By: Mark Glennon*
After eight months of negotiation, Chicago Public Schools announced Sunday that it reached what it calls an agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union. The deal is represented by a framework which the CTU ratified Tuesday night.
It’s a capitulation to the union.
The framework is a bit tricky to understand, and some press reports have gotten a few items wrong, but here are the key terms:
- The framework effectively allows teachers to avoid in-person learning until vaccinated. It calls for vaccination priority for CPS teachers and workers within the Phase 1B statewide category now currently in effect. It lays out a schedule for returning to classes up through eighth grade, which is apparently intended to allow sufficient time to be vaccinated under the prioritized vaccinations for CPS teachers and employees. Further, it says, “Employees without an accommodation and who are not fully vaccinated may, upon request, take a job-protected unpaid leave of absence, with full benefits, for the third academic quarter,” though it’s not entirely clear who that applies to.
- Nothing whatsoever was agreed respecting high schools.
- In-person learning may be halted for “pods” (classrooms), schools or the entire district through rather complex rules based on numbers of cases and case positivity rates.
- Subject to those condition, the framework lays out a schedule for returning to live classes, ranging from Thursday for pre-K to March 8 for sixth through eighth grade.
What was the point of negotiating for eight months if CPS is content to let teachers stay out until fully vaccinated? The vaccination requirement is a surrender in itself, and adds teachers to the list of line-jumpers.
What does “fully vaccinated even mean? It takes two shots spaced two to four weeks apart, and immunity doesn’t begin until several weeks thereafter.
With full vaccination as a condition to returning to class, what’s the point of any other conditions? Despite being fully vaccinated, teachers will be free to walk out if any of those other conditions are met. Some of the conditions for halting in-person learning are based on positivity rates that are nearly meaningless, as one of Gov. JB Pritzker’s own advisors long ago acknowledged.
And nothing whatsoever about high schools. Nothing. After eight months of negotiation.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Friday that the city had submitted its “best and final offer,” yet negotiations continued through Sunday. Was this the offer submitted? Past deadlines were ignored as well, leaving the CTU well aware that the city’s threats mean nothing, so it appears to have gotten nearly everything it might have wanted.
The simple fact is that most teachers face no meaningful risk. The chances of mortality even if infected is 99.98% for those age 20-49 and 99.5% even for those age 50 to 69. Those numbers are from the Center for Disease Control. And 74% of teachers are under age 50.
Risk to students is still lower – infinitesimal. For ages up to 20 the likelihood of survival is 99.9997%, according to the CDC.
Yet CTU has been terrifying its members and the public with absurd claims about risk to students, as with this image from the CTU website. That they are teaching kids about math and probabilities is scandal in itself.
CTU workers who are older or face heightened risk were given accommodations that nobody disputes. “CPS already agreed to approve remote work accommodations for employees who either have medical risks or are primary caregivers for a relative with a medical condition,” according to the Chicago Tribune.
Jumping the line for vaccinations will mean older people not employed by CPS will wait longer for theirs, and they face genuine risk of death. They are already struggling with an infuriating, dysfunctional appointment system. CPS is not the only school district in Illinois allowing teachers to jump the line, but that’s no excuse. Teachers and everybody else should, unless they have a comorbidity, let those at risk go first.
CPS has already spent $100 million on air filtration, masks, testing and contract-tracing capacity, according to The Wall Street Journal.
There’s no excuse and no science to what Chicago has agreed to. The Center for Disease Control said that teachers don’t have to be vaccinated for schools to open safely. Across Illinois, infections, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID are plummeting. Even the pro-union Chicago Sun-Times editorial board said there’s no science standing in the way of reopening schools.
The bottom line couldn’t be clearer: Chicago teachers have fled their posts at the moment of maximum need and our politicians are their enablers.
Through it all, Gov. JB Pritzker and most of the General Assembly have hidden under their beds, saying nothing whatsoever, cowering to teachers’ unions.
And Lightfoot announced the new “agreement” with “a big smile on her face,” according to the Chicago Tribune, saying “the very good news that our children will be returning to in-person learning this week.”
No, the vast majority clearly won’t be.
Shame on all of them.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
This article was updated to reflect the CTU’s vote to agree to the framework. Also, see the column about the deal written Monday by Paul Vallas, former CEO of CPS, which is in accord with this article.
If you’re frustrated with Illinois’ educational results, you may want to follow the money from teachers unions. In the last four years alone, Illinois lawmakers and political candidates have taken nearly $30 million in contributions from teachers unions and their national affiliates.
Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski testified on April 10, 2024 to members of the House Revenue and Finance Committee at the invitation of Rep. Joe Sosnowski. Ted told lawmakers that the state’s property tax burden has become dire for countless Illinoisans.
Ted joined WLS 890’s PM Chicago Show to discuss Chicago’s worsening pension crisis, why the city’s crisis makes it such an outlier nationally, its negative impact on residents, government workers and retirees alike, and what Mayor Brandon Johnson should do about it.
When has any company persisted with a project in the face of stronger local, statewide and national opposition? When have taxpayers subsidized a more harebrained project?
LOL Keep voting democrats in Chicago! You get what you voted for.
The 10-year Treasury hasn’t offered over 4% in the past 12 years. What can the corrupt, incompetent fools who run the “pensions” do with the money in their care? The problem, besides decades of irresponsibility and corruption, really comes down to arithmetic. You can’t get 20 pounds out of a 10 pound sack. It is all completely beyond repair. Illinois is DOOMED. Thanks a lot DemocRATS!!!
Teachers unions are a disgrace. The poor children of Chicago are just pawns. All good teachers leave before their 5th year of “teaching”. You are left with union slugs hanging on for a pension. It’s pathetic. “education” in Chicago is child abuse and that bug-eyed jerk mayor won’t do a thing about it.
Okay, apparently you want graduates from the University of Chicago, Harvard, Yale, etc., as your public school teaching forces. Do you think you’ll get them in the large numbers needed at the current rate of pay for teachers? I don’t think so. There are exceptions in that some people have it as their cause in life to do one thing and do it superbly well for altruisic, non-economic reasons. But, generally speaking if you want truly superior talent you have to pay for it. Are you willingly to pay for it? Do you think the generally citizenry of Chicago is… Read more »
Yea,ok,jesse,i mean james,these slobs known as teachers are already some of the highest paid in the country ,already over burdening the tax payers,yea,lets pay them even more-while were at it,lets guarantee they all get 1 million a year after they retire
James, do you really believe that the salary is insufficient to attract quality teachers? Nobody said they need to be Ivy Leaguers. I think the main problem with retaining good teachers in CPS is the horrible work environment. That is what needs to be fixed.
I think almost to a person many of the CPS teachers would tell you that outright. People here say its all so cushy and well rewarded. Yet, the truth of it is that a great many teachers there and literally all over America quit in their first half-dozen years for a variety of reasons. Its not as easy and rewarding as often portrayed here by people who have never had to do it. Its about like being a politician in some respects in that EVERYBODY has an opinion about how it “ought” to be done, expressing it freely and usually… Read more »
If we both agree that the teaching environment needs to be fixed, then the question becomes “how?”. As with any problem- stop adding to the problem. Stop advocating for more of the policies that got us here. Stop pushing ideologies that America and half of Americans are evil. Stop crushing cities with more and more demands. Start admitting that 20+ years of pushing progressive ideas has put us in this situation. Start looking for solutions that don’t involve the same old “throw money at it”. I don’t mean you personally, I mean the education establishment needs to take a hard… Read more »
Much of the problems stems from the ever-increasing list of things schools have to add to teachers’ work loads. Its hard enough to be continually creative, adjusting what you do and how you do, then deliver the instruction as smoothly and professionally as some nightly news personality who has a staff to assist him and the luxury of reading it from a teleprompter. But, in the last couple of decades the public at large and govermental regulations expand that already-hard teaching role to include being woke in a social equity sense among other things. I say let’s go for vouchers… Read more »
“Okay, apparently you want graduates from the University of Chicago, Harvard, Yale, etc.,”
Strawman response to Sir Tom’s comment, set up that strawman and knock him down!
Where are these academic results we’re all paying top dollar for?
https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/pisa2018/pdf/PISA2018_compiled.pdf
There are those who are willing to pay, most will not.
It’s a standard Pareto distribution.
Happens in everything, manmade and nature.
So how about we remove the government enforced financial handcuffs on us all for this supposed ‘education’ and issue vouchers so that parents can make the best decision for their own children.
Neither government nor more government are the answer here.
I’m all for vouchers. Bring ’em on and the sooner the better!
Teachers are not just telling kids to go to hell, they are telling all Illinois taxpayers and other workers to go to hell. CPS annual teacher salaries are in line with, for example, another profession which requires State licensing and specialized educational degrees, trust of clients (trusting children with teachers and trusting nurses to insert objects into out bodies), and is certainly exposed to the risk of COVID-19: nursing. But when we compare and contrast the compensation package for public school teachers vs. other professions like nursing, we find teachers are compensated at vastly higher amounts per hour and per… Read more »
Don’t forget that many school districts have most or total pension pickup like Rockford at 100%. That means all the contributions are picked up by taxpayers and the final pension is based on the 4 highest earning years. So if you are a teacher in Rockford for 20-30 years you have had no out of paycheck contributions and will get a pension for life to boot based on taxpayers contributions (mostly by excessive high property taxes) not your own. I know a teacher who just retired after 20 years (bought some service credit years) to reach the 20 year threshold.… Read more »
Freddy, what is there you don’t understand about the words “salary” and “compensation”? Its a simple matter when negiations are done. Sometimes one side of the negotiators can reduce one of them for reasons political or otherwise if/when the other side raises the other in a commensurate manner. Its done literally everywhere in contract negotiations. Plus, to speak directly to your comment the people doing it for your school district are those who win local votes and many times do so repeatedly. Apparently your neighbors understanding the relationship between those two words and have no problem in re-electing some of… Read more »
I understand your point but all the negotiations are done behind closed doors without any taxpayers input whatsoever. The media-mayor-senators-reps-even governor are not allowed in those negotiations even though they all have a stake in the outcome. The state pays its share of around 30% or so and has no legal representation at the bargaining table.They just pay their share no matter what. Same for mayor and local officials-no say. After the contract is voted for and ratified the public gets some of the details. The last teachers contract in Rockford was for three years and will be over around… Read more »
I agree with much of your point of view, but I’d want to know about how “public participation” in negotiations should work before fully coming on board with it. I’d likely support some kind of limited participation, but if you mean any number of nut-job, single issue citizens could have long-winded input I’d not likely support it since that leads to countless special interest personalities entering the fray. Let’s say I’d be in favor of formalized representation, but essentially we already have that with the school board member elections already. So, why bother to duplicate that idea? We’ve all known… Read more »
I agree we don’t want people screaming at public meetings but it would help if the details offered were made public before ratification. The media should report what is offered and disclose to the public what it will cost the average taxpayer. For example the contract I stated was for 3 years with $21M in raises but that also means just over $2M in additional pension pickups on top of the normal salaries will be picked up by taxpayers. Not many know about total pension pickup as I found out when I asked Sen. Stadelman at a town hall a… Read more »
In theory I think the idea of seeking public input for a new public employee contract is good. But, if that’s not done wisely it will create endless time-out redos and lead to ever more arguments rather than resolution. There are likely far, far more ways to seek such input with bad constructs for doing so than good ones. For any group wanting to institute that idea my advice is to tread very carefully as to the rules for doing it before giving any such plan the green light. Otherwise, you’ll “reap the whirlwinds” for having even considered it.
“[T]here is no darkness but ignorance.” Shakespeare.
“Democracy dies in darkness.” Bezos.
QED
No HS means continued carjackings.
I think your headline says it all — Chicago bends the knee to the CTU
Teachers all over the country are using the pandemic as an excuse to demand building repairs, but building fixes and the pandemic are two separate issues, in my opinion. Those plywood fans aren’t too chic but they will have to suffice if schools are broke.
https://fusion.inquirer.com/opinion/public-schools-reopening-philadelphia-pennsylvania-help-solutions-20210206.html
Name one… I would like to start a dialogue.
Illinois should make up its mind before it loses all medical professionals, whether it wishes to continue to lavish wealth and privilege upon public school entitlement beneficiaries while medical professionals are treated with contempt and disdain (working half again as many hours for similar salaries, no consideration for personal health risk, forced to purchase health insurance without taxpayer pickups, forced to fund own retirements while forced to pay into social security, forced to wait 10 years longer than teachers before pension benefits may be accessed). Bearing all personal risk of disease, bearing personal financial responsibility for health insurance and retirement… Read more »
‘which vests after 20 work years at age 55, ESCALATES PAYMENTS EVERY YEAR AT 3%’ Factually incorrect. A person CAN take retirement at 55 with under the m aximun 35 years, but would have to take a 6% penalty for each year under the age of 60. So a person with 20 years of service who retired at 55 would recieve 44% of their the average of their late 4 years, but the have that reduces by 30% due to the penalty, effectively recieving a pension of 12% of the average of the last 4 years. Likewise, the 3% compounding… Read more »
‘Note that public school entitlement beneficiaries have personally contributed zero-to-2% of salaries toward pensions’
Incorrect. 9% of salary goes towards the pension, previously, it was 9.4% with the ERO. Some teachers have a ‘pickup’ negiotiated (like Chicago) by roughly 45% do not.
Likewise, the 3% bumps you referenced earlier have been paid for as a part of that 9% since it was added in the Thompson Administration (I believe 1988)
Pickup, you may explain to this audience, means taxpayers pay it. So it is factually incorrect to say the teachers pay their own pension contributions because they do not. Taxpayers do.
In my county, teachers pay 1% of salary, taxpayers the other 8.4%
But contributions are somewhat irrelevant because the final owed pension entitlement is so far beyond what any private sector worker could accumulate to purchase an annuity similar in value to that which a 55 year old teacher retires owning.
Over half of Illinois teachers get a pick-up of that 9.4% and pay nothing toward their pension, costing taxpayers some $380 million/year. And it should be abundantly clear that nobody has “paid for” the 3% COLA since the the annual contributions to the system are far less even for “tread water” — the pension hole deepens each year even if the phony assumptions it is built on turned out right. That COLA alone accounts for nearly a third of our pension problems.
So, what’s stopping IL from raising the price for those whose future pensions would still get that current 3% compounded AAI? I don’t know if that can be assigned to current employees and retirees, but I doubt it for that latter group especially. I’m only talking about making such charges against future employee pay checks rather than presuming it could be done retroactively.
James, What do you mean “raising the price”? The 3% compounded is locked in for all tier 1 employees and retirees. Charging them more for the benefit they are already entitled would be considered an impairment.
I don’t think what I suggested as a way to require rising contributions for the 3% AAI in retirement could be applied to retirees nor for anyone still an active employee as it applies to prior earnings for the reason you’ve mentioned. But, as far as I know the amount of subsidy given for a retiree’s health insurance changes from time to time for various reasons and in varying amounts depending upon the political priority for that issue each year. Still, rising public employee salaries even with a static percent given from each active employee’s paycheck to that eventual cumulative… Read more »
“Apparently health insurance subsidies receive no such guarantee in retirement.” Kanerva v. Weems 2014 may disagree with that sentiment. If they had intended to protect only core pension annuity benefits and to exclude the various other benefits state employees were and are entitled to receive as a result of membership in the State’s pensions systems, the drafters could have so specified. But they did not. The text of the provision proposed to and adopted by the voters of this State did not limit its terms to annuities, or to benefits conferred directly by the Pension Code, which would also include… Read more »
Yes, I’m aware of that wording and its general meaning. But, I think you’ve mistaken what I was trying to convey. In principle ANY benefit having been given to public employee retirees in IL is inviolably secure for them and for others in that situation henceforth. But, what exactly does that mean in practical terms? The amount deducted from an active public employee’s salary as payment for his/her eventual 3% AAI in the retirement annuity was set decades ago as a set percentage of that salary, a rising sum as salaries increase. No such auto-rising figure was established for any… Read more »
Mark, What exactly did Lumpy get wrong? If anything you have an error in your statement “teachers get a pick up of that 9.4%”. Lumpy is right it is now 9.0%. Lumpy stated that 45% do not get their pension contribution “picked up” and you stated over half do. It seems like you are both saying the same thing. I’m not sure what the exact number is but hard to call this BS. As far as the 3% being “paid for” I took that as a reference to the fact that teacher contributions were increased to pay for the 3%… Read more »
The whole argument here flows from the words “salary” and “compensation” where the latter term is used somewhat universally to mean the entire cost of employing any given person and includes such things as employee insurances, sick leave pay, vacation pay where there are separate pay checks for it, the pay for all expenses for any employee who must travel, the pay of sustitutes when the employee is absent, pay for the the employee’s 401k and/or any required plan, etc. Its common practice in employee salary disputes to say that some of those categories can be flipped to the other… Read more »
I think I must have read it wrong or differently so I deleted part of my comment. Sorry.
Don’t let the public-benefits- entitled obfuscation distract from the point. Teachers contribute 0-2% of salary, and in return get State- guaranteed pension entitlements which can be quantified in present-value amounts as what it would cost to purchase a lifetime annuity with 3% cola, which is guaranteed by full faith and credit of State. This means the annuity value must be calculated using 30 year bond rates as rate of return assumptions. Contributions toward their entitlements are made on their behalf by taxpayers. Incidentally, taxpayers must also pay federal taxes on behalf of the teachers’ ‘contributions ‘ which were made on… Read more »
No one is out to get nurses Susan. VA Nurses receive 3 legs of the retirement stool – Social Security, thrift savings plan, and a pension. Nurses that work for universities have a similar great retirement plan. It has nothing to do with people hating or disrespecting nurses and everything to do with who employs them. Just wait until we have single payer health care and then nurses will be at the same trough. You think health care is expensive now just wait until it’s free.
I think you’ve stated the actual situation perfectly.
You “aren’t out to get nurses” the same way you’re “not telling kids to go to hell” by denial of service attacks and aberrant high financial takings from Illinois taxpayers(many of whom are parentsof children who must rely on parents’ sufficient household incomes). Here are some suggested solutions: 1. Nurses ( and many other Illinois workers classifications) should demand identical deals as teachers. ..180 day workyears, max 7 hour days… pay 2% of salary, retire(pull benefits) at 55, free health insurance at that point, and for 20 work years health insurance no more than 10% of salary. Unfortunately social security… Read more »
I’m not a teacher Susan. I have never told kids to go to hell. Please quote the teacher that said that to kids. Quoting a headline from WP that was done to inflame does not make it factual. You whine constantly on this website about how teachers are treated better than nurses. Your daughter is a nurse and it’s not fair. Is she not able to apply to the VA. Maybe she should organize and form a union that will get her the benefits that you desire. Life is filled with choices. If you don’t like your lot or your… Read more »
I am old enough to remember a time when most teachers were not paid well relative to other professions. Teachers unionized and set out to change that. One of their main points was that they should be paid commensurate with their education level, as other professions were paid. It was a constant talking point. They accomplished that goal, in spades. Of course, they had the advantage of bargaining with the very same people who were reliant upon teacher union funds for elections. Quite a cozy relationship. Apparently now the idea of comparing teacher compensation packages to others in society is… Read more »
Stupid me when I was in high school I considered being a teacher. Decided against it because I saw them constantly going on strike so I assumed they didn’t get paid well. I also saw the municipal employees at the same restaurant every day for their two hour break. I thought that would be a nice cushy job but that didn’t seem right to me. So know I work hard, make good money and get my pocket picked by the government.
Oh, come on, Truth Hurts. “Go to hell” is a figure of speech that’s entirely appropriate in an opinion column, and we believe it fits. When President Ford said no to a NY bailout would you have said that the famous headline was false “Ford to NY: Drop Dead”?
Mark,
That’s fine if you want to include it in your headline Mark. I don’t believe it’s necessary for honest debate. Would you think it was fair if the Sun Times ran a headline “Wirepoints Outlines Plans to Steal Pensions From Senior Citizens”? Me personally, I think a headline such as that would be unfair but in your book it’s fair game.
Your headline is in the same category as when CTU members state that “white parents are trying to kill black and brown people by opening up schools”. Factually incorrect and only done to inflame.
If, in your examples, that’s truly what they believe then they absolutely should use such headlines and doing it to inflame would be entirely appropriate (if that’s truly what they believe).
Fair enough Mark. Since my comment is an opinion as well I am just as free to point out the absurdity of your headline. I truly believe that your headline is baseless and without merit. Most of the students parents want to stay remote so the teachers are giving their families exactly what they want. They are not telling them to go to hell. In fact they are going back tomorrow so your headline proved false. “The GOP wants to throw granny off the cliff”. “Trump killed hundreds of thousands of American citizens”. The people who write that type of… Read more »
Your ad hominem attacks are counter productive to this discussion.
You epitomize the successful Illinois Political Industry tactic: accuse those who object to your behavior of that very same behavior you have used to your own advantage.
Now if you actually did ever want to come up with good solutions, you could probably offer mature cogent responses rather than nonsense intended to emotionally bait someone who is getting too close to the truth for your own comfort.
You attacked me by stating I told children to go to hell and then you complain about attacks that are counter productive. You attack people on here constantly but when it’s given back you then cry foul. Grow up.
For that matter no two jobs are out to get each other. Tom Brady makes what he does because humanity can only generate one Tom Brady every 100 years. Teachers have no accountability, no individual annual performance reviews, cant be fired, ridiculous benefits, and individual merit marginalized, etc. they gave up individuality for the collective and collectives have power. Everyone else is judged and paid on merit and the generosity or ability of your employer. The world isn’t fair basically.
The number of retired teachers in the Chicago suburbs area scamming $100,000+ a year pensions is appalling. Nitpicking over the details is missing the forest for the trees. The “but we don’t get social security” argument is as pathetic.
They’re not scamming their pension. They were told they would earn 2.2% for each year worked up to a max of 75%. They were also told over 30 years ago that they would receive a 3% increase each year after the age of 60. This has been well known for years. No scam just a great pension. The state didn’t need to change the pensions and add 3% compounded but Gov. Thompson thought that inflation was so high that he would add the benefit to the teacher pension. This was done with bipartisan support by duly elected officials. No scam… Read more »
It’s a grift, a legal one albeit, but a grift, and every teacher who signed up for TIER 1 knew it was an unsustainable grift too but they signed up anyways. They’re all riding this grifting scam as long as possible. There’s an old saying that you can’t cheat an honest man, and every state employee who sticks their hand into the pension cookie jar is a greedy theiving grifting scammer looking to ‘get theirs’ at the expense of everyone else, the solvency of the state doesn’t matter to them. It’s a complete misrepresentation to say that it’s merely good… Read more »
They bought their politicians fair and square. If others didn’t do the same, that’s on them, right??
Civics lesson for future generations.
just wondering, can you use all your unused sick time if you retire at say 57 and then collect your pension at 60
Explain “Pension Spiking”, a contractual teacher entitlement, to this audience and factor that into your example. THEN, calculate the disparity between what a 55 year old teacher starts receiving, vs. what a 65 year old nurse will start receiving from social security. You didn’t read carefully the post you are trying to dispute. We are comparing teachers to nurses: what each must contribute (nurse 6.2% until age 65 vs.0%-2% teacher until age 55; what each receives at start of benefits which is multiples higher for a 20-year teaching career than a 20 year nursing career…not to mention running that extra… Read more »
Very good Susan. Not only do educators start enjoying retirement ten years earlier than those paying for it, let’s not lose sight of the fact that “teaching years” need to be reduced by 25% to equal taxpayer years.
There you go again singing your sad old song and regretting your career decisions of long ago. Surely you knew how it all worked even then, and presumably nobody forced you into that decision. Accept your decision or make another one where different rules apply. This isn’t Russia where society has your future foretold so try a song different than “Crimea River.” Otherwise you’re going to die a bitter, hateful person and maybe sooner than not since all this is clearly eating away at you.
Theres “james” again,aka jesse sharkey using his union rhetoric,go play somewhere else jesse,i mean james,your union teacher buddies are waiting for you in Belize “james”-wink wink
Classy
Oh boo hoo “doctor”-wink wink
‘Round and Round’ James. There you go again.
Cancel culture is at work here. My voice needs to be heard or you will all fall asleep with the boredom accruing among the members in your society of unending mutual admiration.
Time to accelerate charter schools. If “teachers” don’t care to educate, charter schools will find people who want to go to work for their paycheck.
I laughed my backside off this morning with Mark Glennon’s title and report.
How Bold. Tell your kids to go to hell. Straight to hell and no supper.
Mayor of Chicago = CTU
He is asking for a lawsuit. WTH
Children do not deserve being pawns in this high stake game of stupidity. They are the ones that have lost and will continue to lose and everyone will mourn the lost generation and wonder how they could have prevented it.
And despite all of this you will still find parents/voters that still buy into the “it’s for the children” silliness.
Unbelievable and disgusting. A long time ago, I negotiated union contracts for a municipality, and we didn’t leave the table until the union negotiating committee agreed to recommend the contract to the membership. “No recommendation” is tantamount to saying that the city still doesn’t have a deal. Now that the contents of the agreement have been publicized, it gives the extremist teachers plenty of time to generate opposition to the agreement; and with a “no recommendation” there is no one in union leadership to argue in favor of the aqreement. This isn’t a settlement; it’s just a pause in negotiations.… Read more »
That’s very helpful input. Thanks.
I could tell you now they will object to unpaid leave of absence unless they vaccinate. Any deal eventually has to allow unvaccinated in schools and no masks. In other words you can’t “deal” your way back to a normal world.
Who knows, probably after jb signs house bill 2275 ctu will be back demanding more, more, more,,,,,with no end in sight
It’s all a game. Unions destroy they build up nothing. I’m very anti-teachers unions. Downstate superintendents I know are telling me these losers in Chicago are a disgrace to the profession. I agree. I’ve never understood how a Strike worked for the good of children. I guess this is one reason why I rejoice that we home schooled our children for a good portion of their school years. My wife was my hero. Saved my daughters life it did and both of our children excelled, attended the University of Illinois ( a very liberal school) and yet remained intelligent conservatives… Read more »
How many Chicago public schools have you been in?
What extremist teachers are you talking about? Minority teachers teaching minority children which happened to be in the high risk Category for complications or death form Covid?
The deal allows non vaccinating teachers to stay home, ok what if you are a vegan teacher and choose not to get vaccinated? You get to work from home forever in semi retirement mode? Or did CTU and CPS agree that those choosing, (my body my choice right?), to not vaccinate will eventually be terminated? And what is their incentive to vaccinate when they’ve already gone a year just fine through the worst of it or had the virus bout? Also would getting the vaccine now put a teacher in the position where they can be compelled to return? Again… Read more »
Years ago I was ticketed for driving a truck on a Chicago boulevard. I was guilty but went to court anyway because at the time any Chicago voter who contested a ticket was let off by the court. The city attorney was a guy who sat behind me everyday for four years of high school, I couldn’t lie to him. Afterward, we went to lunch and he said he was glad I didn’t lie because something strange was going on in the courts. That something strange was “operation Graylord”. Graylord exposed a culture of trial fixing, bribery and double dealing… Read more »
It’s Kwame’s life’s work to root out corruption! He files friends of the court brief in every case other people file against the evil trump administration!
Appalling!
The Parochial school 1.5 miles from my home of 400 K-8 students has been open since Labor Day with not even one issue. Kids have been learning a lot, are in a very safe environment, and are happy.
Families need to run from public schools if they can!
Families need to run from Illinois if they can!
What a terrible mayor that started with great hope. She needs to resign and go back to practicing law.
Her political career is over. Maybe there’s some thin hope she will come clean and go on a truth campaign.
As a chicagoan/ home owner who you’d get after lightweight is even more frightening. Sure the fake progressive ctu will put prekwinkle at the top of list, with a chuy Garcia or Brandon Jackson close behinde….and gullible northside libtard whites (because thats who votes) gobbing up all the fake liberal guilt bs. All the astronomical debt will just be a side note
White Liberal SJW aside, minority groups vote too, probably more so because of strong church or community ties ( which Democrats have long exploited ) which allow them to organize quickly. But whats ironic is that these groups are most sensitive to economic conditions and they keep voting to make IL and especially Chicago repulsive to most types of economic growth, especially the types with large job multipliers like industry, fabrication and wholesaling. Bank jobs are great for a select few but the long tail of boring mundane jobs is where the majority get employed and they are voting against… Read more »
lightfoot works for Soros, mission accomplished? No, Groot is just getting started her job is to destroy the city including the school union and they will help her do it with their greed and ignorance. then the plutocrats Soros, gates, rockefeller, rothschild and their Gauleiters like prickster will buy it and “build back better” meaning they own everything and you own nothing but the right to be injected with gene altering disease and death causing “vaccines”.
I knew it, settlements in Chicago always wind up being the first point both sides can go public and have a narrative that it was a win win. When in reality nothing changed, the settlement is still to shaft the citizenry. But the citizenry is too stupid to know they’ve been shafted and believe the settlement narrative is good for them.
To wit, teachers can still opt out of teaching in person and the priority line to get vaccinated just got further crowded. Why is she calling a press conference and smiling? She lost!
If you are a parent in Chicago, the suburbs have in school teaching for hybrid and soon to be all day, every day.
Maybe this is the time to move.
Move. Technology is there. You can work with your neighbors to form a pod and hire a teacher to teach kids. Your kids will get a better education than they will in government run schools.
So now the disabled, elderly, immune compromised and cancer and heart patients will have to wait so Lori can give into the democrat controlled teachers union. She will never be re-elected.
Another scenario: CTU puts its magnificent resources behind Ms. Lightfoot’s election, including money, workers and phone banks, and she will win. Why mess with success?
That’s her plan but Preckwinkle will get the support and will run some loser like Stacy Davis gates or Cabrini Kim as mayor. White people cant be and will never be elected in Chicago anymore. Every white alderman will be defeated next election.
White people are now the majority in Chicago but I dont think they care enough to vote except for the SJW types. There’s quite a few conservative latino and black voters but not enough to overcome the majority. I think Trump did better in Chicago by far over 2016, approaching Hillary levels of support and even won 6(?) precincts in the city limits on the far NW and SW sides. It’s not completely a black and white (pun intended) issue anymore. There’s quite a bit of grey in between and it’s growing.
“There’s quite a few conservative latino and black voters”
Citation needed.
i’ve seen a red/blue colored map of northeast Illinois. The trib posted it several weeks back. The link is behind a paywall now but I’ll post it below. Chicago is nearly all blue. Deep dark blue. No doubt about it. The beginning of the red starts with a slightly lighter blue band originating in in West Ridge on the NW side (orthodox ), and extends westward along Devon Ave, turning lighter blue and into red, and growing wider through the NW side, and into Lincolnwood, Park Ridge/Niles, Rosemont, and into the NW suburbs, until it turns completely Deep Dark Red… Read more »
https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/ct-viz-2020-election-precinct-map-20201202-dao2rj6u3bezxfvde2fmadzj6i-htmlstory.html
Link
Sometimes the software gods push things into moderation for reasons unknown, and we don’t see them pending until later.
Chicago leads the rest of the state into hopelessness and ruin. Someday Wirepoints may help correct Illinois fiscal policies, but it can’t correct the liberal mind. Eventually the pension crisis will be addressed but the liberal perverted way of thinking will forever remain an obstacle. Each new Wirepoints article reinforces my belief that there is no true way to save Illinois. The people that live there aren’t capable of saving themselves from their own false ideology.
100% accurate! Those of us who are looking to save ourselves are moving out of state. It’s the only way!
Actually, I do think our mission is about changing hearts and minds, and I think that is indeed more important than policy in the long run. Moving the needle on that, however modestly, is the biggest reason why I do this.
While I wish you the best Mark, I doubt all your data/charts/graphs is going to have an impact on liberal minds. They will always be more comfortable with an alternative such as blaming Trump rather than face reality. Trump provided better black employment numbers than any Democrat yet they still failed to support him.
I genuinely think that the liberal mind is incapable of understanding anything that is vaguely complex. The liberal mind functions only on feelings and emotion. Charts, graphs, logical reasoning and – God forbid – mathmatics are all vastly beyond the ability of a liberal voter.
Hey, I hear now that even math is racist.
LessonLearned and Tom Paine’s Gost, we believe that that group of closed minds you are referring to — the hard left now in control — comprises only maybe a quarter or no more than a third of the US and even IL outside Chicago, though obviously higher in Chicago. About half of America probably would agree with us on most stuff. The remainder in the middle is the key, and we believe they are reachable. They include more traditional liberals who valued free speech and free inquiry. And remember, in 1776 roughly a third of Americans opposed the revolution and… Read more »
Time is not on the side of Wirepoints. I expect the conservatives and centrists are more likely to leave the state than liberals. The longer this death spiral continues, the more difficult it will be to for Illinois to adopt conservative ideals.
True.
I agree. Hearts and minds were changed over the progressive income tax. But turning an aircraft carrier is going to be quicker than turning this state around. There is just SO MUCH wrong with it, and it’s ingrained.
Changing hearts and minds is the only possible way forward. Thanks to Wirepoints for battling, despite the difficulty.
Again I note for those who advocate simply moving elsewhere, this is happening all over our country. In the long run, you cannot run and hide from it. They will not leave the red states alone to demonstrate the futility of their ideas.
Changing hearts and minds didn’t end well in Viet Nam…
I fear the same outcome here…
I desperately hope I’m wrong…
I have a solution: fire everyone, cancel their pensions, and outsource remote teaching to teachers in other states. If we are sticking with remote learning, there is no reason you can’t use out-of-state teachers, and better ones at that. Sell the school properties to help pay off debt, and lower property taxes. Well, one can dream anyway…
Yes it can be done. Have you gone to a drive thru fast food joint lately? Most of them have ‘order takers – not on site’ and they work from a distant location. No one can tell. Learning can be done the same, though I’m not to cool with it, but outsourced w/ a certified instructor. Additionally these remotes are compensated for success, in Shi…cago it’s pass along. I worked for the local forest preserve and when Shi…cago students came they were pushed into the classroom and teachers hitailed it to the nearest smoking area and did nothing for the… Read more »
How do you spell cave? Kave if you’re a product of CPS.
Lightfoot is a fool and has been publicly humiliated by CTU. She foolishly thought that throwing kids and parents under the bus while appeasing CTU would win her CTU’s support and votes. Instead CTU abused her like a rented mule and will still back their preferred puppet Toni Preckwinkle in the next mayoral election. Lightfoot has zero chance of reelection in 2022. Let’s just hope that winner is someone other than Preckwinkle.
It’s always about power and only about power. All the rest was BS to keep us buying in to the game. We may as well face it like grown-ups.
Well what do expect when you elect a mayor who has zero career qualifications to deal with this kind of labor dispute. And look at her staff. Who at the senior levels has any experience in big league union negotiations? No one. The CTU ran over Rahm, and is doing the same with half the effort over Lori’s lightweight team. She isn’t handling the legal aspects, PR or political insider maneuvering at a big league level. As I have said many times, Chicagoans are getting what they deserve.
Lightfoot is a weak leader,might as well vote for jesse sharkey for mayor,the ctu runs the show in chicago,not the politicians!
What if you’re a teacher that chooses to not vaccinate?
You’d be one smart teacher. Under the EUA it is illegal to mandate this “vaccine”. Check out the Nuremberg code. It’s in there.