Post by Logan on Feb 26, 2016 1:55:08 GMT -6
Chicago Teachers Union rallies over expected layoffs, TIF funds
A small group of Chicago Teachers Union members and supporters rallied Thursday outside City Hall to protest expected layoffs and repeat a long-standing call for using surplus tax-increment financing funds to help Chicago Public Schools.
The district is expected to announce the number of employees being laid off next week. The cuts are part of what CPS has described as an unprecedented midsemester effort to trim about $26 million from school budgets, a measure officials said was necessary because of a lack of help from state lawmakers and the inability to reach a contract deal with the CTU.
The district asked principals to spare teachers from the layoffs, and CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey didn't think union members would be hard-hit. "I don't expect that it's going to be that big of a number," he said.
"But I will say there's a lot of other ways in which this $26 million in cuts will hurt people," Sharkey said. "Because what principals have done is they've canceled professional development, money that they were going to use for textbooks or other kinds of supplies have been canceled. In some cases, these are fairly acute needs."
Read more: www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-teachers-union-layoffs-protest-0226-20160225-story.html
A small group of Chicago Teachers Union members and supporters rallied Thursday outside City Hall to protest expected layoffs and repeat a long-standing call for using surplus tax-increment financing funds to help Chicago Public Schools.
The district is expected to announce the number of employees being laid off next week. The cuts are part of what CPS has described as an unprecedented midsemester effort to trim about $26 million from school budgets, a measure officials said was necessary because of a lack of help from state lawmakers and the inability to reach a contract deal with the CTU.
The district asked principals to spare teachers from the layoffs, and CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey didn't think union members would be hard-hit. "I don't expect that it's going to be that big of a number," he said.
"But I will say there's a lot of other ways in which this $26 million in cuts will hurt people," Sharkey said. "Because what principals have done is they've canceled professional development, money that they were going to use for textbooks or other kinds of supplies have been canceled. In some cases, these are fairly acute needs."
Read more: www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-teachers-union-layoffs-protest-0226-20160225-story.html