up to nine charter schools under the terms of the contract.
"There's not a charter moratorium," Claypool said this week. "There's plenty of room for high-quality charter operators to apply, and to go through our process."
Claypool's comments came as a surprise to the union.
"I thought our agreement was that the district was going to put a hold on headlong charter expansion," CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey said. "Now I have questions about the commitment to that.
"I'm dismayed about what Forrest is implying with this. He's now saying, 'You thought you had a charter cap, but really this allows us to continue to expand.'"
Andrew Broy of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools said the contract's charter caps carry more symbolic importance than practical impact.
"The main impact is that it is a signal from the administration that charter growth is no longer core to their strategy," Broy said. "It clearly was from 2003 to 2012. I think that has shifted now."
CPS moved to close or consolidate several charters in recent months, though a state commission overrode the district by allowing some of those schools to continue to operate independently. The CTU and CPS have agreed to work together to press Springfield to curtail the state's authority on charters.
Despite the potential for a battle between the union and district over the deal on charter expansion, one labor expert said the CTU has been able to use contract negotiations to play a larger role in district policy decisions.
"Obviously, things like a cap on the net increase in charter schools, that has big implications for how the school district is going to organize itself and whether or not it's going to continue to embrace or expand on the charter model," said Robert Bruno, a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's School of Labor and Employment Relations.
"Does this slow that down?" Bruno said. "Does it signify a disenchantment with the charter school model?"
Under state law, contract talks between the CTU and CPS can cover class sizes, outsourcing, staffing, layoffs and the length of the school year. But the law grants CPS broad authority to implement its own policies on those issues, and bars the teachers union from striking over them.
The union's influence on district decisions began to grow in 2012, when it staged the city's first teachers strike in a quarter-century and shut down schools for seven days, Bruno said.
"This contract is actually kind of the completion of the contract four years ago," Bruno said. "It doesn't happen without the strike four years ago. It doesn't happen without the teachers demanding they have a voice in educational policy."
In the contract, achieved as negotiations extended within minutes of a strike deadline in October, the district agreed to obtain outside funding to pay for as many as 55 "community schools" at an annual cost of at least $500,000 per school. The district also agreed to create a task force to select those buildings and determine how they could include community health care, after-school activities and support for homeless or chronically truant students as part of their programming.
CTU President Karen Lewis has cast that agreement as a victory, in an environment in which slim budgets keep some struggling schools from offering little more than a basic education.
The district also agreed to form a new district budget committee that will include two union members.
"CPS really, as far as I'm concerned, is looking at how to be more inclusive in the process of decision-making with us," Lewis said this past week during a City Club of Chicago luncheon. "That can only go well, or they'll just blame us for anything."
Also under the contract, kindergarten through second-grade teachers with 32 or more students in their classrooms would be eligible to receive an assistant to help with instruction. Schools can't be closed because of under-enrollment until the final two years of the contract.
Both sides agreed to hash out class schedules that would allow full-time elementary teachers a minimum 15-minute prep period for at least part of the school year. Teachers also will get more of a say in district testing and grading practices.
"The fact that the school district and the teachers agreed to language that had some impact on the quality-of-life work issues, the educational governance issues, the language in this contract that addresses the sort of bigger structural issues, I think that does represent an evolution in this relationship between the parties," Bruno said.
That can carry bigger implications, he said, setting up future negotiating over a new contract that continues to include policy-related issues instead of focusing solely on "the granular nuts and bolts" of wages and hours.
"We'll see how the contract's enforced, we'll see if the resources are there, we'll see what happens in Springfield. We'll all learn a little bit about what was done and what wasn't, but clearly they're now bargaining over more issues that are unconventional to collective bargaining in Chicago," Bruno said. "It's more expansive, regardless of the limitations of state law, than has ever been the case."
THE SUN-TIMES ARTICLE REPORTED:
By: Jean Schwab
Vote
One of my friends at church mentioned that she voted for the contract, even though it did nothing for Special Ed. She did say that if nothing is done to improve Special Education, she will withdraw from the union. What is CTU doing to correct Special Education problems? I would like to see some answers.