Important Message from the President
Dear CTU Members:
In Chicago, and across the nation, educators are under attack. In the last few weeks, the Board fired over 200 educators without due process. They have threatened even more cuts that ignore seniority and tenure rights and will harm students by raising class sizes.
The CTU requested full access to all documents pertaining to the 2010-11 CPS budget. Last year, CPS spent $400 million in contracts, but who holds those contracts and for what? On the revenue side, TIFs take $250 million away from our schools each year, $100 million more than your hard-earned 4% raise will cost.
Last week, the Board requested a meeting with the Union to discuss the budget, but we still don’t have that budget in our hands.
What we do have is the strength of our members -- 30 CTU rank-and-file members who will observe these talks with the Board and strategize with and inform our officers sitting at the table. We are thankful to each team member and to experts from the American Federation of Teachers who flew in from D.C. to prepare us for what may come.
We promised transparency. We promised a member-driven Union. We’re delivering on our promises and the Board should work within that model.
The Chicago Teachers Union transition team hit the ground running three weeks ago. We made our mark at the AFT convention, getting school closing language adopted nationally. Back home we’ve been transforming our Union into a member-driven one that is responsive to members’ needs and mindful of the fact that it is the members’ hard-earned dues that allow this Union to operate.
It’s a new time, a new way. We will keep you informed through e-mail, our website, Twitter, and Facebook.
In solidarity,
President Karen G.J. Lewis
