Chicago teachers speak about mass layoff

[Hannah Bell]

Since June of this year, 2,000 teachers and staff in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) have been laid off. The mass firings are part of an effort to use the state’s education budget shortfall, estimated at $370 million, to privatize the public schools.

WSWS reporters attended a job fair held on August 24, one of two this year open only to Chicago Public Schools teachers laid off in 2010...Most of the teachers at the fair were tenured employees who had been laid off. They had not been reassigned to work at other schools and had even been denied the right to enter into the city’s pool of substitute teachers. On August 13, lawyers for the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) filed suit in federal court, citing the layoffs without reassignment as illegal and requesting an injunction to restore 1,400 positions immediately...

Jeanine Williams has taught in the CPS system for 10 years, most recently in the Chatham neighborhood of Chicago. She told WSWS reporters, “Many tenured teachers here are laid off and not reassigned. We don’t know why we aren’t being allowed to substitute teach. I was laid off and before I was due back, they said, ‘We’re keeping your last paycheck.’”

When asked what she thought was behind the attacks on public education and teachers, she replied, “Money. It’s not the kids. It’s money. You can hire three new, untenured teachers for the price of a tenured teacher.”

Rachel, a tenured CPS teacher who has been out of work for two years, has been coming to career fairs since 2008 in search of work. She explained to the WSWS that if she did not find a teaching position soon, she would lose 25 percent of her pension...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/aug2010/ched-a27.shtml

[Radical Activist]

1. Teachers are being let go because the IL House is too cowardly to raise taxes for education.

Blaming it all on privatizing schools is creative bullshit.

[Hannah Bell]

2. why are you in education suddenly

[Catshrink]

3. Gotta keep those uppity teachers in line

and doncha know, Hannah Bell, anyone can teach. Everyone is an expert at education!

[Radical Activist]

4. Actually, I bashed politicians for not supporting teachers.

[Radical Activist]

5. Because this showed up on the page for new posts.

It says "education" not "private club for spreading creative stories about the dastardly conspiracy to destroy teachers and public education."

Besides, I saw your complaints in the other thread about me not responding to those who disagree with me. You must be getting frustrated that I never reply to you anymore. I know you missed me.

[Catshrink]

6. Living up (or is it down) to expectations, I see.

[MichiganVote]

7. These issues are not mutually exclusive.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. They are to those with an agenda

[MichiganVote]

9. And those with an agenda who make no sense/