By Christie Thompson
Chicago Public School students were back in school last Wednesday, after the Chicago Teacher Union and the Chicago School Board ended a seven-day standoff over classroom conditions and labor disputes. The CTU has released its tentative agreement with CPS, which will be ratified by union members in the coming weeks.
The deal has been largely heralded as a victory for union teachers, who won a 17.6 percent pay increase over four years and some level of protection from district lay-offs and firings. But worker benefits weren’t all Chicago teachers were marching for. As Karen Lewis said in a press release announcing the CTU’s strike:
This education crisis is real especially if you are Black or Brown in Chicago…They want to privatize public education and further disrupt our neighborhoods. There is an attack on public institutions, many of which serve, low-income and working-class families.
Throughout the strike, Chicago teachers were adamant their call was not just for higher wages, but for more equality in the most segregated school district in the country. But how much of the new agreement promises help for Chicago’s neediest schools?
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