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Chicago teachers strike enters seventh school day

[October 25, 2019] By Brendan O'Brien

CHICAGO (Reuters) - About 300,000 students in Chicago will be out of class for the seventh day on Friday as the teachers union and the school district struggle to resolve their deadlock over class size and support-staff levels.

Chicago Public Schools canceled classes for Friday, saying disagreements persisted on the two key issues. The Chicago Teachers Union, which represents the city's 25,000 teachers, has been without a contract since July 1. The strike began on Oct. 17.

"We all have the same north star, we want our students back in the classroom. Many of our students are missing out on key opportunities," LaTanya McDade, the district chief education officer, told a news briefing on Thursday.

The strike is the latest in a wave of teacher work stoppages in cities and states across the United States. Some of the strikes, such as a six-day work stoppage in Los Angeles last winter, have been based on similar school resource demands.

Only a three-week teacher strike in Union City, California, in June was longer this year.

Student athletes are feeling the repercussions, as the strike has forced the cancellation of hugely popular high school football games, with college scholarships on the line, as well as other sports and after-school activities.

That prompted one parent to seek a temporary restraining order in Cook County to allow the child's team to compete in state cross-country playoffs over the weekend, ABC News said.

POLITICAL TEST

Chicago teachers voted to go on strike against the third-largest U.S. school district after contract negotiations failed to yield a deal on pay, overcrowding and a lack of support staff, such as nurses and social workers.

Jen Johnson, the union's chief of staff, said progress was made at the bargaining table on Thursday.

"We are still working through our conversations around some of the key issues like class size and staffing," she told an evening news briefing. "There was a good back-and-forth today, but the open issues we are still trying to land. Today was a good day."

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Teachers and parents picket in front of and near Helen C. Pierce School of International Studies during the first day of a teacher strike in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. October 17, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan O'Brien/File Photo

The strike has been the first major political test for Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a political newcomer who was elected in April.

Lightfoot, a progressive Democrat whose campaign promised to reform schools, has said the district offered teachers a raise of 16% over five years and promised to tackle class sizes and staffing levels.

But she said the district could not afford the union's full demands, which she estimated would cost an extra $2.4 billion annually, representing a more than 30% increase to the current $7.7 billion school budget.

"While the public is very sympathetic to the issues of more nurses and so on, there's a pretty good understanding that it just doesn't come out of thin air and will have to take years of effort to make the schools better," said Dick Simpson, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and former Chicago City Council member.

Teachers have spent the past week picketing in front of the district's more than 500 schools and holding rallies in Chicago's downtown. On Tuesday, U.S. Democratic presidential contender Elizabeth Warren rallied with striking teachers at a West Side elementary school.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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