Chicago Teachers Union Calls for New-Hire Hiring Freeze as Budget Talks are Set to Begin
Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) President Karen Lewis called on the Chicago Board of Education today to institute a new-hire hiring freeze for the upcoming school year.
“In the past few weeks, CPS’s Human Capital department cruelly fired over 239 fully certified and highly qualified teachers with decades of service to CPS. These are the best in our city but they were treated them like chattel. These loyal teachers are not data points – they are family, community. They were fired without warning, without due process, and cut off without benefits.”
According to the CTU, 239 teachers have been cut. The majority, 214, are city-wide teaching coaches recognized as “teachers of teachers.” Another 17 were home/hospital based and 14 city-wide Office of Specialized Services teachers.
Mrs. Lewis demanded that as the CTU joins CPS for budget talks to begin July 23, 2010, these teachers be the first hired before any new hires, including Teach for America novices, are considered.
Noting that CPS CEO Ron Huberman announced its 2010 back to school campaign “Show Up! First Day and Every Day”, Lewis stated: “I hope Mr. Huberman sends the same message to his Human Capital department. This year, for once, let’s have a teacher in front of each and every student on day one.”
According to Lewis, CPS chronically fails to hire enough teachers in time for the first day of school, or even the first months. The CTU plans to track, research, and resolve all unfilled teaching positions that deny a child’s right to a full and robust academic year. Lewis called on her members to “diligently protect students’ rights by reporting staffing shortages in each and every building to the CTU. We demand fully certified, highly qualified teachers in every classroom ‘First Day and Every Day’, and we plan to help students and schools get just that.”
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The Chicago Teachers Union represents 32,000 teachers and educational support personnel working in the Chicago Public Schools and, by extension, the students and families they serve. CTU, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Federation of Teachers, is the third largest union in the country and the largest local union in Illinois.
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