Read this article in the Education News | Published September 2012
As Chicago’s teachers’ union and city school officials hopefully finalize the details of a new labor agreement, it seems ironic that you have all the grownups holed up in meetings while the students and their parents have been left to fend for themselves. It is quite strange that the adults are debating adult issues like job security and professional evaluations, while the children and youth are being shut out of schools and losing valuable classroom time. It doesn’t seem to make much sense that the very ones who are supposed to be served – the students – are the ones who are left in limbo during these negotiations.
How is it that the actual delivery of public education can be brought to a complete standstill when the grownups don’t get what they want? One wonders what they would do if the students actually decided to go on strike to protest poor teaching, crumbling school buildings, or unsafe learning conditions. Once again, the grownups continue to have things twisted and backwards. As a national priority, we should have established a long time ago, that classroom time or school openings never be held hostage by labor negotiations.
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