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| Chicago Schools Cancel Classes as Teachers Prepare to Strike | Chicago Schools Cancel Classes as Teachers Prepare to Strike |
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| CHICAGO — As teachers in the Chicago public school system, the nation’s third-largest, edged closer to a strike on Wednesday, officials said they would cancel Thursday classes for about 300,000 students across the city. | CHICAGO — As teachers in the Chicago public school system, the nation’s third-largest, edged closer to a strike on Wednesday, officials said they would cancel Thursday classes for about 300,000 students across the city. |
| The growing prospect of a strike threatened to upend life in the city, as parents raced to make arrangements for child care and city officials began to activate a contingency plan for supervising and feeding students in school buildings. | The growing prospect of a strike threatened to upend life in the city, as parents raced to make arrangements for child care and city officials began to activate a contingency plan for supervising and feeding students in school buildings. |
| A strike in Chicago would be the latest in a string of more than a dozen major walkouts by teachers across the country since early last year. It would be an important early test for Lori Lightfoot, who was elected mayor this year after a campaign in which she called for more nurses and social workers in the city’s schools — some of the very changes Chicago’s teachers are seeking now. | |
| The city and a union representing more than 20,000 educators have been in tense contract negotiations for months, but the talks had not produced a deal as a deadline approached and as union leaders prepared to vote on whether to strike. | |
| The focus of the split between the city and the union stretches beyond traditional debates over pay and benefits, though representatives for each side disputed details of what had been offered during negotiations and what the exact points of contention were now. | |
| The city has said that it has offered teachers pay raises totaling 16 percent over a five-year contract, while union leaders have called for increases of 15 percent over a shorter three-year term. More pressing, union leaders say, are their calls for a promise — in writing — of smaller class sizes and the hiring of more school nurses, social workers, librarians and counselors. Other issues, including affordable housing provisions, have also been raised. | |
| A strike would be the first for Chicago’s school system since 2012, when teachers walked out for seven days as part of a defining battle with the city’s previous administration. | |
| The standoff represents one of the first significant challenges for Ms. Lightfoot, who took office this year after an overwhelming electoral victory in all 50 of the city’s wards. She ran for mayor promising to undo inequities that have left parts of Chicago behind, including mostly African-American neighborhoods on the city’s South and West Sides where some schools have been closed in recent years. Chicago Public Schools records show that about 47 percent of the system’s students are Hispanic, 37 percent are African-Americans and 10 percent are non-Hispanic whites; some 76 percent are economically disadvantaged. | |
| Complicating matters is the school system’s fiscal situation, which has been dire but has improved enough to make labor negotiations even possible. With an annual budget of $5.98 billion, the system has long faced fiscal struggles, including high unfunded pension liabilities. In recent years, major credit agencies have rated the school system’s bonds below investment grade. But over recent months, its financial outlook has stabilized somewhat, in part because of increased state aid. | |
| Ms. Lightfoot voiced frustration on Wednesday over the growing likelihood of a strike, suggesting that she concurs with much of what the teachers want, including more nurses in schools, more help for homeless students and smaller class sizes, especially at high-poverty schools. During her campaign for mayor, Ms. Lightfoot called for putting full-time nurses, social workers and librarians in all city schools, and promised to expand counseling services, recruit more black and Hispanic teachers and increase after-school programs. | Ms. Lightfoot voiced frustration on Wednesday over the growing likelihood of a strike, suggesting that she concurs with much of what the teachers want, including more nurses in schools, more help for homeless students and smaller class sizes, especially at high-poverty schools. During her campaign for mayor, Ms. Lightfoot called for putting full-time nurses, social workers and librarians in all city schools, and promised to expand counseling services, recruit more black and Hispanic teachers and increase after-school programs. |
| “At every turn, we’ve bent over backwards to meet the union’s needs and deliver a contract that reflects our shared values and vision for our schools and the support of our students,” Ms. Lightfoot told reporters at City Hall on Wednesday morning. “Folks, I’m the daughter of a union steelworker. I’m a strong believer in the power of collective bargaining and, yes, when it comes down to it, the right to strike. But today, we’re making concerted progress. It is clear that this is not one of those moments.” | |
| But Stacy Davis Gates, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, said the city had failed to offer more than the status quo on some essential issues. | |
| “Negotiating in good faith means that we get to reach a settlement,” Ms. Davis Gates said. “If she cannot land a deal for teachers for public schools in Chicago, then you have to question her ability to get work done in this city.” | |
| She also suggested that Ms. Lightfoot’s image would depend on how the contract dispute is resolved. | |
| “Our children deserve the best that this city has to offer,” Ms. Davis Gates said. “They do not deserve broken promises. Our South Side communities, our West Side communities are littered with broken promises, unkept commitments. This contract has to represent something different for the city of Chicago — it has got to represent something different. And she ran to do that. Period.” | “Our children deserve the best that this city has to offer,” Ms. Davis Gates said. “They do not deserve broken promises. Our South Side communities, our West Side communities are littered with broken promises, unkept commitments. This contract has to represent something different for the city of Chicago — it has got to represent something different. And she ran to do that. Period.” |
| Chicago was the birthplace of unionization among teachers in the late 19th century, and the city has often been a hotbed of teacher activism. The Chicago Teachers Union clashed with Rahm Emanuel, Ms. Lightfoot’s predecessor as mayor, during the 2012 strike. In December 2018, Chicago was the site of the first teacher strike at a charter school network. | |
| Dana Goldstein contributed reporting from New York. | Dana Goldstein contributed reporting from New York. |