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Friday, May 10, 2024 6:37:04 PM
Biden inspired madness worsens every day. Let's visit those fine teachers in Chicago today.
Chicago Schools Crumble While Teachers Make Extremist Demands
Posted on Friday, May 10, 2024
by Tammy Bruce
Chicago Teachers Union logo displayed on top of a pile of 100 dollar bills of US currency
We hear all the time that whenever the left takes something over, nothing thrives. But that’s not entirely true. Three things thrive when the left is in charge: madness, chaos, and failure. Every day the Biden administration provides an example of this for the world to see, but let’s look at the latest gob-smacking illustration. The Chicago Teachers Union’s (CTU) bizarre, extreme, and detached from reality contract demands.
In leaked documents exposing their contract negotiations with the Chicago Public School System, the CTU’s demands include pay hikes, free abortions, housing for illegal aliens (whom they call ‘newcomers’), LGBT ‘training’ in schools, climate initiatives, and the right to close schools for remote zoom classes for any situation the teachers deem a “trauma.” The Daily Mail reported, “After any ‘traumatic event’ that happens at a school – which is not defined – the superintendent will be required to meet with the head of the teachers union to discuss closing the school for some time. ‘No school will reopen until all necessary supports, both physical and emotional, are in place,’ according to the contract.” Any closures of this type will also prevent teachers’ performance from being evaluated for that entire calendar year. How convenient.
And it doesn’t end there. They also demand school board policies that would prohibit being compelled to disclose to parents when a child declares they’re ‘transgender,’ and they want ‘gender-affirming care’ provided for all union members.
It’s one thing to negotiate for a reward or raise when you’ve been successful at your job. But the opposite is true for Chicago schools. Only 12.2 percent of low-income 3rd graders are reading at grade level, and only 21 percent of 8th graders are proficient at reading. Wirepoints reports, “They never tell parents the truth about how literacy has collapsed in Chicago Public Schools, particularly for black students. Only 2 of every 10 can read at grade level, according to CPS data. In many city schools, it’s 0 out of 10.” Moreover, the Illinois Policy Institute reports, “About three-quarters of Chicago Public Schools students cannot read at grade level on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness in 2023. Nearly 83% did not meet proficiency in math. Students in Chicago and statewide are still performing worse than they did before the pandemic.”
And what is the response by the CTU for this failure? They want a raise! “Union President Stacy Davis Gates’ audacious plan calls for members to bank at least 9% wage increases each year through fiscal year 2028. The average salary of a teacher in Chicago Public Schools is $93,182…Therefore, the average teacher’s pay will increase by half to $144,620 in the 2027-2028 school year… That figure would equate to more than double the median household income in Chicago, according to Census Bureau statistics,” reported Fox News.
The mendacity of this is shocking. The overall cost for the madness? 50 billion dollars. Or more specifically, “$50 billion and 3 cents” according to Union President Stacy Davis Gates who, as Fox News reported, declared: “We are asking you to give us an opportunity to tell our story,” Gates said in a speech in March referring to the union’s plans. “It will cost $50 billion and three cents… yes it will, and so what, that’s audacity.”
Actually, audacity is destroying young people’s lives by failing to teach the basics, and then pushing them out into society unprepared and illiterate. No teacher enters the profession hoping to destroy a student’s life. And yet, here is union leadership making preposterous demands about ‘social justice’ and political issues, all while the education of the children in their care is abandoned in favor of left-wing activism. Every teacher in every city who cares about their students should take note of what happens when you hand the control of your union, city, or country over to leftist agitators.
There is a method to their madness, however– the left relies on perpetual victimhood, and producing generations of functionally illiterate individuals, which will certainly keep the victim coffers full.
And why would they expect this, or any part of this chaos, to pass? “’ The Chicago Teachers Union spent nearly $2.3 million to get a union employee elected mayor, in large part because they want to legislate via their union contract. These demands read more like a political agenda than a serious contract intent on supporting teachers’ wages and benefits, and promoting the education of Chicago students,’ said Mailee Smith, Senior Director of Labor Policy at the Illinois Policy Institute. “These demands are far outside the scope of traditional bargaining, putting taxpayer dollars on the line in pursuit of more union power and social activism,’”
The destruction isn’t limited to Chicago: Wirepoints tells us, “In 2023, there were 67 Illinois schools where not a single student tested was proficient in math and 32 schools where no student tested was proficient in reading. What’s worse, officials in those schools graduated nearly 70% of their students. More than 12,000 students attend Illinois’ zero-proficiency schools. Every single one of those children will struggle in life because they lack basic reading and math skills.”
The madness, chaos, and failure unleashed in Illinois and Chicago’s schools immediately affects the families involved, but it also portends a disaster for America in general. We’ve seen the mess leftist activists have made of school boards and districts throughout blue states and cities. How much talent, passion, brilliance, and ingenuity are we losing when we allow students to be thrown into the leftist volcano? The CTU is an example of what the left has always done— co-opt an important issue and then parasitically invade organizations involved in work important to all Americans. The left then rides the issues to power and money, destroying everything it leaves in its wake.
What’s happening in Chicago and Illinois is also what’s happening at our universities—very few people are taking control of the environment to pursue their own failed, Marxist agenda, to the detriment of everyone else.
The leaked CTU negotiating document has not yet been released as their official bargaining stance, but no matter what they edit, soften, or re-write, all of this is part of the Marxist agenda which they fully intend to implement, no matter how long it takes.
Tammy Bruce, an Independent Conservative, has traversed a unique political journey that reflects her commitment to principles rather than party affiliations. She joined Fox News in 2005 as a Political Contributor, hosting her show “Get Tammy Bruce” on Fox Nation and providing insightful commentary on various issues for the Association for Mature Americans (AMAC).
https://amac.us/newsline/education/chicago-schools-crumble-while-teachers-make-extremist-demands/?utm_objective=website_traffic&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=amac&utm_medium=daily_news_pm&utm_content=csc051024&dderh=e1c281ac1f4906c2d82cf0c531b390f8
Chicago Schools Crumble While Teachers Make Extremist Demands
Posted on Friday, May 10, 2024
by Tammy Bruce
Chicago Teachers Union logo displayed on top of a pile of 100 dollar bills of US currency
We hear all the time that whenever the left takes something over, nothing thrives. But that’s not entirely true. Three things thrive when the left is in charge: madness, chaos, and failure. Every day the Biden administration provides an example of this for the world to see, but let’s look at the latest gob-smacking illustration. The Chicago Teachers Union’s (CTU) bizarre, extreme, and detached from reality contract demands.
In leaked documents exposing their contract negotiations with the Chicago Public School System, the CTU’s demands include pay hikes, free abortions, housing for illegal aliens (whom they call ‘newcomers’), LGBT ‘training’ in schools, climate initiatives, and the right to close schools for remote zoom classes for any situation the teachers deem a “trauma.” The Daily Mail reported, “After any ‘traumatic event’ that happens at a school – which is not defined – the superintendent will be required to meet with the head of the teachers union to discuss closing the school for some time. ‘No school will reopen until all necessary supports, both physical and emotional, are in place,’ according to the contract.” Any closures of this type will also prevent teachers’ performance from being evaluated for that entire calendar year. How convenient.
And it doesn’t end there. They also demand school board policies that would prohibit being compelled to disclose to parents when a child declares they’re ‘transgender,’ and they want ‘gender-affirming care’ provided for all union members.
It’s one thing to negotiate for a reward or raise when you’ve been successful at your job. But the opposite is true for Chicago schools. Only 12.2 percent of low-income 3rd graders are reading at grade level, and only 21 percent of 8th graders are proficient at reading. Wirepoints reports, “They never tell parents the truth about how literacy has collapsed in Chicago Public Schools, particularly for black students. Only 2 of every 10 can read at grade level, according to CPS data. In many city schools, it’s 0 out of 10.” Moreover, the Illinois Policy Institute reports, “About three-quarters of Chicago Public Schools students cannot read at grade level on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness in 2023. Nearly 83% did not meet proficiency in math. Students in Chicago and statewide are still performing worse than they did before the pandemic.”
And what is the response by the CTU for this failure? They want a raise! “Union President Stacy Davis Gates’ audacious plan calls for members to bank at least 9% wage increases each year through fiscal year 2028. The average salary of a teacher in Chicago Public Schools is $93,182…Therefore, the average teacher’s pay will increase by half to $144,620 in the 2027-2028 school year… That figure would equate to more than double the median household income in Chicago, according to Census Bureau statistics,” reported Fox News.
The mendacity of this is shocking. The overall cost for the madness? 50 billion dollars. Or more specifically, “$50 billion and 3 cents” according to Union President Stacy Davis Gates who, as Fox News reported, declared: “We are asking you to give us an opportunity to tell our story,” Gates said in a speech in March referring to the union’s plans. “It will cost $50 billion and three cents… yes it will, and so what, that’s audacity.”
Actually, audacity is destroying young people’s lives by failing to teach the basics, and then pushing them out into society unprepared and illiterate. No teacher enters the profession hoping to destroy a student’s life. And yet, here is union leadership making preposterous demands about ‘social justice’ and political issues, all while the education of the children in their care is abandoned in favor of left-wing activism. Every teacher in every city who cares about their students should take note of what happens when you hand the control of your union, city, or country over to leftist agitators.
There is a method to their madness, however– the left relies on perpetual victimhood, and producing generations of functionally illiterate individuals, which will certainly keep the victim coffers full.
And why would they expect this, or any part of this chaos, to pass? “’ The Chicago Teachers Union spent nearly $2.3 million to get a union employee elected mayor, in large part because they want to legislate via their union contract. These demands read more like a political agenda than a serious contract intent on supporting teachers’ wages and benefits, and promoting the education of Chicago students,’ said Mailee Smith, Senior Director of Labor Policy at the Illinois Policy Institute. “These demands are far outside the scope of traditional bargaining, putting taxpayer dollars on the line in pursuit of more union power and social activism,’”
The destruction isn’t limited to Chicago: Wirepoints tells us, “In 2023, there were 67 Illinois schools where not a single student tested was proficient in math and 32 schools where no student tested was proficient in reading. What’s worse, officials in those schools graduated nearly 70% of their students. More than 12,000 students attend Illinois’ zero-proficiency schools. Every single one of those children will struggle in life because they lack basic reading and math skills.”
The madness, chaos, and failure unleashed in Illinois and Chicago’s schools immediately affects the families involved, but it also portends a disaster for America in general. We’ve seen the mess leftist activists have made of school boards and districts throughout blue states and cities. How much talent, passion, brilliance, and ingenuity are we losing when we allow students to be thrown into the leftist volcano? The CTU is an example of what the left has always done— co-opt an important issue and then parasitically invade organizations involved in work important to all Americans. The left then rides the issues to power and money, destroying everything it leaves in its wake.
What’s happening in Chicago and Illinois is also what’s happening at our universities—very few people are taking control of the environment to pursue their own failed, Marxist agenda, to the detriment of everyone else.
The leaked CTU negotiating document has not yet been released as their official bargaining stance, but no matter what they edit, soften, or re-write, all of this is part of the Marxist agenda which they fully intend to implement, no matter how long it takes.
Tammy Bruce, an Independent Conservative, has traversed a unique political journey that reflects her commitment to principles rather than party affiliations. She joined Fox News in 2005 as a Political Contributor, hosting her show “Get Tammy Bruce” on Fox Nation and providing insightful commentary on various issues for the Association for Mature Americans (AMAC).
https://amac.us/newsline/education/chicago-schools-crumble-while-teachers-make-extremist-demands/?utm_objective=website_traffic&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=amac&utm_medium=daily_news_pm&utm_content=csc051024&dderh=e1c281ac1f4906c2d82cf0c531b390f8
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