Balancing the budget should not be on the back of teachers and students
[The following consists of the remarks made by Gage Park High School teacher and former Chicago Teachers Union President Deborah Lynch at the hearings on the Chicago Board of Education proposed budget held on August 19, 2009, at Black Magnet School in Chicago. Ms Lynch is with the ProActive Chicago Teachers and school workers caucus of the Chicago Teachers Union. George N. Schmidt, editor, Substance].
PACT testimony from the South side hearing on the CPS budget:
My name is Deborah Lynch. I am a teacher at Gage Park High School where we do not have enough special education teachers, enough security guards, enough social workers or psychologists to meet our students' needs. I am also with PACT, ProActive Chicago Teachers.
We all know this hearing is an exercise in futility. The Board will do what it has always done when it faces a budget shortfall: balance it on the backs of teachers and staff and students.
But, for the record... the Board must look to its tax increase, its reserve fund and its massive vendor/consultant fund to close the gap this time.
There must be no class size increases, no salary cuts, no pension holidays, no furlough days.
The Board did not come to teachers and staff for help on how to allocate its budget--it should not come to us now for help to clean up its mess. In these hard economic times, it time to really put the students first for a change.
