Mayor-Elect Emanuel Gets Tough on Unions, CTU Gets Creative On Solutions
Starting on the campaign trail, Rahm Emanuel voiced his education demands for Chicago.
[Emanuel] made it clear that, if teachers won’t agree to work longer hours for extra pay, he’ll ask the Illinois General Assembly to mandate it.
Mayor-elect Emanuel's analysis does not count instructional minutes – actual student time on task – where Chicago is in line with New York and Los Angeles. Nor does the proposal factor recess - something that most Chicago elementary Schools do not offer and can elect to add on a school-by-school basis.
Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis said Tuesday she favors having all elementary school teachers consider moving their lunch from the end of the day to the middle, when kids could have recess — a switch that could extend the school day for kids by 45 minutes in those schools without lengthy recess.
Emanuel's plan also does not include what the instructional school day would look like.
[President Lewis] agreed with the mayor-elect that Chicago needs a longer school day. The only question is, how schools would use the extra time.
“One of the things we want to make sure is that we have professional development built into the day and that we also have a full, rich curriculum that includes art, music, recess, p.e., history and science for all students,” Lewis said.
...As for Emanuel’s threat to ask Springfield to mandate a longer day if the CTU won’t agree to it at the bargaining table, she said, “I guess my question is, why do we need to threaten one another? Can we start by having a conversation without threats? We’re reasonable people.”
