The Chicago Teachers Union contract will expire in June and negotiations between educators and the school board will begin soon.
Union President Stacy Davis Gates said in early March that its proposed contract for 2024 to 2028 “will cost $50 billion and 3 cents.”
‘So what?’ » added Davis Gates. “It’s audacity. It’s Chicago.
Part of the reason the contract is so expensive is that the teachers union demands 9 percent cost-of-living adjustments each year.
According to Indeed, the average salary for a teacher in Chicago Public Schools is $67,718. With annual raises for four years, teachers would receive about $95,000 a year by 2028, about 36 percent more than the national average.
Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates (pictured), who doesn’t even enroll her own son in public school, wants a $50 billion contract for teachers over the next four years.
High school students leave the building during a student walkout over COVID-19 safety measures at public schools in Chicago, Illinois, January 14, 2022.
The $50 billion request comes despite Chicago Public Schools spending more than $21,000 per student, well above the national average of $14,347, according to the Census Bureau.
And even with the extra seven thousand dollars that Chicago lavishes on its students, those dollars don’t seem to lead to better academic performance.
Only 21 percent of eighth-graders in Chicago Public Schools were proficient in reading, according to measures from the Nation’s Report Card, which lists students’ academic achievement in all subjects since 1969.
That may be part of the reason Davis Gates sent his son to a prestigious private Catholic school, NBC reported in September 2023.
Although the 142-page contract drafted by the teachers union addresses ways to increase the skills of its students in some sections, many sections also have more to do with addressing perceived social ills in the community.
For example, the teachers’ union wants taxpayer money to go toward converting unused school facilities into housing for migrants, whom they refer to as “asylum-seeking families.” Not only that, but they estimate that each migrant student should receive $2,000 to help with education, transportation and mental health counseling.
Stacy Davis Gates, then vice president of the teachers union, speaks at a downtown rally in support of the ongoing teachers’ strike, October 23, 2019.
Only 21 percent of eighth-graders in Chicago Public Schools were proficient in reading, according to Nation’s Report Card measures.
Chicago Public Schools spend more than $21,000 per student, well above the national average of $14,347, according to the Census Bureau.
The union is also demanding that each of the 646 public schools have a “newcomer liaison service” for new students as well as migrant students.
And for late-arriving migrants who aren’t likely to graduate from high school before age 19, the union wants the school board to work with the City Colleges of Chicago to “create pathways” for them. success.
The contract also has numerous sections that address sex and gender issues faced by staff and students.
The union is adamant that all counselors, clinicians, social workers and psychologists are “queer competent” and “trained annually on LGBTQ+ issues as a qualification of their job description.”
The union also wants to require that every school in the district have at least one gender-neutral bathroom.
Gates (pictured) became union president in 2022 and will lead negotiations between Chicago Public Schools teachers and the board over what the next contract should look like.
The contract further states that no faculty member should be allowed to reveal a student’s gender identity to their parents if they do not know.
And when it comes to gender-affirming health care for staff and their dependents, the union wants that covered. Abortion is also one of the health care needs that the union wants to be covered 100 percent by the school board.
Separate from gender and health care demands, the union also wants the district to allocate $5 million annually to fund costs associated with reducing the workload of some staff members.
For parents and students who are afraid of returning to virtual learning, there is an exclusion that would allow the entire district to be plunged back into Zoom classes.
After any traumatic event occurs at a school – traumatic events are not defined – the principal will need to meet with the head of the teachers’ union to discuss closing the school for a period of time.
“No school will reopen until all necessary supports, both physical and emotional, are in place,” according to the contract.
So-called traumatic events will also prevent teachers from being evaluated on their performance for an entire calendar year.
It’s unclear whether all or even most of these demands issued by the teachers union will make it into the final contract. The current one, in force for four years, expires in June.
dailymail us
